Establishing and maintaining a successful acting career usually represents the pinnacle of an actress' life and accomplishments, which is understandable and to be expected given the competitiveness of the entertainment industry. Radiant, dark-haired actress Cristina Raines made an impact in the 1970s and 1980s with a career that entailed challenging and notable roles with major directors on the big screen, as well as accessible characterizations on television, that helped her establish a considerable following with the general public. Her career lasted 20 years, from the early 1970s until the 1990s, before quietly retreating from the public eye in order to focus on raising her daughter. When her daughter was older, instead of returning to acting, Raines chose a completely different career path for herself. After years of study and hard work, she is now a registered nurse, specializing in caring for patients who are undergoing dialysis. Even though Cristina Raines remains proud of her acting accomplishments, she does not miss show business because of her fulfillment and satisfaction in being a nurse. She now lives a low-key existence that is far from the hustle and bustle of Hollywood. She graciously consented to an interview with Hill Place Blog to discuss her acting roles and about her current nursing career. In our discussions, Raines proves to be a very positive--as well as intelligent, candid, and self-aware--individual who is the first to compliment and share credit with her colleagues, yet does not mince words nor sugar coat the situation when it comes to discussing the challenging aspects of her acting career. I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to Cristina Raines for opening up her heart and memories for this interview.
Cristina Raines was born Cristina Herazo in Manila, Philippines, the daughter of an American chemical engineer for Proctor and Gamble based in Manila, and his wife, a former Earl Carroll dancer. Because of Raines' dark, at times exotic, beauty and because of her place of birth, she has sometimes been assumed to be of Filipino descent. However, Raines, explains that "My grandfather, on my father's side, was Colombian. We used to go visit him in Colombia all the time. He was a cattle rancher and a coffee bean plantation owner. He was educated at NYU, which is where he met my grandmother, who was half-Swedish and half-German, so that's my dad's side of the family. And my mother's side of the family was Irish-Scotch. My grandmother on my mother's side of the family was a Ziegfield Girl. So, I'm definitely a Heinz 57. (laugh) You should see my younger sister Victoria, who is an Olympian, and she's got blue eyes, freckles and auburn hair. And people think that my older sister is Asian because she's got really beautiful, straight black hair and very white skin. However, unlike me, she wasn't born in the Philippines, she was born in New York. (laugh) We go back centuries here, so who knows? You put us in a room together and you would not think we were sisters. We look so completely different. People say to me, 'Are you kidding me? This is your sister?'"
Because of her father's work, Raines grew up around the world: "In addition to the Philippines, we lived in Venezuela for a period of time, then all over Asia, and we'd come back to the States a couple of times a year. We lived in Florida for a period of time and then we ended up in Connecticut, where I finished High School, and then I went to college in Boston. The school I attended is now called Bay State College, but at the time it was called the Chandler School for Women. It was an all-girls business school. Back then, your parents would say to you 'You need to learn how to be a secretary, so you'll always have a job.' So I was a legal secretary. That lasted for about ten minutes!" While in college, Raines started modeling to help pay for her tuition, "I was going to college and then I went to visit my aunt and my uncle in Manhattan. My uncle just looked at me and asked 'Have you ever thought about modeling?' I said, 'No' and he said 'Well, I'm going to send you out to meet some people.' So I went and met a bunch of people in New York and Eileen Ford was one of them. There I was working in New York for the summer with every intention of going back to school."
Even though she wasn't planning on a career in show business, Raines' work as a model in New York eventually led to her acting career: "I was modeling for Eileen Ford and I got called in on an interview for a film. When I went there, I didn't know what it was for because, you know, the modeling agency just gave you a list of appointments that you had to go to. I didn't know it was an acting thing and what did I know about acting? I did plays in high school, big deal. So I went on the interview and I told them I wasn't an actress and that I didn't think that this was for me and that I was only there because Eileen Ford told me to be there! (laugh) And the director just glommed onto me! So I did some readings with him and I did a screen test with Keith Carradine and Gary Busey and Scott Glenn and that was the beginning of my acting career."
Raines' film debut turned out to be the offbeat "Hex," originally filmed under the title "Grasslands" in South Dakota in 1971 by 20th Century-Fox, but which got a limited release in 1973. A bizarre period piece set in 1919 Nebraska, Raines played Oriole, a half-Native American woman living on a farm with her sister Acacia (Hilary Thompson). Their lives are turned upside down when a group made up mostly of World War I veterans traveling the country on motorcycles (played by Keith Carradine, Scott Glenn, Gary Busey, Robert Walker Jr., Mike Combs, and Doria Cook) take refuge on their property. When Busey's character attempts to rape her sister Acacia, Oriole uses her powers of the occult to devise horrible demises for the unruly bikers. An almost indescribable melding of horror, biker, and Western genres, "Hex" remains a quirky early-1970s curiosity piece notable for the early performances of Carradine, Raines, Busey, and Glenn, all of whom would find later success in films and television. Raines plays the lead role of Oriole with a subdued air of mystery and self-possession that stands in contrast to the unrestrained energy of her co-stars.
