After appearing nude in the mainstream R-rated film Together (1970), her first lead role, Marilyn Chambers moved from Westport to San Francisco, where she held several jobs that included topless model and bottomless dancer. Chambers sought work in theater and dance groups in San Francisco to no avail. In 1972, she saw an advertisement in the San Francisco Chronicle for a casting call for what was billed as a "major motion picture". She rushed to the audition only to find it was for a pornographic film, which was to be called Behind the Green Door. She was about to leave when producers Artie and Jim Mitchell noticed her resemblance to Cybill Shepherd. They invited her upstairs to their offices and told her the film's plot. Chambers was highly dubious about accepting a role in a pornographic film, fearing it might ruin her chances at breaking into the mainstream. But she was turned on by the fantasy of the story and decided to take a chance, under the condition that she receive a hefty salary and percent of the film's gross. She also insisted that each actor get tested for venereal disease. The Mitchell Brothers balked at her request for a percentage of the film's profits, but finally agreed, realizing the film needed a wholesome blonde actress. They paid her $25,000 and 1% of earnings, which brought her $2,000 to $2,500 per month in 1974, making her the highest-paid porn actress in the country at the time. Chambers said her experience was a good one, and the Mitchells treated her as an actress, with respect, though they ended up having a falling out years later.
The source was an underground work of fiction that had been circulating for decades before Artie Mitchell and Jim Mitchell decided to bring it to the screen.
Though Marilyn Chambers is promoted as the female lead, her character, Gloria, has no spoken dialogue. She once said in an interview that she really had to "act" because she had no lines.
The film's on-screen copyright is 1973, despite having a premiere one year earlier.
Marilyn Chambers' first hardcore adult film. She was relatively unknown prior to this, appearing in only two mainstream films, and Green Door made her a big star.