Jean Walton

This collection consists of an interview with actor Jackie Crossland conducted by Jean Walton in November 2011 at the Rhizome Cafe in Vancouver, BC. This interview was part of Jean's research for her book Mudflat Dreaming (New Star Books, 2018). 

"In the fall of 2011, I was in Vancouver interviewing people for a book on the early seventies on the fringes of Vancouver, in particular, people having some connection to the Maplewood Mudflats (bulldozed an burned out in 19710 as well as a working class neighbourhood in Surrey, on the other bank of the Fraser. Since the Mudflats squatters were involved in Robert Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller (they helped build the set, bringing the aesthetics of their squatters shacks onto the screen), I happened to interview Jackie Crossland, a Vancouver actress who had been hired by Altman to play one of the prostitutes in the film. Jackie and I met for at least two hours and talked and talked about all manner of things, including her early life, her arrival in Vancouver, her slow process of coming out, eventually her career in theatre and the arts in Vancouver in the 80s and thereafter. She and her partner Nora Randall turn out to have been movers and shakers in the queer theatre scene in Vancouver. I was saddened to learn that Jackie died within a couple months of our interview of a cancer that must have been diagnosed not long after we had met." -Jean Walton