Despite the obscurity of "Hex" (which was released on VHS as "The Shrieking" and on DVD as "Charms"), Raines fondly recalls how, "That's where I fell in love with acting. I was really lucky because all of those people--Keith, Scott, Gary, Hilary Thompson, Bobby Walker Jr., and everyone else in the film--they were just really good performers. They had a lot of passion for what they did, and it sort of lit my passion for acting and was a wonderful experience. Nothing happened with the movie, which is too bad because the director, Leo Garen, was a really interesting man and a really interesting director. I've never really seen the whole film. There's been so many different versions that they edited of it. Everybody got ahold of it and they were re-editing and re-editing it. I have no idea what it is now. (laugh) It was trying to encompass the biker and horror and western genres and you're talking about the 'Five Easy Pieces' era. You've got the guys on these little motorcycles, and I think my character was half-Native American and she has to get rid of these bikers, and so it's also got a witchcraft element involved. I think that description for the film sounds about right! For me, it was a life changing experience. I loved it, I loved South Dakota, and I loved Henry Crow Dog, who was a Sioux medicine man who Leo Garen had on the set and he was just an amazing human being. It really turned my life around--you're talking about a very conservative Southern girl--and all of a sudden I'm in this movie in the middle of nowhere with a Native American medicine man on the set and these crazy actors! It was wonderful, it was taking a real bite out of life and it was a great time for me."
During the filming of "Hex," Raines began an almost 8-year relationship with Keith Carradine and moved to Los Angeles. (In the original, "making of" documentary that appears on the Criterion Collection Blu-Ray release of "Nashville," Keith Carradine reverently describes his relationship with Raines by stating "Ours was a great love and a great passion. And she is, and was, exquisitely gifted.") She signed with Nina Blanchard Modeling Agency, which led directly to Raines landing her first theatrical agent for acting work, "Nina Blanchard was really a mentor and she kind of took me under her wing and said 'Look, do you really want to be a model or do you want to be an actress?' I said, 'I really want to be an actress.' And so she said, 'Let me get you some interviews with some agents.' So she sent me to meet Dick Clayton--who was Jane Fonda's agent and James Dean's agent--and he signed me. He was a really good man with an amazing reputation in this town as being someone with a lot of integrity and a lot of class. He became Burt Reynolds' personal manager when he wasn't my agent anymore. So I signed up with him and that's how I got my first agent in Hollywood."
Dick Clayton also played a significant role in Raines' career by helping her come up with her screen name "Cristina Raines." After being billed as "Tina Herazo" in "Hex," she soon found it necessary to change names in order to improve her career prospects, "I kept being sent out for Spanish-speaking soap operas, and I don't speak Spanish! But they would call Dick to ask me to come and interview for these roles and I said, 'Uh oh, this name isn't going to work.' So he said, 'Let's change your name.' I said, 'OK, what do I have to do?' He said, 'Just think about what you would like to be called.' And I had no clue! I really had no clue what to do--and I think I've told this story a thousand times--but it was raining one day. And I said to Dick, 'What about Rain?' (laugh) And so he said, 'OK, how about Raines?' I said, 'That'll work.' And it did. I remember I asked him, 'What do you think about that name?' And Dick said, 'That's not my decision.' So that's how I became 'Cristina Raines.'"
Raines' first acting job with her new name was a co-starring role in director Andy Sidaris' feature film debut, the low-budget action film "Stacey" (1973). Former Playboy Playmate Anne Randall plays the title role, a private detective investigating the amoral activities of a wealthy matriarch's family. Her investigation uncovers a complex extortion plot and leads to the expected mayhem and violence. In the course of the story, Randall's Stacey becomes acquainted with Raines' character Pamela, a member of the matriarch's family. A fast-paced, entertaining movie released by New World, Raines admits that "I've never seen it. I remember it was kind of a silly movie, but that's OK. I think I was just happy to have that job and to have that opportunity to work. I honestly had a good time on that film. I didn't work very many days on it. I think it was only three or four days. I remember I liked everybody, I liked Andy Sidaris. As a director, he was good. I had no problems with him. I remember that Anne Randall and Anitra Ford were nice. Andy Sidaris and the cast and crew of that film were actually very supportive. There was no negativity at all connected with that experience. It was really fun."
