Conversations with Burt Reynolds

welcome to celebrity masterclass Screen Actors Guild foundation my name is Paul Ryan I'm thrilled to be here because we had a great great night ahead for us we have a true movie star here tonight and I was thinking this afternoon if I looked in the dictionary what would I find under the word movie star so I went out and got a dictionary and I looked under looked under movie star and what did I find a picture of Burt Reynolds a picture picture of bird even Webster knew even Webster knew he's given us so many wonderful performances The Longest Yard starting over deliverance Boogie Nights for which he was nominated for an Academy Award won the Golden Globe cannibal one cannibal - we had smoking the Bandit one smoking the Bandit - he does it all he's a true movie star and he loves loves actors so put your hands together give him a big SAG Foundation welcome a celebrity master class welcome mr. Burt Reynolds [Applause] you see you I was very big in the 70s if you have any questions about that period I think a bobby was the only actor you've ever had here that had black-and-white film there were some others there were there were others I don't know if you saw the definition of movie star in the dictionary yeah that Bert that's pretty amazing I spent almost a year of my life putting those pasting I'm so happy that the DOM is here yes and stealing all the last you work with him a couple of times I believe I every chance I get yeah plus I'm making Mick dinner on the weekends but I can't tell you the number of times that I had laughed so hard that I just had to we had to wrap you know that's a wrap you know because I was gone and when I when I laugh unfortunately I sound like I'm assuming very very high it's not very masculine Sean Connery couldn't have that left no but but I love Dom and and he's the he makes me laugh well he's made me laugh in some of the most incredible places he's he's is the most funny when he's petrified and we once we went on I well one time he was on a diet because they said you're going to die and and you have to go on a diet and he he was really good we went out to dinner and he had salad and nothing and then uh and we went to the room was in Vegas my room was across the internet it was about three o'clock one morning and I III heard this commotion in the hallway and I opened the door and there was a line of waiters on top of five waiters with with trazan and he opened the door and he saw me and said wrong room didn't don't need to nail him and then another time he we were we went on this cruise there was a Charlie Durning and myself and Elizabeth Ashley do you know Elizabeth - OH evening shade and a phenomenal actress a phenomenal actor yes Agnes had got on Broadway a deeper voice in Aldo ray mmm you got a big contrast between Aldo rag and Nina sumac missing the whole contrast there and and she she was on the trip - and and was we we hadn't left the dock and she was stoned we had to keep her under control you know so I assigned down to her which was not a good thing and she may it had the munchies well well in the job the problem was that when we when we were coming back into the states she said to me was just about to land and she said I've got something in my bag I got something in my bag that cuz you know we could get you know busted we could get busted for them do you realize this is my hometown I mean I I went to high school with these these people that work here I mean how could you do this I mean what what have you got and and and and and I looked in there it was you could do two years of any of the late night police show a guy was a kind of look and she was flirting with him I got a cute boy I bet you're hung and and I said Dom you got to get us out of here and you got to get her you gotta get her past the guys you know and he he went into his real he does this real butch guy you know yeah all right take care of it and he grabbed her around the waist and he brought her right up and and walked off with her screaming you know it was amazing it was like Charles Nelson Reilly going Chuck Chuck Crowley my thought my father once said if you ever bring any of them queries around here I'm gonna shoot him a carpet for your mother and I said well dad I don't know what you're talking about and so when he met my father he went Chuck brother Charles is six four you know and and and Charles said smoking the pipe yeah my dad's yeah and he said what kind of back again yeah and he said to kinda I gotta get this down on the coast there it's sweet that's very sweet honeybee honeybee that that's honeybee that's right but that time a guy walked by I had Arabians and a guy walked by who would be played by Brad Pitt and he was leading my lead stud of the ranch and my father said that's stead of their hands right there and we breed him about 35 times a week we get $25,000 a pop and Charles said well the horse isn't bad either [Applause] strangest thing is that my we as actors are in a business that I'm so proud of the fact that we judge only Talent and we don't judge anything else we don't judge what what what you look like that what's your sexual preference what color what whatever and I'm terribly proud of that and and I I wanted I don't know why I was I was born in South I was raised in the South I don't know why I was like this but I was my father was a chief police which made it very same name as you same name as me he was big Burt and they called you buddy they called you buddy and inferred that to little Burt yeah and and and he he arrested me twice came in and said your father's here you go home and followed you home and looked right at me and said your father didn't show and and III was it was it was