Gabriele Tinti, a veteran of the industry active since 1952, noticed Laura Gemser as she was visiting the production office in Rome and they began a romance while shooting Black Emmanuelle in Kenya. Consequently, Gemser moved to Italy to stay with him. They married in 1976 and stayed that way until his death in 1991. Tinti starred with Gemser in all of her Emanuelle films, except for Emanuelle Around the World (1977). She admitted once that it was strange that they both had such a strong bond despite performing in several graphic sex scenes with other actors.
On original advertising art as well as on original prints of the film, Laura Gemser is credited simply as "Emanuelle," rather than by her own name.
Laura Gemser had a small role in Emmanuelle II (1975) as a nude masseuse who massages star Sylvia Krystel. Coincidentally, she was then offered this role and she accepted it without reading the script because she wanted to travel to Kenya where they were going to film it.
Director Bitto Albertini asked Laura Genser to film hardcore sex scenes but she refused, saying the simulated sex was difficult enough. So Albertini shot porn footage with a stand in for her character and inserted close ups into her simulated sex scenes to make it look as if she was actually having sex. She had no idea he was going to do it and it infuriated her when she saw it. But she couldn't do anything about it. To make matters worse, friends and family thought it was really her and she kept having to explain it wasn't. She was very embarrassed.
The Italian Black Emanuelle films took a decidedly seedier direction than their soft focus French counterparts. They featured a lot more sordid sex, nudity and gore.