Brandneues Interview - Stand: 14.04.2011

Burt Reynolds remembers his career as retrospectives loom

When you’ve been in show business for 50 years, the homages to your body of work are inevitable.

Such is the case for Burt Reynolds, whose career will be feted this weekend in suburban Naperville and Woodridge.

“I was just very flattered that they wanted to do this. I suppose there comes a time when they do a retrospective to just ask why the hell did you do it for so long?,” the actor says with a chuckle. The films to be screened include “Deliverance,” “Cannonball Run,” “The Longest Yard,” and “Smokey and the Bandit.”

Reynolds, 75, talked to the Sun-Times from his Florida home.

Q. You did most of your own stunt work, throughout your career?

A. Anything they needed for the job, I did it. If they were planning to hire two guys, one to run up to the top of the building and another one to fall off, I could do both. So I got the job. I was just crazy. Every day when I get up I look at certain scars and I can go, oh ya, that’s “The Longest Yard.” That’s “Deliverance.”

Q. How much did “The Longest Yard” mean to you, in light of your college football background?

A. It was the best feeling in the world to do that film I finally got to do what I always wanted to: play football and get paid for it. To be surrounded by guys like Ray Nitschke and at the end of the day have someone like him come up to you and say, “You’re all right kid.” I’ll take that to the bank any day.

Q. Which of the films being screened this weekend is closest to your heart?

A. “Deliverance.” Because we were crazy. The four of us (including Ned Beatty, Jon Voight and Ronny Cox) went down that river in a canoe and none of us had any clue what we were doing. [Director] Johh Boorman was so brilliant in filming those scenes. We would take seven crew members and just start down the river. And once you started shooting you had to do the film entirely in sequence. [Laughs] Boorman did tell me that in case any of us drowned he was just going to write it into the script because [there was no going back].

Q. Were you surprised by the reaction that “Deliverance” received upon its release?

A. I thought there would be some kind of reaction but nothing like what we got. It was fascinating. They had the premiere in Hollywood and I was sitting there watching the film and I saw men getting up and walking out. Never saw that before or since. I really believed it was because they couldn’t handle it.

Q. Switching gears, what appealed to you about doing “Smokey and the Bandit?”

A. My roommate at the time was [director] Hal Needham. He showed me the script and I told him, “This is the worst script I’ve ever read in my life. But I’ll do it.” But we had to get the right people, and I wanted “the king.” I said we have to go for [Jackie] Gleason (for the role of Sheriff Buford T. Justice). And we had to have Sally [Field].

Q. What was it like to have a romance on screen and off with Sally Field?

A. The emotions were exactly the same onscreen and at home. I’m sure there are movies where [those feelings] aren’t the same. [Laughs] That’s because one of the parties is married. But it can be tough if you have an arugment over breakfast and then have to go on set and [be romantic]. But not someone like Sally who is such a pro. She could kick you in the shins and then hear “roll ‘em” and be perfect. I wanted her in that picture and the studio said no because they said she wasn’t sexy. And I said, you know what sexy is? Talent is sexy. What’s sexy is watching someone do something better than anyone else in the world. She was just stunning in that film.

Q. What was it like to work with Jackie Gleason?

A. At the time he was sick with phlebitis and in a whole lot of pain, though you’d never know it. He’d send for me to come over to his [trailer]. So I’d go over and he would tell [his assistant] “Mal, get me a hamburger.” That was code for a straight-up glass of vodka. And he’d ask if I wanted one and I’d say sure. And we’d talk. He must have told me 10,000 stories and all of them funny and great. And he’d have a few “hamburgers” nd be fine and we’d go out and shoot a scene. But he’d always be different on a scene; never knew what he was going to say. So we all improvised the film. I loved that Second City sort of thing about it. We had a begining, middle and end, and we just improvised how we got there. We’d just go off script and start talking.

Q. Can’t let you go without asking about the famous Cosmopolitan photo spread. Any idea it would “haunt” your career the way it did?

A. If I had to do it today it would be a foldout for Popular Mechanics. I’ve had so many operations, and scars all over the place. It was just so silly. Never thought anyone would make such a big deal out of it otherwise I would never have done it. Actually, I was doing “The Rainmaker” in Chicago (in 1972) when it hit the stands. The show as sold out but there were lines for blocks, just people waiting to see this idiot get out of his car and walk into the theater [because of that photo]. It feels like it was centuries ago. Who cares? It really was nothing.

Quelle:
suntimes.com