Burt Reynolds in conversation with Hadley Freeman | Guardian Live

thank thank you all so much for coming tonight so just to give you a quick idea of the evening it'll be 45 minutes to chat me and mr. Burt Reynolds here and then I'll open it up to the floor for some questions from you guys we're going to talk about anything we talked about last night oh I promise not to mention that bird stop it and then we're gonna come back to some more questions between the two of us when I expect he'll flirt with me quite a good deal I will I will now it feels completely ridiculous to introduce a man as legendary as Burt Reynolds so I'm gonna keep this pretty short Burt was born in Michigan and grew up in Florida where he still lives and dreamed as a kid of being a professional footballer but when he was at college injuries scuppered that plan injuries that still plagued him to this day as you can see and so he turned tentatively towards acting but despite thinking that he could never be good enough to turn this into a career and in fact delayed going to Hollywood because he thought he still wasn't good enough at it Reynolds is still one of the most successful actors of all time for five straight years he was the number one box office draw in Hollywood and a record no star has beaten since and in fact was only equaled previously by Bing Crosby from hosting the Tonight Show to singing with Dolly Parton Holly Parton - winning Golden Globes - acting in such classics as deliverance Cannonball Run Smokey and the Bandit and Boogie Nights Burt has achieved pretty much everything possible that anyone in the entertainment business dreams of and he always looked like he was having the time of his life doing it he's now written a brilliant follow-up to his 1994 autobiography my life called but enough about me in which he shares his memories of the people who shaped his life and work giving the reader a tour of some of the greatest entertainers of the 20th century from Betty Davis to Frank Sinatra to Clint Eastwood and just like the best of Burt's work it is both very moving and extremely entertaining and I'm really looking forward to talking to him about it all tonight so ladies and gentlemen Burt Reynolds thank you thank you now one of the amazing things about this book which is really so much fun and I really cannot recommend it enough to all of you is the way you structure it with the chapters you know so paying respects to your different friends over the years from Johnny Carson Clint Eastwood was part of that you just wanted to talk about other people rather than yourself yes do you know I mean there was some people in my life that was so instrumental in my career and so wonderful to me and I felt that anybody can write a Mommy Dearest but I actually love my mother very much and so I didn't have a book there my father was tough tough on me and tough on everybody else he was the chief police he arrested me once what were you doing I was fighting and he threw me in jail and and then he came by a couple hours later Eddie he said this you could go your father showed up you can go your father you can go your father and he looked at me and said your father is not here and I said but I'm your son he said not tonight so I stayed there for three nights and every drunk he arrested he threw on top of me and I had to know I had some interesting roommates for a while how old were you then 18 and it was a good lesson did you stop fighting no well I stopped fighting in his jersey no in this book there are amazing amazing anecdotes and actually Burt a mutual acquaintance of ours had told me a long time ago that you have the best Anika it's of anyone on this planet now I don't want to give anything away here but just a few of them there's driving Fred Astaire to a secret date you're turning down Greta Garbo when she wanted to bring him home with her how did you choose grit I didn't know was dreading our otherwise I wouldn't have down but I she was beautiful and extraordinary though but she had a blouse on it was canary yellow and she didn't have anything on underneath it and and I remember talking to her sort of and she said my mouth is up here just burn it she said don't call me ma'am and would you give me a ride home I said I would love to give you a ride home I don't have a car but I'll give her a ride home anyway and a taxi would go together if you like and we did and she was charming and mysterious as you would expect and just before she got out of the taxi I said I'm sorry you didn't tell me your name and she said my name is Greta Garbo and I said my name is bud what an idiot I am you were only about 22 or something at the dues all right yeah going on 12 it was just was bad timing I I told that story many times about what an idiot I was and I got a note from her saying you were an idiot I thought maybe she was going to give me a second chance you know but didn't happen were you ever starstruck I mean the list of people in this book that makes me starstruck I wasn't starstruck I was very enamored of people that succeeded in this business because it's so tough to do well and I I liked so many actors that I respected and like Fred Astaire was such a gelling my gosh she was the kindest classiest man I ever knew he was at my house one night we had a party and I had very good parties and we had a little band there and my other closest friend was Charles Durning now you