Raines also appeared in the Charles Bronson film "The Stone Killer" (1973), but her work was completely deleted from the final cut. It would be the first time she would work with director Michael Winner, who she would later collaborate with on "The Sentinel" (1977). As she recalls, "It was like a one-day gig, and Charles Bronson was an absolute doll! He was just a sweetheart, but I was way taller than him and so I had to walk below him during our scenes. It was just one scene--it was sort of like a walk on--and I played his daughter, I think, but they cut me out of the film. It was the first time I worked with Michael Winner, and I had no idea about this dude! (laugh) I was literally only there one day. It was basically, 'Here it is, this is your mark, do your scene.' And then Mr. Bronson showed up on the set, we did the scene and he gave me a nod that that was good and that was it! And then I went home! (laugh) I don't remember having any contact with Michael, really. I think I worked mostly with the cinematographer. I had NO idea what was in store for me later on 'The Sentinel'!"
Soon afterwards, Raines landed her first meaty dramatic role in the heartfelt, acclaimed TV movie "Sunshine" (1973) that aired November 9, 1973 on CBS. Raines played the leading role of Kate Hayden, a young mother of a newborn baby girl who learns she has terminal cancer. Married to struggling musician Sam Hayden (Cliff De Young), Kate wrestles with her rage and frustration at having her young life cut short as well as her sorrow that she will never live to see her daughter grow up. Kate courageously faces her battle with cancer with the support and friendship of her physician, Dr. Carol Gillman (Brenda Vaccaro). As Kate begins to deteriorate, she begins recording a series of audio tapes that she intends to leave with her daughter as a journal imparting her life lessons, dreams and aspirations to her daughter after she is gone. Intelligently written and acted, and directed with unflinching honesty and sensitivity by veteran director Joseph Sargent, "Sunshine" has developed a significant cult following among fans who remember it fondly and were emotionally affected by its storyline.
The film refreshingly depicts its lead characters, who are counter-culture individuals living in poverty on the fringes of society, with humanity and intelligence and without succumbing to goofy hippie stereotypes as so many films and TV shows of its period are wont to do. Raines is excellent as Kate and gives one of the best performances of her career. She plays the lead role with an earthy directness, and a lack of sentimentality, that enables the film to avoid becoming maudlin or cloying. She is also fearless in allowing the audience to witness Kate's physical agony and deterioration. There is no sense of glamorizing or downplaying her battle with cancer the way Ali MacGraw did with "Love Story" (1970). Raines also has confidence and honesty in portraying Kate as a flawed individual who, despite her many positive attributes, is also capable of making mistakes and being headstrong and stubborn at times. In one scene, a stressed-out and angry Kate fights with Sam and almost spanks her daughter out of frustration. Kate is not in her right mind at that moment and, in so doing, Raines ensures that she remains a recognizable human being throughout the story and not a saint.
Raines recalls being passionate about her role in "Sunshine" even before she actually landed it, "Dick Clayton called and said he wanted to send me on an audition. This was in the day when actors got the script to read before they would go in. I don't think actors get that anymore. Now it's sort of like you show up and they give you sides to do cold readings. But, fortunately, I got to read the script for 'Sunshine' before I went in. I think that probably had a lot to do with Dick Clayton and his status as an agent. So I read the script and I absolutely LOVED it! And I just went in and did my audition for Joe Sargent and some of the big wigs from Universal and the producers for the show, including George Eckstein, and that was it and then I got it!"
Over 40 years later, a grateful Raines is quick to share the credit for landing the lead role in 'Sunshine' with the acting coach she was working with at that time, "Before doing 'Sunshine,' I started studying with an acting coach who is still teaching and deserves the most accolades. He is just the most brilliant instructor, and his name is Vincent Chase. He really, really got me to learn how to fine tune my acting skills. At that time, his classes were literally six days a week. You had to show up at 6:00 PM and you usually were done at 12:00 midnight. He made sure that you were committed. It was like my whole world opened up with him in terms of performing. He's a brilliant instructor, just brilliant. And I've studied with a lot of other people but I always went back to him before I would have an audition so that we would work on things and he always had great perspectives. So the fact that I got that part in 'Sunshine,' after only reading with them once, has a lot to do with what I learned from Vincent Chase. I think it kind of stunned a lot of people. They had done auditions in New York for, like, six weeks and then they came out to California to do auditions. I just feel really blessed to have gotten that role and I am grateful to Vincent for teaching me the skills to help me land it."
Raines was barely 20 years old at the time she made "Sunshine." She admits plumbing the emotional peaks and depths of her character was challenging but found assistance in understanding her character from the original audio tapes that the real-life character she was portraying recorded for her daughter. Raines recalls how, "The story of 'Sunshine' was based on the recorded journals of Jacquelyn Helton. She was a very interesting girl who had a very close relationship with her oncologist. I was given some of the audio tapes she had recorded to prepare for this role and I really got a sense of who she was. She was such an old soul and was someone who had made some very sound decisions at a very young age. I think the biggest compliment that I got after the show aired was that the doctor had a very hard time watching it because she said I was like that girl. It was very hard for her to watch it, she was really affected by it. It was a hard performance for me. It really was. I really felt her, I really could feel her. A lot of people sort of look at that character as though she was the 'hippie chick.' With the time era, you could sort of understand that. But, really, she was on welfare and she was really struggling and she had, as I understand it, not a good relationship with her mother at all. She did not have a really happy childhood."
