Cassandra Peterson recently opened up about her personal life and the life of her beloved character Elvira in the auto-biography, Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark. Peterson describes her attraction to Vegas, her celebrity partners, and reveals that she’s secretly dated a woman for the past two decades.
Peterson became Elvira 40 years ago and gained popularity for her sexy goth look and her hosting of Elvira’s Movie Macabre. Elvira has since appeared in numerous films and television shows. She’s also featured in comics and video games.
Let’s explore what Elvira is up to now.
Elvira will host a 40th-anniversary show and has a new film coming up
Elvira will celebrate her 40th anniversary by presenting Elvira’s 40th Anniversary, Very Scary, Very Special, Special on Shudder. She will provide commentary to a horror film lineup including Messiah of Evil, The City of the Dead, and Elvira: Mistress of the Dark.
“It’s always tough turning 40, but what better way to mark the occasion than a one-night stand with Shudder, the spookiest of streamers?” Elvira said. “It’s going to be the ultimate Hallow-anniversa-ween bash, and you don’t want to miss it.”
Elvira had previously spoken of having an animated project rejected by Shudder and Netflix. She stated that she had shelved the animation idea to focus on a live-action film she’d been offered. She told ComicBook
“The way that came out [on social media] was that everybody had turned me down for everything. Completely not true. I have not pitched these other projects to them so they couldn’t have turned them down. I kind of put that [animated project] on the back shelf because I got an offer to do the live-action film.”
Fans are begging for a third Elvira film, which she claims to be working on. She told ComicBook that it still needed work before she presented it to Netflix or Shudder. Elvira stated that she had the support of ’a really good, top-tier Hollywood production company.’
“I’m working with a production company and, really, that’s the way to pitch it, because Netflix and those different outlets aren’t in the business of making films,” she said. “They’re in the business of buying them. That’s why I’m working with this production company.”
However, the coronavirus pandemic changed Elvira’s mind about shelving the animation project. She told Toofab that she might be past the idea of a live-action film. She explained:
“I have written a treatment and I just collaborated with someone, another writer, on a little more detailed treatment. I am honestly thinking that it is gonna go the way of animation now. I think it may have gone past the point of me wanting to do a live movie as Elvira.”
Elvira lives a quiet life with her gym trainer partner Teresa Wierson
In her recently released memoir, Elvira recalls meeting her partner Teresa Wierson at the gym. She describes her as ‘tan, tattooed, and muscular’ and looking from afar like a man. “He gave off such intense energy that when he crossed the enormous gym floor, the waters parted and people stopped in their tracks to stare,” Elvira writes.
After finding ‘T’ in the girls’ locker room, she discovered that she was a ‘bad girl’ rather than a ‘bad boy.’ The pair’s friendship morphed into romance after Teresa moved in with Elvira.
“There on the doorstep stood my trainer, T, holding a trash bag full of her belongings, looking sad and bedraggled,” Elvira writes. “She’d split from her longtime partner, spent some time in rehab, and now had no place to go.”
On a night out, Elvira felt an overwhelming desire to kiss Wierson, which confused her. “This just wasn’t me!” Elvira writes. However, she soon appreciated the special connection she shared with Teresa. “I soon discovered that we connected sexually in a way I’d never experienced,” Elvira writes.
The pair have been together for nearly two decades. Despite Elvira having someone who makes her feel ‘safe, blessed, and truly loved,’ she dreaded backlash from fans for coming out. She also feared that she would lose work but chose to go through with it nonetheless. She told The Orange County Register:
“I have friends who are gay and have come out of the closet and it affected their work, relationships and their life. So it’s not so far-fetched to be worried. But on the other side of that, it’s so draining keeping it a secret. It’s not good for you, it’s not good for us. It sucks the energy out of you.”
Elvira lost 11,000 followers after coming out in September 2021
In an early 2022 appearance on David Yontef’s Behind the Velvet Rope podcast, Elvira revealed that she lost 11,000 followers after coming out publicly. She said:
“I knew that there were going to be some horny old men out there who were just not going to like the fact that they didn’t have a chance with me anymore. And I hate to tell them they already didn’t have a chance with me anyway.”
However, the 60,000 followers she gained more than made up for the ‘horny old men’ she lost. The news shocked many, some of whom couldn’t stand being her fans anymore. “People just said, ‘Elvira, you lied to me. I don’t respect you anymore. Goodbye,” Elvira added.
In her memoir, Elvira predicted that she would anger people by coming out, but she did it anyway. “I’m very aware that there will be some who will be disappointed and maybe even angry, but I have to live with myself, and at this point in my life, I’ve got to be truthful about who I am,” she wrote.