probably don't know this but Charles Durning besides being the fourth most decorated soldier in World War two was a fabulous dancer and he he taught dancing at Fred Astaire dance to you which you know he had them all over everywhere and he said to Fred I used to work for you and Fred said you did he said yes I was a teacher at your dance studio and he said I wonder if you'd do me a great favor and Fred said anything and he said were you dance with being spread said if I leave and Charles said of course and they dance and everybody got off the floor to watch this two amazing people Charles who was rather large and and Fred who was so thin was scary but somehow they look better than him and Ginger and it was just wonderful it was wonderful to seems was one of those magic nights that you you'll never see again I I love Charlie so much but of the more that night than any other night because he lived his dream he was dancing the man he idolized and they were magical together twirling about Charles looked like he was on air and fred was so happy to be dancing with this great actor a great actor not just a good actor and when they finished the dance everybody applauded of course and they started to walk off and everybody said no more and more and more and I walked over to them and I said you don't have to dance anymore if you don't want to and Fred said ah I'm in very good shape I'd be glad to dance more if mr. Durning would be happy today some more and Charles said I'll dance with you forever well I get tears down I got tears of Meijer and they played I don't know what they played something but they danced for another hours nobody left and it was such a great night was it quite painful in some ways writing the book so many of these friends of yours have have since passed away yes especially the last the last year it seems I've lost what every month good well you know I've lost great pals in the stud business you know hal needham who was the best it was passed on and i lost many many actors that i cared so much about the great Betty Davis who was my bug cuss luck sailor but what a lady I was afraid to get in an argument with her because I know she could whip me but she was wonderful and kind she hated Joan Crawford you know yeah they say they say she hated her so much that when I met Joan Crawford I hated her I mean I don't know it just spilled over me I was afraid she was gonna say something nice to me and I'd have to be nice back and Betty had quite a reaction when Joan died which he described in the book very amusingly yes well I can't say the word she said but it was pretty awful she walked up to me and said well look Blank died today and I thought well it could only be one person now one actor who you didn't get on so well with was Marlon Brando and I was interested that in fact you grew your mustache originally so that you would so people would stop saying that you look like Marlon Brando yes I did i I he had a moustache once really not as good as yours I told everybody it didn't look good he was a strange man he didn't like me at all and I didn't try to look like him I didn't try to act like him I mean I thought it was the best actor in the world but he when he finally talked to me which was took forever I was it introduced to him and he went then I said that was a very enlightening he had the finest actor in the world Abena I'm thrilled to meet you and so that will stuck it says same for you which hurt a little bit um and it was in my house I thought well I can throw him out but people are so thrilled that he's here you know so I had to do anything except know look like an idiot he he just wasn't very nice and you know he redid a picture people there were acting lame it drove them crazy because he never said anything I was in script you know and made it a little difficult for them to improvise every word you know and I tried that a couple of pictures and people kept stopping as they were you're down on script I said well Marlon Brando and they didn't care well no matter what Marlon Brando says I mean the truth is wide you know what really comes across in the book but also what we all know from your films Burt is that you somehow appeal to all audiences I remember reading a quote once I think it's from Jon Voight in an interview with you saying that you were the man's man who appealed to women and there's this great quote in your book from one of your friends saying that you were an actor who appealed to the southerners and to black to black audiences but also to the KKK somehow which is quite quite as bad do you think it was your comedy that managed to manage to help you bridge all these different audiences I think so yeah comedy reaches everybody and I I didn't like things about the south I hate it I really hit but I couldn't do anything about it except what I did was just to try like hell to have them in pictures but parts that weren't written for them but it still isn't right you know it still isn't and it won't ever be right I'm afraid in our lifetime were you are you surprised about that do you think things would have progressed further by now terms of race your dedication I really did I thought we'd certainly have a lot more black directors writers producers I also felt like we got a man like Ossie Davis who was wonderful brilliant and kind brilliant and and every sense of the word as an actor as a thespian he was given the credit