On Thursday evening, BuzzFeed News reported that a Ted Cruz campaign ad, “Conservatives Anonymous,” featured an actress who has appeared in softcore porn films. After learning of Amy Lindsay’s prior roles, the Cruz campaign pulled the entire ad.
Cruz’s spokesman told BuzzFeed: “The actress responded to an open casting call. She passed her audition and got the job. Unfortunately, she was not vetted by the production company. Had the campaign known of her full filmography, we obviously would not have let her appear in the ad.”
(You can view the ad—Lindsay plays the woman who calls Marco Rubio “just a pretty face”—in full here.)
When contacted by BuzzFeed, Lindsay, a Christian conservative and Republican, said that she had “assumed” the campaign was aware of her previous work, but that she had been wrong in that assumption. She told BuzzFeed that she thought it would be “cool” for Cruz’s campaign to include someone who had acted in softcore films:
“In a cool way, then hey, then it’s not just some old, white Christian bigot that people want to say, ‘It could be, maybe, a cool kind of open-minded woman like me,’” she said of people supporting Cruz.
According to BuzzFeed, she is currently deciding between Cruz and Donald Trump.
“I didn’t want to hurt the Ted Cruz campaign,” she told the Washington Post in another interview. “You guys have all painted me as this big porn star, which I am not,” she added, saying that she hasn’t done a softcore film in 7 years, has never had sex on camera, and has not appeared in X-rated films. She told the Post that she is pro-gun and pro-life, but also that she supports gay marriage.
“What it comes down to is I don’t want a [expletive deleted] Clinton or Sanders in the White House,” she told the Post.
Lindsay has appeared in softcore films like Erotic Wishes and Insatiable Obsession, but also has credits in other genres. From her website bio (the website itself appears to have crashed this morning, presumably from an influx of traffic):
Amy Lindsay burst onto the Hollywood scene shortly after arriving in LA when she was cast opposite Luke Perry in the biographical drama “8 Seconds”, where she was directed by Academy Award winner John Avildsen. Guest turns soon followed in episodes of “Silk Stalkings”, “Pacific Blue” and “Star Trek”, which launched Amy into starring roles in more than 50 feature films over the next decade. Amy co-starred in the hit series “Black Tie Nights” for HBO, and in 2010 played the title role in the teen comedy “MILF”, one of Netflix most downloaded films of that year.
Her bio also refers to her work as a voiceover artist and “Emmy-nominated associated producer,” and a degree in journalism from the University of Texas.
Lindsay also has a YouTube channel, where she publishes reviews of movies and TV shows like American Sniper and Transparent.
On her Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages following the BuzzFeed report, Lindsay has expressed disappointment in the Cruz campaign’s decision to pull the ad.
Ted Cruz has built his primary campaign on the conservative values of evangelical voters; he opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest and recently referred to gay marriage as a “crisis” (although he was also secretly taped saying it was not a “top-three issue”). Cruz hasn’t done much reflecting on the porn industry, although he was recently offered $1 million by Vivid Entertainment to star in a film titled “Cruzin for Bush.”
It’s clear that some of Ted Cruz’s supporters don’t fit the mold of what Ted Cruz wants his supporters to look like; it remains to be seen whether Amy Lindsay—and others whose lives run in contrast to the ultra-homogeneous ideals of the far right—will continue to offer that support. We’ve reached out to Lindsay with an interview request, and will update accordingly.
Contact the author at ellie@jezebel.com.
Image via screengrab, “Conservatives Anonymous”