Despite the dark aspects of the storyline, Raines has very happy and positive memories of filming "Sunshine" and is filled with warm memories of her many colleagues on that film, "Carol Sobieski was an amazing writer and she gave us a lot of freedom to change what we needed. It wasn't, 'OK, you have to stick to this dialogue.' She gave us room to move. And Joe Sargent is the epitome of a dream director. Everybody who works with Joe falls madly in love with him because he's such an incredible director. He's such a positive force and he's so full of life and energy and he's a great, great director. He really gave me room to find the character. Joe, I would say, was my favorite director ever. He never tried to dictate or control my performance, he let me find my way. Joe's got a heart the size of a barn. Plus, he was an actor himself, so he really tunes in to what you're doing. Sometimes, he would just say one word to me--it would be whatever had to do with the scene--and he paid such close attention to the performers that he would just look at me and he would just say something and I would get what he was saying. We had really good communication between one another. And he would come up to me and say 'Well, why don't you try this?...' and I would try it and it would work. Or it wouldn't work. It was a real process. He allowed the process of creating to just happen. And we got lots of surprises that way, which is great, and he would be all excited about it. And then you've got Bill Butler who's a brilliant cinematographer. Bill and his wife Iris are still my very good friends. He's just amazing. He did such low lighting, which nobody did back then--and he would say to me, 'I hope this comes out!' (laugh) And I said, 'Oh God, Bill, don't say that to me!' That film was a very, very happy experience for me. That was a really powerful, powerful piece. I worked with great actors. Cliff DeYoung, Meg Foster. I remember feeling very blessed. And Brenda Vaccaro was awesome. She was just awesome. I'm telling you, I just loved her. She was a great lady. Talk about an incredible sense of humor! Very earthy and fun. It was just your dream experience as a performer. I have had a couple of dream experiences in my acting career, but that was my #1."
As a result of working on "Sunshine," Raines was signed to a long-term, 7 year contract with Universal, the studio that produced the film. Raines recalls that, "I wasn't allowed to accept the project without becoming a contract player. It was either, 'You become a contract player or we're not offering you the role.' I think that was the bottom line." As I mentioned before, in my interview with Ana Alicia, Monique James, who ran the talent program at Universal, was known for having strong opinions about which actors she preferred who were under contract to the studio, and could be severe and unfair with those she disfavored. Unfortunately, through no fault of her own, Cristina Raines found being under contract with Universal to be a double-edged sword for precisely those reasons. Raines candidly acknowledges that "Monique James did not like me because she didn't want me for that role in 'Sunshine.' She had her stable of favorite actresses and she apparently fought pretty hard to keep me from getting that role. She made life very difficult for me. I was completely prepared to cooperate and work with her, but she was not a nice person. Not to me anyway. She really, REALLY didn't like me. I was even warned by people to be very careful with her. The reason I got the contract was because the executives in the Black Tower at Universal wanted me under contract, and she didn't have the power to overrule them on that issue. At least that was my understanding. That's why I didn't work as much at Universal as the other contract players. She even fought to keep me from being loaned out to do 'The Duellists' (1977). She went out of her way to try to prevent that from happening. The director, Ridley Scott, called me and said, 'You know I'm getting a lot of pushback about borrowing you to do this film.' Much to her dismay, she also unsuccessfully tried to prevent Bob Altman from hiring me to do 'Nashville' (1975). That happened more than I can tell you. I don't want to volunteer what the other instances were, because it just sounds like sour grapes, but some of them were pretty major films. At this point, I really don't care, but I was warned very early on about Monique and they were right. That's all I can say. Every single role that I was able to get during that time was a challenge just to get it."
Despite Monique James' efforts, Raines' next project proved to be one of the most acclaimed American films of the 1970s, and one of the best films of Raines' career, Robert Altman's controversial masterpiece, "Nashville" (1975), released by Paramount. A documentary-like, Country & Western musical satire of mid-1970s, post-Watergate and post-Vietnam America, "Nashville" told the intertwining story of 24 major characters who are in the country musical capital during one eventful week while a third-party Presidential candidate is organizing a rally to help further his campaign. Raines played Mary, the distaff member of the rock trio "Bill, Mary and Tom" who is unhappily to Bill (Allan Nicholls) while having an affair and hopelessly in love with the other member of the trio, the womanizing Tom Frank (Keith Carradine). Raines more than held her own in such a large ensemble cast and participated in some memorable scenes that continue to be dissected and analyzed by serious film critics and scholars.
