The 1986 sequel’s publicity leaned heavily on the startling biography of its leading performer, Missy Manners, whose real name was Elisa Florez. Before entering adult cinema, Florez had served as a United States Senate Page and worked as a receptionist for Utah Republican Senator Orrin Hatch; she was also the daughter of an Undersecretary of Education in the George H. W. Bush administration. That résumé gave the film an unusually provocative political angle, and promotional material highlighted her Washington connections in much the same way that the original Behind the Green Door had publicized Marilyn Chambers’s former Ivory Snow modeling career. The casting itself became a point of dispute: Manners maintained that she had auditioned for the role of Gloria, while several people substantially involved with the production challenged that account, pointing instead to her relationship with producer Artie Mitchell. The conflicting versions turned what might otherwise have been routine adult-film publicity into a question of whether the lead role came through a conventional audition or through a personal connection to the producer.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1980s
The Senatorial Connection Behind Missy Manners’ Contested Casting
Behind the Green Door: The Sequel / 1980s
The 1986 sequel’s publicity leaned heavily on the startling biography of its leading performer, Missy Manners, whose real name was Elisa Florez. Before entering adult cinema, Florez had served as a United States Senate Page and worked as a receptionist for Utah Republican Senator Orrin Hatch; she was also the daughter of an Undersecretary of Education in the George H. W. Bush administration. That résumé gave the film an unusually provocative political angle, and promotional material highlighted her Washington connections in much the same way that the original Behind the Green Door had publicized Marilyn Chambers’s former Ivory Snow modeling career. The casting itself became a point of dispute: Manners maintained that she had auditioned for the role of Gloria, while several people substantially involved with the production challenged that account, pointing instead to her relationship with producer Artie Mitchell. The conflicting versions turned what might otherwise have been routine adult-film publicity into a question of whether the lead role came through a conventional audition or through a personal connection to the producer.
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