that he should have been given he passed on without people knowing he was one of our very best be you celebrate him in the book give him a whole chapter yes yeah righting that wrong yeah now you were initially known when you started out for drama particularly obviously deliverance which I'm sure everyone here has seen but part of your comic appeal was that you just always looked like you were having so much fun whether you were on The Tonight Show or Smokey and the Bandit were you actually having that much fun or was this part of a role you were playing no I'm afraid I was having them I loved the business that I loved acting and so many actors are I was so proud to be on screen with them there were some that I I thought were a little painting the butt but you know I could only try to get them out the door you have this great anecdote from when you were making boogie nights about when you were rehearsing with Mark Wahlberg which I hope you don't mind me reading here is I like Mark at one point though he was having a tough time which made him do strange things he got very method II and was walking around the set with a fake erection all the time so I stopped him and said what the hell are you doing you're a good actor just act I I must say I was impressed with his dedication now you suggest in the book that you possibly had too much fun and that maybe this hurt your career I mean you were the Playboy of the late 70s and early 80s oh well that's what they said I don't think so but I had an awfully good time and I had some wonderful wonderful women who were kind to me and put up with me but I can't say that that I was the Playboy of the Western world by any stretch of the imagination I was just having a good time and the pictures that I was doing at the time were full of that kind of guy and I think that how do I one time I I was having such a good time that I this picture I can't remember what it was but I was driving out of the shot and I drove up by the camera I just looked like this and I looked over and then drove on and I thought you just broke the fourth wall you can't do that and and that I got out of the car I said you want to do that again and rekka said I loved it I mean I loved that suggest like I broke the wall I mean I looked at the audience and smiling said you've been looking at the audience and winking for 25 years I'm not going to stop it it works so I said okay now you say in your book you actually only like five of your movies which are those five movies well it's hard remember five now i think i think that the one I did with Candice Bergen and Joao Kleber was good film and I was almost autobiographical in some way um Candice was so smart I don't know how to handle a woman that smart and then Jill was amazing she was so good it was that picture starting over there was for me the the most fun was and I think it showed on screen was along as yours yeah because I I was doing what I always wanted to do which was to play football and get paid for it I did get paid for it but it wasn't supposed to be legal then when I was getting paid for it I mean in the South they did that cage line and and that was I thought it was a good picture because the director had played ball and he knew what he was doing and Bob Aldridge and I and we did several films together and I I thought those two come to mind i I know there must be three others but I can't remember what they are now one movie that you're not so keen on which I think might surprise some people here is Boogie Nights and yeah in fact you say in the book you've never actually seen it all I don't like those people I feel like they're they're due for a very hard time because if they try to do a legitimate film they're not going to be able to nobody's going to cast them and it's sad they're very sad people to me how and I they show up a lot of times I've said there's one guy in particular that is really disgusting and he always comes over it and starts to put his arm around and I said don't do that and he pulls his hand back I said first of all I already taken a shower today I'm gonna take another one right now and keep away from me and why are you there and I think I got louder and louder until finding four or five people came over and said you or me I I think you better leave and he did I mean it's it's a one-way street to go down and if you go down that road as an actor you you're finished so is the subject matter that you didn't like rather than the director I hated subject matter I also didn't like the directors you've got some pretty strong words about him in the book along with some other people you're very very honest about people I hope so I promised that this book would be honest and that that if you're going to call people charming and wonderful and there were people that were so helpful to me that I hope I paid them back in the book but there were also people that were real sob and they deserved to be called that you're discreet about one area though there was that terrible period in the 90s when there were rumors about your health yeah and you say how some of your friends so-called friends then dropped you yessiree and you don't name them though you're discreet on that front it was that too painful to go back to I I was accused of having AIDS and because I had broken my jaw in three places somebody hit me with a chair and they picked up the wrong chair the chair that was