Raines is effectively subtle in the scene where she is lying in bed with Tom, repeatedly telling him "I love you, I love you," only to look up and realize that he's asleep the entire time and hasn't absorbed anything she's told him. She is also particularly good in the scene where she argues with her husband Bill on Sunday morning about her infidelity in their cluttered hotel room as campaign organizer John Triplette (Michael Murphy) arrives to try and convince them to appear at the political rally for his candidate Hal Phillip Walker. Raines' Mary tells Triplette with deadpan bluntness "We can't vote for him because we're registered Democrats and, besides, he's kind of crazy isn't he?" all the while putting cold cream on her face and lighting a cigarette in front of Triplette to demonstrate her indifference and disdain to him. Later, Mary has a heartfelt musical moment when she sings, along with her husband Bill and paramour Tom, the bluesy "Since You've Gone," expressing her disappointment and frustration about her affair after having just learned moments earlier that Tom has recently spent the night with bubble-headed, blabber-mouthed BBC reporter Opal (Geraldine Chaplin). Later, Raines also has an effective moment as she watches Tom singing the Oscar winning, iconic "I'm Easy" to a room full of admiring women. Wiping back tears, Mary scans the room trying to figure out who among the audience Tom is actually singing the song to.
Raines recalled that she landed the role in "Nashville" because "I was involved with Keith Carradine at the time--we lived together--and Keith was someone that Bob Altman frequently used in his films. And so people would hang out at his office at Lion's Gate (Altman's production company at the time) and they'd be playing music. And everybody loved Bob, you couldn't not love Bob. And everybody loved Kathryn, his wife, who was just an amazing lady. I remember there was a screening for something he was shooting, and Paul Newman was there, and Keith was shooting a film somewhere. Bob had asked me to come to the screening, and that's when he asked me 'Do you want to be in this movie? Do you want to be in 'Nashville'?'' and so I said, 'Sure.' And that was it! That's how I got cast in 'Nashville'!"
Once filming started, Raines completely embraced the democratic atmosphere of working on an Altman film and recalls that the experience "was like a traveling troupe from the medieval ages. He had people that he liked to use over and over again. He really was good at casting. Everybody had very distinct personalities and everybody would meet at the end of the day to watch dailies, because Bob really liked to have everybody see their own work. And so we'd sit around and watch dailies and then afterwards people would have their cocktails and we'd talk about it and then we'd all go home. But that was nightly. It was like he wanted everybody to be involved in the entire process of making that film. Plus, there was always the dynamics between the actors and their characters on screen and Bob just sat back and watched what was transpiring before him. So it was really an interesting film to work on. He was good at creating that kind of atmosphere. Bob Altman and Joe Sargent were similar as directors. They just had that uncanny ability to just see what was going on and just give you a push in one direction or another without, you know, getting verbose and talking about it for two hours. (laugh) They were just very present and in the moment with you. They were wonderful that way. I had no idea at the time that it would turn out to be such a landmark movie, but I knew it was an Altman film and I knew that he had a particular following. But, you know, sometimes when you're on a set you can feel whether a movie will be good or not, and I just knew 'Nashville' was going to be really good. It's all due to the direction and the cinematography and the sound, which was something that had never been done before, with the multiple people talking all the time. Bob was innovative and creative and he allowed the people that he worked with to be as creative and innovative as they wanted to be and it was so powerful. It was a powerful experience."
Raines has very fond memories of the other 23 principal cast members she worked with on "Nashville" and recalls how, during the ten weeks of filming on location in Nashville, Tennessee, that "we spent so much time together as a group, if we weren't at the motel, where the production offices were located and where everybody was watching dailies and everything, we'd all be in each other's apartments, because we were all staying in the same place. Our doors were always open for each other. We would have dinner together, we would cook together, we got to know each other pretty well for the most part--some more than others--but at least we got a sense of everybody. We all knew we were there for one reason, there were no ulterior motives or agendas with anyone in the cast, and everybody was there to support each other. Working on 'Nashville' sort of became your life while you were there on location. It became kind of an obsession. It became an all-consuming experience. I don't know how else to explain it. Everybody's life became intertwined and it was just like the characters we were playing in the film."
