“I degraded myself”: the 1976 movie moment Kris Kristofferson called “the worst thing I have ever done”
As far as musicians-turned-actors go, Kris Kristofferson is up there with one of the best and most accomplished, having proven himself almost as talented onscreen as he was onstage.
We say ‘almost’ because his movie career wasn’t quite on a par with his efforts in the recording booth or on the road, which yielded him three competitive Grammys from 13 nominations to go along with his lifetime achievement award, not to mention a spot in virtually every country music hall of fame.
On the big screen, Kristofferson claimed a Golden Globe for his performance in 1976’s A Star Is Born, which was arguably even more impressive when he spent almost the entire duration of the production on a collision course with Barbra Streisand, made more complex by the fact they’d previously been lovers.
His filmography may not have been littered with the same kind of consistent acclaim and awards recognition as his music, but that didn’t prevent him from making memorable contributions to Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Marvel’s Blade, and even Heaven’s Gate, which has gradually clawed its way toward respectability after heralding the end of ‘New Hollywood’.
However, A Star Is Born wasn’t the only Kristofferson-starring picture to release in ’76, and while Vigilante Force was terrible, it wasn’t the one that left him with his head in his hands. Instead, that notoriety fell to writer and director Lewis John Carlino’s adaptation of Yukio Mishima’s The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea.
It was a relatively steamy affair, but it wasn’t the sex scenes that filled the actor with regret. In an effort to drum up more publicity for the R-rated erotic drama, he and Miles engaged in a salacious Playboy photo spread, with the duo’s poses for the publication decidedly more titillating than anything they were doing to each other in the movie.
“Man, that is just about the worst thing I have ever done,” Kristofferson lamented. “My face where it is for ten million people. Rita’s fit to be tied; all her friends are calling up. People hate me for this; they say I degraded myself and my profession.” Whether that’s true or not, he did bury his face between Miles’ legs, among other things, for the entire world to see in print and in full, vivid colour.
While he maintained that he didn’t really want to do it, the star also claimed that since Miles had already promised Playboy that they’d do it, and the magazine’s photographer kept pleading with him to do it, things reached a head one night when he happened to be blazing drunk, and he finally agreed to do it.
“Man, I gotta learn to say no,” he reflected. “I didn’t want to do that stuff with Sarah, but for these pictures, we were acting our roles in the movie, and I got into it, you know?” If that wasn’t bad enough, his then-wife Rita Coolidge’s father wasn’t best pleased, either. “Rita’s dad is a Baptist minister, for Chrissake!”