a breakaway chair they did pick up they picked up a real chair in it strong chair and it hit me right here and it I heard some horrible crack the bone that bent down there and I I knew I cracked it and I want to I went ahead like an idiot and and finished the picture but it was unfortunately it was with Clinton who I love like a brother and I was unfair to him that I would do that go ahead and finish the picture I should have said I I'm in trouble and we should I should just drop out now but I didn't I you know you try to be true and finish and all that but I shouldn't have and it was up it was bad it was bad in every way it was bad for me too I wasn't helping my friend I was hurting him and it also meant that we'd never do a picture together again because we ruined I'd won the one chance we had now is it also truly because you talk a little bit more about Boogie Nights in the book is it true you then turned down Magnolia afterwards that you didn't want to work with Paul Thomas Anderson no no no I died by Turk shoot with him and that was a it was enough for me one of your lines that you say in the book which I like is that the chart of my career looks like a heart attack it's gone up and down so much what's what's the hardest thing about coming down after you've been as high as you've been mr. number one box office drop you uh there's a line of people that were lined up just to shake your hand and tell you how terrific you are what they'll good you are and all that stuff and they left they left in droves and so you have to march on you know you have to go on somehow those were rough couple years in every way for me for mine was especially rough for my son who was hearing all kinds of stuff at school and I tried to tell my dad but he wasn't interested in that kind of talk anyway and it was just terrible there's a terrible time I was I didn't handle it well my usual way I struck out nice I mean I probably got it in more fights during that period and my weight was dropping you know so fast that a broom could whip me by that I mean a guy that was in that kind of shape that looked like a broom a man could have killed me it was just a terrible time you write very movingly about your son in the book Quinton yeah and about your relationship with him and it just sounds very sad in the chapter when you write about him that he lives so far away from you but one thing that's very touching I find is that you're very open about how much you love him which is the opposite as you say of how your dad was with you your dad was very closed off did you do that deliberately did you decide I want to be a different kind of father well my dad just couldn't say I love you you know he didn't know how to do it I'm the closest he got was I'm proud of you which and Bert talk big Bert that means I love you I loved him so much I ate inside and I didn't know what to do I didn't know how to tell him that I was not sick it was just like I broke my jaw I couldn't eat so I was getting thinner and thinner and and the parks weren't there and have any parts for 132-pound hero I was Quinton you want it to be different I'm guessing he was wonderful as I knew would be he was sensational he and he would come up to me and grabbed me and say don't let those SOPs get to you pop they don't know what to talking about and I thought how the mouths of babes comes wisdom I should pay attention to now in the book as well as you know the fame the famous people that you devote chapters to you devote chapters to the people in your life we've met so much including your father your son and also various women in your life including Sally Field and Dinah Shore this morning had you did you get any feedback from particularly Sally or your son after they were read these chapters because they're very moving about them both Dinah of course who was so brilliant and classic boy she brought the word life she was wonderful and you guys also broke the mold a little then because she was older than you by quite a few years which was unusual back in the early 70s yeah I never do I actually never knew how old she was and I I don't want to know all I knew was that we had a great time together I know do you thought you'd spend your life with her even back then I was ready mm-hmm she kept saying no why do you think she did that surprises me because in the end it you write that it was you who left her I did because I I felt like I was I was pushing her none wanted it I didn't want her to be obligated to stay with me this is good it sounded like one of those horrible shows and sorry to cheer it up a bit I'm sorry I wanted this to be fun instead it's beginning to we'll get back to this we'll get back to this story shall we so we open it up to the audience even if you guys want to ask some questions now yes get it out of this trough yes like director G works with us matter if we ask about directing which I love to do and I rather direct than anything I think that's where I'll probably end up doing hopefully and hopefully I'm going to script it's wonderful and and I have some great actors who don't pay attention to that stuff it's written and and will do a good movie and they'll help me get away from a lot of painful stuff well thank you for asking yes well you know when I was working with Dom DeLuise I couldn't help it he bade me get the giggles and I I get the giggles and it sounds like a hyena and then it gets real