Going down the list alphabetically through the main cast, Raines recalls that "David Arkin was hilarious and a real character. Barbara Baxley was wonderful, a great, earthy lady. She was very bright and would always talk politics, she was very interesting that way, just like her character! I love Ned Beatty, he's just a good guy, and he's very funny. Karen Black was one cast member I didn't know much about. I never really had much conversation with her. She wasn't really there for the whole shoot. She kind of came in and left. She was only really there, I don't know, maybe a week or so on the shoot. I got to know her a little better years later and I liked her. In contrast, I got to know Ronee Blakley really well. I love Ronee. She really was a fragile bird, and I really admired how talented she was. She was great. Timothy Brown I got to know a little bit, not a whole lot, but he was very congenial, comfortable to be around. Nice guy. As you already know, Keith and I were living together and he is a great person who is very passionate and conscientious about his work, and very giving and generous to his colleagues. Geraldine Chaplin was a real character, very interesting to observe and be around. Bob just loved her and I really liked her as well. I thought Geraldine was really cool. Robert DoQui was awesome and was like everybody's best friend on that film. Shelley Duvall was OK. I mean, I knew Shelley for a really long time. I don't know that she was really happy with her role on the film. She would kind of not really hang out. She would, but she wouldn't, you know what I mean? I didn't really spend much time with her on that film. I think she felt...well, she was really upset one night because of her role and I felt really bad for her. Allen Garfield was a cool guy. It's not like I got to know him really well, I didn't, but I remember he was very kind. I adored Henry Gibson! I got to know him very well. He was just the best ever! I loved him! He was hilarious to work with, he just never missed much, and I felt very safe around Henry! (laugh) Scott Glenn was a dear friend of both me and Keith--we worked with him on my first film--and we spent lots of time together. Scott's a great human being, he's a really good guy. He is not afraid of anything. He is the most fearless, fearless person I've ever met in my life. He is a unique human being."
As Raines continues describing the rest of the cast, she acknowledges that, "I didn't really get to know Jeff Goldblum very well on 'Nashville,' though I worked with him again on 'The Sentinel.' I actually got to know more about Jeff at the 'Nashville' reunion screening at the Academy in 2000 than anything else. I never really had a conversation with Jeff on 'Nashville.' I loved Barbara Harris. She was, honestly, one of my favorite people. Absolutely, hilariously funny. She was always coming over and hanging out with us. She just had a great take on everything. She is funny, that lady is very funny. If I needed to laugh, I'd go find Barbara because she was great. I never got to know David Hayward very well at all, and I don't think we ever had a conversation even. Michael Murphy's a great guy, I've known him a long time. He's such an underrated actor. He's very subtle and very good at what he does. He's been doing good work for a long time and he was a dear friend of Bob Altman's and Kathryn. Michael's a really good man, a really good human being with a lot of integrity. He's a hard one to find, there's not a lot of people like him. Allan Nicholls, who played my husband, was an amazing guy, amazingly talented and what can you say about someone you just adore? I just loved him. Dave Peel, I did not get to know him, that's another one I didn't get to know very well, and I really don't know why. I have no excuse because we were often in each others' presence during the making of that film. I loved Bert Remsen. I met Bert Remsen back when Shelley and Keith did 'Thieves Like Us.' I just loved him, such a smart and gracious guy. Lily Tomlin is another one who is great. She's awesome, she's just awesome. Lily is Lily. Lily is unique and honest and funny and has a very good view of what's going on around her. Gwen Welles was a sweetheart. You just wanted to protect Gwen. I loved Gwen. She sadly passed away several years ago. And I adored Keenan Wynn. He was a challenge, at times, but he was brilliant in his role. Just brilliant."
Even though Raines thoroughly enjoyed working on "Nashville," she faced some challenges with incorporating Altman's famous improvisational direction of performers in his films with her own acting style. She admits that Altman directed her to put cold cream on her face during the scene when her character meets with Michael Murphy's John Triplette about appearing at Hal Phillip Walker's rally because "that was Bob telling me what to do because I was telling him 'I don't know what to do here!' (laugh) It's true that I wanted to stick close to the dialogue that Joan Tewkesbury had written for the movie and I wasn't comfortable with doing improv. I don't know why. I just...it made me nervous. Look at all the people I was working with! They were SO good with improv, so great, and I would just freeze at the thought of doing improv in front of them. But that's all right. I got through it because I was working with a lot of good people who were very supportive." Raines also admits that she struggled with singing the Gary Busey-penned song "Since You've Gone" along with her on-screen singing partners Keith Carradine and Allan Nicholls, "I hate it. (laugh) I was just so terrified when I was singing. Bob used to make us all sing our songs when we'd get together and it would just terrify me. I think I've said it a million times, but I would have rather been naked running down the street than singing in front of people! But, you know, it turned out fine. I sang a little bit in 'Sunshine,' but that was different because you're sitting there with your significant other and singing. But, in 'Nashville,' I had to really sing and I was afraid I wasn't going to be any good. Richard Baskin, the music director, worked with all of us to prepare us for our musical numbers and he was good, he was helpful. Keith and Allan were also very supportive. But once you're up there doing it, there's nothing you can do about it, you've just gotta go for it! (laugh)"
Raines recalls that, during the filming of "Since You've Gone," the backup musician playing the base guitar in the scene attempted to give her more confidence in herself, but only caused her to have even more concerns with filming the scene. As she explains, "We were filming in a small club filled with a couple of dozen people and the guy playing the guitar was trying to reassure me and he said 'Remember, hundreds of thousands of people are going to see this scene!' and I froze! I just went, 'Oh my God!' You know what I mean? Because he reminded me that it wasn't just the people in the club who were going to watch this scene, it was also everybody who would see the film. I had to think outside the box when he pointed that out to me! It totally freaked me out, because I was just in the moment there."
