Even as Marcus has helped expand the audience for Elvira, Peterson is careful to keep them both honest about who the character is—and isn’t.
“If Scott brings me something that I think is a ridiculous idea, he’s very amenable to being talked out of it,” she says, chuckling. “We’re like a nice Italian couple. We can yell—but that just means we love each other.”
Know when to let go
Because of that mutual affection, Marcus knew better than to argue when Peterson said she was hanging up the black dress for live appearances. Still, he admits to having doubts that bookings would be as plentiful for Cassandra as they were for Elvira. “People were turning us down,” he recalls.
But Peterson didn’t backtrack on the decision and instead re-established herself as the main character in her life story by literally writing her life story. Her bestselling autobiography, Yours Cruelly, Elvira, hit shelves in 2021 and compiled some oft-told stories (like the night she spent with Elvis Presley) with many never-before-heard revelations—like her longtime relationship with her partner, Teresa “T” Wierson.
Speaking about her choice to come out in the pages of her book, Peterson says she was “very worried” about the impact it could have on the Elvira brand. “A lot of my fans are guys who like Elvira because she’s sexy,” she admits. And Marcus recalls that the official Elvira Instagram account lost 11,000 followers after the news broke—only to gain 60,000 new followers over the next week.
Not for nothing, but many of those newcomers were born after the first episode of Movie Macabre aired. “Our primary fan base is between 15 and 34 years old, and it’s 55% women,” Marcus says, adding that they’ve heard many of those female fans profess admiration for Peterson’s personal journey. “Cassandra just resonates with people.”
Sharing so much of herself with her fans—old and new—has allowed Peterson to let Elvira fly free. The version of the character she played lives on in the thousands of photos and hundreds of vintage episodes of her multiple TV shows, some of which can be found streaming on Tubi and Peacock. In fact, Marcus teases that they’ve had discussions about launching an Elvira FAST channel, although Peterson cautions that they’re limited to releasing episodes where the films that the character mocks are already in the public domain, or the rights are otherwise obtainable.