high and oh god it's the crew like it but you know you got a worked up time and and then well I guess I guess what what I'll hopefully do is I'll get a script that is it enough out not comedy it'll just be a but a wonderful script and I think I could do something build surprise people and it'll be touching and you know because I I'm be getting a sound like soap opera so if I can get a really good soap opera direct I don't that sounds silly but I really beam that some of the best movies in the world or soap up yes I wants to ask was it as much fun making cannibal one as it was watching air please ask me that again was it as much fun making cannibal one as it was no Jen borin yes it was a hoot it was really a lot of fun and it was so much fun I we shouldn't have been paid I would never say that to the producers but it was just a hoot and the people we had you know Sinatra said that he was going to do but he need that crap for he all that and then he ended up dude the picture and saying do you need me to stay a couple more days I mean I mean he was having a great time and it was obvious that we were what he thought the Rat Pack should be I had this group of people that were sensational and fun and Dom Dom DeLuise was sensational I mean nobody realized what a great actor he was and you know he was a nobody knows this but he was huge director in Opera and he directed a lot of operas and he was very much into bands as an opera director speaking of Sinatra someone who worked with you once told me that I should ask you about your stories about Sinatra's bodyguards I'm not quite sure what this means what does it mean something to you that people that were his bodyguards thought that I was what no someone told me that you have amazing anecdotes about Sinatra and his body I just I'm not there amazing night I remember one night I was with Dinah and we went to this restaurant and then we came in and I could see all the way across the room like the bars largest auditorium and Sinatra was at the other end setting and he went like this and Dinah said I think Frank wants us to go over there so well we're not going over there we don't work here after we get to eating maybe we'll go this so we went shut down and after a while one of his guys came over to me poochy he had Poochie East and Poochie West this was Poochie West and he said mr. s would like you to come over and said I have a drink I said tell mr. s we will after we finish our dinner and our dessert little cub I said you over here telling that I said yeah that's what I said so he went over and Frank went like this I remember he was telling me when and I said Dinah I think he delivered the message and I don't I think we're in trouble but what the heck I'm not going running over there and acting like the midea you know and she said well he's a good man to have on your side so well I I hope he's on your side because I know how long you've been friends but we can't go running over there because he asked us to come right over and she said all right and we have to understand this is one of the nicest people on the earth and so we finished our dinner and our dessert and we went over to the table and he was very much charming you mean you know when he wanted to be charming it was frightening to me just so we're here take my money take my wallet take everything you know I'm so thrilled to be talking to you he was we'll never see his kind again not just in the way he acted but that voice on my radio in a car I go to the Sinatra station and I decide to that's what I listen to while driving and it's better than anything it's a Sinatra hi it's one of the things that comes across in the book is that you know you lived through such a special era in Hollywood I mean these people you were hanging out with Cary Grant Monroe Sinatra I mean you don't see that kind of that kind of class and even though you never will where is you going to find a Cary Grant please I mean I I was so crazy about him listening to him talk I thought it's a man doing imitation of Cary Grant he was so funny and charming and wonderful and witty and I went to the racetrack he was a little tight with bunny and it was about ten of us at this table he said thou everybody put a dollar everybody put that down in the middle of like this yes and so it was the pile of ones and so I gave that to the guy and I said look I can't bet a dollar it makes me crazy the object be $20 don't tell him but he didn't slip it in and that well the horse won so he came back with this huge pile of money and carries it but let's Jerry good we got very good look at all the money we won with that $1 bet so we proceeded to divide by money was there someone particularly who kind of impressed you then with their star quality you talk a bit in the book about what makes a movie star and when you watch Marilyn Monroe go from being you know sort of North normal-seeming person in New York's and no one recognizes her she clicks her fingers and she puts on her Marilyn Monroe nez yeah was there someone who really impressed you in that way being the kind of the epitome of that Hollywood glamour well not like Marilyn had no nobody had that the closest I would say was Cary Grant hmm a woman I I don't I don't I can't think of another woman it had what Marilyn had I mean you thought she was dumber than dirt but she was really smart and I liked being around her I thought maybe I could learn