While Raines credits the excellence of "Nashville" to Robert Altman's direction, she is also quick to acknowledge the enormous contribution of screenwriter Joan Tewkesbury to the film. As she explains, "Bob was the same way with writers as he was with actors and has given a lot of people opportunities to find their own voice, which is a pretty darn nice gift to give somebody. Bob gave Joan a carte blanche and basically told her to go to Nashville and she came up with the story and characters after visiting the city. Even though the actors were allowed room to improvise and provide input, Joan's job on the set was to coordinate all of their ideas and properly integrate them into the film. That woman worked 24/7 on that film. She was always on call for the actors and it was a very structured script and everyone worked within that structure. Even though there was a lot of improv, there was also a lot of dialogue in the script that was already there. It wasn't like people just went in and said 'Oh, I'm going to do this in this scene' without consideration of how it would work in the overall film. There was a definite structure to 'Nashville.' She worked all the time on that film because there was always somebody in there talking with her about what they wanted to say and do with their scenes."
"Nashville" was one of the most controversial and acclaimed movies of 1975. It was nominated for five Academy Awards®, with Carradine winning for Best Song. The film became one of the most discussed and analyzed films of the decade. Even though the acclaim and publicity did wonders towards raising Cristina Raines' profile as a rising and promising young actress, she acknowledges she struggled a bit with the attention and was conscious about maintaining a healthy perspective with her sudden success, "'Nashville' had a very positive effect on my career, but it was also a little scary. I had to back away a little bit from working. It just frightened me because there was so much going on. My thing was not about being a star, it was about being a good performer, so it was definitely interesting and overwhelming. I mean, I was only 20 years old at the time! Jeff Goldblum was not the youngest actor on that set! (laugh) I was still a raw person. I remember thinking, 'What, what am I supposed to do about all of this? How come they want me here? Why do they want me to come there and read for that?' I was really an idiot. (laugh) In contrast, Keith dove right into it. He was happy and really handled the success well, but it terrified me. But that's just the way it is. Those are two different ways of dealing with things and he won the Oscar as a result. Keith was a lot sharper than I am in that way."
One of the major themes of "Nashville" was its examination of the increasingly symbiotic relationship of politics and entertainment. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, due to the climate of the period, more and more actors and entertainers became politically active than ever before. Raines was an exception and differed from most of her contemporaries because of her aversion to using her visibility to influence public opinion. Raines never felt that being an actress and a celebrity gave her the authority to lecture the public on what political views or opinions they should take. She admits that she often turned down opportunities to speak as a political activist because, "When I used to be a celebrity, I was never comfortable with people asking me to use whatever visibility I had to take a political position and influence public opinion. I do not feel that that's the right thing to do. I feel that that's celebrity-worship and I always felt that actors are no different than anybody else. They're just human beings with an opinion. That's a responsibility, trying to influence how people should vote, that's a BIG responsibility. It should be done by people with the knowledge and credentials to speak intelligently on a subject. I just didn't feel right to take a public position on an issue and expect people to follow it just because I was a celebrity. I think it's presumptuous and irresponsible, especially when a celebrity takes a position and it turns out they are not well-informed about it. I mean, if you want to be involved in saving the environment--OK, be involved with saving the environment. But get all of your facts and information and do it as a private individual contributing your time to help. Don't do it as a famous celebrity throwing your weight around. There's all sorts of ways of participating in our Democratic system in America, which is SUCH a gift that we have. And one way of participating is by simply voting in an intelligent and informed manner and being part of the political process. When people don't vote, I get very upset. My daughter is very conscientious about politics, but she's like me: 'Don't throw it around. Just go vote.'"
Raines' first role after "Nashville" was as the female lead in "Russian Roulette" (1975). George Segal, then in the midst of his 1970s popularity, plays a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer who stumbles upon a plot hatched by rogue KGB agents to assassinate the Russian premier while he is visiting Vancouver. Raines plays Segal's love interest and colleague, a file clerk with the RCMP. In the course of the story, Segal and Raines get kidnapped by the conspirators, escape from their custody and work together to try to avert the assassination. Raines' association with Robert Altman helped land her this role because "Louie Lombardo, the director, did editing for Altman. He called me in and I auditioned and got the role. That was a movie I don't remember a whole lot about. It was OK, it wasn't bad. I liked the experience because George Segal is a really good guy. He's actually very funny. I had to try and keep a straight face a lot of the time. He was always making me smile, and we were making a suspense thriller, so that was the challenge of working on that film. And I loved Canada, I loved Vancouver, I just loved working in that area. It was a fun experience. I have more memories of the locations than the actual film. (laugh) I hate to say it, but it's true!"
