What I'd Do Differently: Burt Reynolds

[kscarbel2]

Car & Driver  /  April 2016

Nobody was a bigger star than Burt Reynolds in the '70s. And his biggest film was 1977's Smokey and the Bandit. Now 80, his recent memoir is But Enough About Me.

 

C/D: When you were growing up in Florida, how important were cars to kids back then? Did you have a car?

BR: Actually it was a huge status symbol. Our family really didn’t have a car; we had my dad’s police cruiser. Later he got a Buick, and that’s what I was driving when I had a wreck. I’m lucky it was as big and strong as it was, because that Buick is what saved my life. I had an Indian Scout motorcycle during high school, but I never could take it to school. My dad would sneak out at night and pull the spark-plug wires.

C/D: Stuntman Hal Needham was your friend, roommate, and director. How did that work?

BR: I had known Hal for a while by the time he moved in, so I was sure we’d get along well, and we did. He’d go off and do his gigs and I would do mine, and when we were lucky we got to work on the same ones. Smokey and the Bandit was the first picture he directed, and I knew he could handle it. I had just directed Gator, and he saw my style and used that as a pattern.

C/D: Did Smokey and the Bandit feel like a hit while you were filming it?

BR: It was a bit of a lark when I agreed to do it, and I knew we’d have fun if we could get Jackie Gleason. But then we got Sally Field onboard and it changed the entire dynamic. About a third of the way into filming, I was in the car with Sally and there was this little moment where we kind of looked at each other, and then we both turned and looked over at Hal. He gave us a thumbs up and said, “Yeah!” And we kind of knew there was some magic going on.

C/D: Is it hard to play a character like Bo “Bandit” Darville who, many people assume, is like you?

BR: Funny you should ask that, because I’m really much more like Phil Potter from [the 1979 film] Starting Over. People do think I’m the Bandit, and I’m a lot more serious than that. But he helped me lighten up a little bit. He loves country, and I love jazz. He is a scofflaw while I totally respect it since my dad was the chief of police when I was growing up.

C/D: You sold a lot of Trans Ams. Did you get a free car?

BR: Trans Am sales went up 70 percent after Smokey and the Bandit, and I was promised a free car every year for life by the Pontiac president. A few years later, the new Trans Am didn’t show up, and I was wondering what happened. So, just to make sure there wasn’t some kind of an accident with shipping or something or maybe it got stolen, I made a call and it turned out Pontiac had a new president. He got on the phone and told me: “That was the old president. He liked your movies. I’m the new one. I don’t like your movies!”

C/D: You have reportedly said that filming 1983’s Stroker Ace was a turning point in your career. Was it a mistake?

BR: It’s strange the way things get taken out of context. I love Stroker Ace. I love the whole team. Jim Nabors really stole the show, and Ned Beatty, well I’ve made more of my movies with Ned Beatty than anybody else. The mistake was not doing Terms of Endearment because I was scheduled to do Stroker. All I had to do was ask Hal to wait. That was a mistake.

C/D: How do Gator McKlusky from White Lightning (1973) and Gator (1976) relate to Smokey’s Bo Darville?

BR: Gator was a criminal and a felon, but he had a good heart—he’s probably a cousin to Bo. Bo was not a felon and definitely never wanted to hurt anybody—the final scene confirms that. He confesses to Buford T. Justice that he is right behind him. Gator McKlusky would not have done that.

C/D: You’ve done a lot of car movies. Which is the best one?

BR: Definitely Smokey—it was so much fun. With Smokey II we added Dom DeLuise into the mix. So that’s a very close second. The first Cannonball was really something, but the second one had so many cameos it really was not as much fun on set. I knew that whole thing had run its course at that point.

C/D: In The Longest Yard, did you all have fun beating up that poor Citroën SM?

BR: That was a great car. I hated to do that, but I had fun driving it. That opening scene is oftentimes overlooked, and I think it qualified Paul Crewe as a car guy.

C/D: What would you have done differently?

BR: Not a thing. Well maybe spend more money . . . but like I say at the end of my book: Nobody had more fun than me.

[kscarbel2]

 

 

[m16ty]

While I liked Burt and Jerry Reed, Jacky Gleason made that movie. 

[kscarbel2]

52 minutes ago, m16ty said:

While I liked Burt and Jerry Reed, Jacky Gleason made that movie. 

He really did. An indescribably great American actor, Jackie Gleason was very unique.......he dictated his own terms. One of his last efforts, I enjoyed him in "Nothing in Common" (His co-star Eva Marie Saint, another old name, was also good).