something I didn't want to learn how to be Marilyn Monroe but I thought I could learn how to just sure turn that light on get a light come on she was Maryland I would walk with her to the Actors Studio and nobody would recognize her and I said this is amazing nobody's recognized and she said Wow you will see her this isn't sure all she had do anything just to her shoulders back they went like this and within ten steps we were surrounded by people Orson Welles said it you don't want to be recognized you won't if you do you will and she did and she was I I like people so I'm not you know I'm not upset when people do or don't you know how about you do you think I yes Jon Voight says you know you played this role of the man's man so well in the 70s in the 80s I played this role no you played this you that was your persona okay well I can I go on playing that night do you think there's someone do you see anyone around today and you think oh yeah that's the younger version of me do you see anyone who's like a new Burt Reynolds or is that an impossible role to fill well I don't think it's a role the boy I think it's I'm very happy in my life and I'm the luckiest man on the face of the earth I have had a wonderful life other guys that would like to have this lecture can they I don't know I mean I've been so blessed you know God has blessed me with luck and a lot of lot of great friends I don't know what the secret is if there is a secret I you know does it look at but a wonderful crowd come to hear this idiot talk and I'm so blessed as you're here I I can't tell you how good it makes me feel thank you let's get some more from the yes sir is there one are there any roles that you regret not taking that you were offered oh yes there's about three or four that I was just truly an idiot do not do people said well why didn't you do them and the answer is I don't know I think I didn't think I could I didn't think it would do it justice I didn't like there maybe their approach to this material it's one in particular that you say causes you pain that you didn't take that James Bond well only in the wallet it doesn't hurt me artistically that I didn't do James Bond I mean I don't think an American can be bombed but I'm sure that there are actors in America that could pull it off Sean Connery was a my favorite Bond and he was he was a coal miner no rough tough guy not not somebody who you think of as James Bond the perfect James Bond in terms of his where he came from is Roger Moore Roger Moore comes from money and he's very witty and charming and I think he probably does order martinis of wait James Bond and is it true you were offered the part of Michael Corleone a as well in Godfather no that's not true okay oh that's just I wish I would have taken it mmm but Travis Bickle was that true the taxi driver was that true yes that's true that was just stupidity on my part and the one for this month that I wish you had taken his hand solo that would have been amazing the one for this month dude my right now I have one a month sorry I meant in terms of new movies coming up would have been in the new Star Wars well I don't know I I I haven't if I've been offered that I didn't know but but a fire my agent could have at least told me I turned it with my son who's 13 and we worked our way through each other to his mates and they loved it showed old smokey the bandit films and the next one we're onto the long the longest yard have you got any stories I can share with him so excite when I was with Burt Reynolds he said this can you tell you again so this man has been watching your films with his sons the Kennett Cannonball Run and Smokey and the Bandit film Longest Yard do you have any specific anecdotes from any of those films that you'd like to pass on to this man that he can share with his son well uh did your son with you uh well I can only say that I had a lot of fun making them son I think of the audience knows when the actors are having fun and it's real or it isn't really nobody's that good an act I'm not anyway I mean I'm not good enough to fake fun I he's room having a great time and you know it on I'm trying to get out of there i I've done a lot of films that weren't a lot of fun to make but I made them I'll confess that I did a couple of films that I get for the money and there's a lot of money and I enjoyed every penny and one of the reasons I love Smokey and the Bandit so much as you can see you and Sally falling in love on screen yes you can that must have been an incredibly special film to make see how much the two of you looking at each other it was and she's amazing you'd think after a guy says he loves you and I hope we can make another movie together or something that you'd hear from them I haven't heard a word so I guess I'm not going to hear can't just tell people any more than that told them you need to call her don't wait for her to call you well from a woman I'll take that advice call yes sir please wait for the microphone so everyone can hear the question um I was just wondering why you weren't in smoking the band in three apart from there it was because I think we'd run that course is nothing worse than smoking in a van and a three-inch book in the man is horrible gonna have it you know we just ran it out there wasn't a whole lot left to do and Gleason was not sure you wanted to do another one and I would want to make it without him I