Raines' next feature film was made under her Universal contract, the horror film "The Sentinel" (1977), directed by Michael Winner, coming after the success of "Death Wish" (1974) and based on Jeffrey Konvitz's best selling novel. Raines had earlier worked with director Winner on "The Stone Killer," but had very little contact with him on that film. Raines starred in the lead role of Allison Parker, an emotionally fragile New York fashion model who moves into an elegant Brooklyn brownstone apartment. She soon falls victim to strange visits from her neighbors (who include Burgess Meredith, Sylvia Miles and Beverly D'Angelo) and is terrified by strange noises and footsteps coming from the empty apartment right above her. She is told by the real estate agent who rented her the unit (Ava Gardner) that, aside from herself and a blind priest (John Carradine) who lives on the top floor, no one else has been living in that apartment for years. Allison eventually learns that the apartment is built over the gateway to Hell, that the Catholic Church owns the building and have selected her to be the next Sentinel to replace the blind priest who has been living there, guarding and standing watch for decades. She further learns that the neighbors she has met are emissaries from Hell who are trying to drive her crazy so that she will commit suicide and be unable to replace the blind priest. Preventing her from becoming the next Sentinel would allow the demons of Hell to escape and spread their evil and hatred through the world. At the end of the film, good triumphs over evil and Allison assumes her role as the next Sentinel, having turned into an elderly blind nun, now guarding the gateway to Hell for generations to come.
"The Sentinel" was arguably Raines' meatiest role since "Sunshine," yet the movie suffered from negative reviews and indifferent box office at the time. Most critics denounced director Michael Winner's use of people who were born with real life physical deformities and disabilities to play the demons from Hell terrorizing Allison in the finale of the movie. It was a tactic reminiscent of the casting in Tod Browning's classic morality tale "Freaks" (1934), but without the intelligence and sensitivity Browning imbued his film with. Raines candidly admits that she has unhappy memories about the film, a sentiment that becomes understandable when one learns about her negative experience working with director Winner during its production. Raines shudders as she candidly recalls, "That was another one where Monique James told the director, Michael Winner, not to use me, and he told me that. He picked me anyway, but that was a terrible experience. All I can say is that the New York Teamsters, who worked on the crew of that film, saved my life. That's all I'm gonna say. They were a stellar group of guys and they protected me from Michael Winner. If any of them are reading this, I want to say 'Thank you' because they made a point of letting him know that he'd better not mess with me. And I've never been afraid of anyone before, but that man was scary. It was really a frightening experience working for him. That man put me through hell. You know...he used people with real disabilities for the finale of that film. They were lovely and kind people, and he was unkind to them. He would also try to shoot Ava Gardner making her look really awful. Ava was still a stunningly beautiful woman, but he would go out of his way to light her badly, on purpose, to try and make her look bad. I wasn't aware at first that Michael was doing that. The cinematographer came over to me and he said 'Look at the way Michael's lighting Ava. He's trying to make her look horrible.' So I said to him, 'OK, let me see what I can do to help out.' I would work with the cinematographer and we would be in cahoots together so that we could figure out a way to give her better lighting to make sure she didn't look bad. What we would do is that I would distract Michael long enough for the cinematographer to reset the camera, that sort of thing. NOBODY liked that man. He was just unkind."
In contrast to working with Michael Winner, Raines remembers the rest of her colleagues from "The Sentinel" with great fondness and respect and acknowledges how working with them brought some balance and perspective to that film. She fondly recalls how "Chris Sarandon is a doll! He is an absolute doll! He's a wonderful guy, he was a lot of fun. He's just a really good actor. Ava Gardner was...what's the word? She was such an icon, she was just this great lady who had a great sense of humor--a bawdy sense of humor--and she didn't miss much. You know, people would kind of try to pull things over on her, like the director, and she just would look at me to show me that she knew what was going on. That woman was savvy. She got very protective of me when she was on the set because he was so awful to me, and then she would step in and do her thing in her Ava Gardner way and he would back off. Yeah, she was real protective, she was amazing. Burgess Meredith was a very interesting man. He was very interested in the world. He had a very interesting history. Burgess was WAY ahead of his time. He was good friends with John Lilly and Carlos Castaneda, and he was interested in things that people are interested in now. He was a great thinker, a great philosopher, and he was wonderful to work with on that film. Arthur Kennedy was an absolute gentleman. Very sweet and very nice and just a powerful actor. Deborah Raffin was wonderful and she an
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