don't know I think we we just had a great time that was one of those magic films that you're in and you're you're just having the best time and I would go to rushes and laugh you know like like I wasn't in the film I just laugh I thought this is a terrific group of people that are having a great time and I did had a wonderful time especially with Jackie and who would you like to play you in a film about your life who would you like to play you in a film about your life oh gosh poor soul um someone with a lot of energy yeah I think so somebody with a lot of energy and a sense of humor about themselves does it take themselves or seriously somebody that's waiting for something to drop out of the sky that is a script that people doesn't think about you doing and you do it and it's great for you and it's great for them you know I've had deployed fans over the years that I'd like to do something for you people that would be really special you know I hope I get offered that I think Bert is not feeling quite up to signing books I'm afraid today but um the book itself is amazing and when you say you want to do something for the fans and give something to the fans I really do that this book is that you Shep you share so much of yourself in it as well as giving these amazing stories only you know you haven't heard a hundredth of them tonight really in this boat there they are a lot of fun thank you when you say who could play I would kind of think George Clooney could play you in the story of your life you know I'm a big fan of his I think he's first of all gorgeous I think he's too handsome to play me but he's gorgeous and and he's a wonderful actor he does comedy terrific drama terrific he's just terrific you have one more question yes you're going to be 18 next baby which is fantastic and but you've abused your body through most of it through football and stunt work and being inactive did his own stunts what keeps you going and what is your how do you put your do you put your longevity down to what's your secret I had loved working out which is kind of crazy but I do work out and I want to be shape I want to look like somebody that's hits the waitin and at my house quarter of a mile to the front gate so I walk to that and I walk back I don't run but I walk and I try to stay in shape so that I'm offered something that's 10 years younger that I should be playing I can do it I've always felt that my athletic ability has played a big part in my success and there's another bird that is great athlete Lancashire what an athlete and but you know he was in the circus and he was a catcher and boy if you're a catcher you want a stud swinging back and forth and you want a guy grab you and if I had to swing out and have somebody grab me I'd want to be Burt Lancaster you live not far from where you grew up now is that right in Florida yes and you're still friends with your school friends as well as love people my best friend is my best buddy from junior Iceland do you feel you've always stayed close to home even though you've gone to unimaginable Heights in your life you've always stay close to where you grew I don't I'm sorry to say this by to my colleague I really don't I don't like that whole you know you see people how you doing I'm doing great my last picture ghosts whatever I'm doing one now I think it's gonna be the biggest picture ever made but you know and they go on and on and on and they don't you know they don't stop to talk about anything other than them and their career and I don't care about their career I'm happy for them if they're happy but I didn't stop you to hear about your life story and it's totally different than it you think it is it's not like you hope it would be where there's some really nice there's some really nice people and the people that that I like enormous ly but not for listening to their life did you find it full of phonies because you're a very plain speaking straight talking kind of guy that was that part of the problem was that it's a big problem yes I think the worst part about Hollywood is Hollywood if you if you go there and you are expecting to find out the real what's the real so-and-so like you're not going to find out that way mm-hmm they don't let you see that part yes Don is that which of the films did you enjoy most making smoke in the bandits or the end because she's funny in the end down in the hospital yes which one did I like the best like making the best which the one I like making the best was smoking too bad it's not the reason was I can bandit yes bogey the Bandit because I was falling in love with the leading lady and I was falling in love with a Trans Am and I was falling in love with life it was just really good for me at that time that scene of you in the hammock when it first pans on you when you're laughing yeah it just seems like pure joy at that point like that cat was about what was that was real you can't laugh like that because somebody tells you to it's just joy and when I opened my eyes and looked at little eNOS and big eNOS I just started laughing it was it was ridiculous that they were in their little clothes and stuff and Hal did a great job Hal Needham my friend who is a stunt man was now suddenly very important director yes what was it like to prepare for singing roles in musicals like come at long last love and the best little whorehouse in Texas well I I was petrified of singing dolly saber life because when I sang with dolly she kept telling me how good I was she lied but I did it anyway and and she was so supportive and wonderful and well as valley's dolly I mean there'll never be another one like that Wow she's just terrific and great to be with great fun and smart smart businesswoman ever been to Dollywood you have never met so many partings in your life every little venue is run by a part and she's taken care of all of them and it's wonderful and how has it been with a new generation of fans you've got I don't sure some of you have seen but in Archer the cartoon series I think you even appeared at comic-con with I chose that right yes I mean that's a whole new world for you really this yes it is I very flattered I loved it it was fun it's crazy world but I loved it yes sir first of all hello how are you good can I ask you but working with two M great comedy directors you give two great comic performances in films directed by Mel Brooks and Woody Allen and on the face of it you and Woody Allen seem like an odd mix but it works really really well I'm just wondering what was it like working with him first of all like what was it like a phone call phone allows you to play a sperm in his movie and also Mel Brooks traumas Mel Brooks like well they're totally different and their approach and surprisingly intellectual it's not surprising I guess that one of them is very intellectual but then I don't I don't get an intellectual approach to comedy I feel that that's not something you can discuss you it's so organic and I can't remember the way that I was told by a wonderful wrestler fighter a rowdy roddy piper who i love and he said that wrestling is exposure acting is implosion I didn't know what that meant but it sounded great but you know it's true in all of ways that it is that way I loved working with those guys those guys meaning wrestlers there you know it's I was a stunt man and I consider myself still a messed up man what's left of me what I haven't broken and when I do the stunts I feel really good I feel like I'm I got mine I worked today I I deserve to be paid because I broke a couple things you know and I I love I love that part of it being an athlete it's just great fun great for me and good for the audience yes sir yeah talking about stunts one of your great performances in deliverance you have these three actors in there I think three or four and then you great-looking extra who steals - so do you have what sort of memories do you have from the film I feel it's the best film I made and I had a couple of wrecks and I mean when I went over the falls first of all we sent a dummy over looked awful I said to John that looks awful let me do it and he said you want to do it I said yeah I can at least make it look real and he said okay and so they had a way of stopping the water from the beginning of the the river up there and they stopped it and I went out and they one of the riggers pounded spikings of the rock put a rope around it and I wrapped it around my wrist and I said down when I go like this roll it and then I'm gonna it's the water's going to come over me and I'm gonna let go and I said okay and then I heard this sound that had never heard before or sense of the water coming and I thought maybe this is not a good idea and that came and it went over me and I went no God hoping I didn't see my beggar bralette and they rolled in and I let go now what happens is you go over the falls but you're not going to go I said I'd go here and then I go there I turn it flip and go here and him yeah you go where wants you to go and it took be the first thing that went they I hit a rock and my tailbone crack and you haven't heard or seen pain like that and then I went and hit another Rock and my knee which is already but operated on four times got shattered and then I went and then I hit a couple of things and my ankle got busted another one well to make a long story long I I cracked everything that wasn't already cracked and then I hit the water and I remembered the guy said if you get in trouble go to the bottom and you can survive and I was in trouble I could swim straight hit because it was pulling me back so I went down to the bottom and he's right you get you to write on except you didn't tell me that shoots you out like a torpedo I went out and it was it tore every piece of clothes I had up it tore my shoes off my socks all my underwear it just everything was gone and they said they saw this 30 year old man who was in shape best shape of his life go over the waterfall and then they looked down the river and they saw this nude old man crawling up on the rocks and stumbling back and crying and they rushed down and tried to help me but I didn't want anybody to touch because everything hurt and I I can't tell you what a stupid idea but I couldn't wait to see the rushes so I saw the rushes the next day and what it looked like was a dummy going home I don't think we can end on a better story than that we're going to wrap it up for tonight mr. Reynolds thank you so much this has been I became the typhoon submarine liking Red October the film and I got the Admiral and all that in his guise and he saw me in Wendy oh it's him could you tell

Channel: Guardian Live

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Id: _TPZVBMW9mY

Length: 73min 25sec (4405 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 11 2015