a tough tough love it was very tough love and and and I I we we didn't hug you know and I'm they some people called the Reynolds hug but III do did I I've got Italian somewhere in me and I I just I love people and and and special especially people in our business who have get the hell beat out of them and it's a tough tough racket and I remember that he my dad used to say does he work or he say do what you do and and he never quite got it but the interesting thing is that he lived to be 96 and his two best friends or Ossie Davis Charles Nelson Wow came full circle let's talk about buddy-buddy League because your childhood was so different because there was no preparation really for acting because I love this story when you were in I think was junior high school you recall the mullet mm-hmm and there was a big race p-nut Dick Howser the baseball player well there you know Dichter racer who de casas one of those guys in school that if he named you when you were 75 your name was booger because he named you booger you know and and people were petrified that he'd name and I used to hide you know because I was afraid and I was from this little town Rivera which is a fishing community and it wasn't until I was 40 that I found out it was Riviera i sophisticated and and we we got in trouble all all the time and I used to sit on one side of the street and before school that's where all the you know grease balls were with we had our little Harley's and 35 pounds of grease in the back over here and and and and on the other side were the guys are the letters you know a lot of letters and a lot of girls and you wanted to be on that I I thought this doesn't seem right and so a a Dick Howser who later became the manager of the New York Yankees and the manager of Kansas City and won won the World Series peanut they called it peanut and he went Justin I and Sawa no I said yes and he said I hear you're pretty fast and I went well I don't know I guess or is it can you beat Vernon Ralston and I thought well I don't know I think so and suddenly there was a crowd there like Gandhi was hundreds people and he said why don't we raise and I said all right and you said flash now there's a lot of stupid things you can do in your life but don't race a guy named flash we start walking down to the football field and I noticed that Vernon Ralston had a pair of track shoes in his back pocket I'd never seen track shoes I didn't know what they were they forgot the spikes and IIIi always ran barefoot and we got to the football field and a hundred yards when you're 14 is a long ways and I knew that if I lost that race I'd be mullet of my life yeah not pretty no and and running roles and the member houses said on your marker and pretty awesome and I went you know I had I had never had any training you kind I was from Rivera and he said go and I couldn't hear that sound I'll hear that sound the rest of my life his spikes in the grass and my little bare feet but I won I won the race great lesson for me because that's what you have to do that's what you've got to do you got a dig down and get something you ain't got furnivall soon on 99% of the time he would meet me but not that day because I wouldn't go me more and when you want that part well you want that part you got to dig down you got to go get something that you ain't news before got to find a part of yourself that people say we you you you just I you know your problem is you you're funny and wonderful at a party but you're not funny and wonderful you don't know how to do comedy at a reading I mean if George Hamilton if George Hamilton was as funny on screen as he is at a house he'd be Cary Grant George Hamilton who I love I love George Ellis is the greatest sense of humor in the world and he's absolutely Marla and absent wonderful absent wonderful wonderful man Palm Beach at Palm Beach where I went to it and I dated a girl from Palm Beach and my first date it was a girl Palm Beach and and III drove up and they the the voice came over he said yeah I said this buddy Reynolds and I'm here to pick up Mary Alice and the voice said go to the back of the house service entrance and I heard my voice say cuz I was kind of a smartass you know I'm my son is here and who is the best gentleman he's such a gentleman I don't know where he got his mother mother who did a fantastic job but I said well that's alright that's that's what I had in mind anyway and and then she said you come to the front door and and and I went to front door and there was mrs. Robinson you know and and then Mary Alice came out and and then Mary Alice's mother went analyst you go up have fun buddy and I go it's like chess and and it was my introduction to the Palm Beach Society and and also the fact that people behind those big walls that we all wanted to get behind we're so bored and unhappy and and and they were right out of you know you know life follows Monogram movies we don't we don't look at their life and and make a movie about it life that looks at movies and they go oh I say you take these old over a woman in Palm Beach and she's dancing with Ricardo multiply and you take the same you know it's the same in Reverse with the other and you think that this can't be real but it is real I mean it is real in Palm Beach it's the last they're so proud of the fact that that the last anti-semitic dialogue they think they just swell makes them is so happy to have that they they don't have any african-american help just Jews they have they have it they actually have a Jewish gardener no no is that that's there's Japanese gardeners in everywhere in the world but palm let me ask you a question because you came from a lower middle class family near Palm Beach did you want to be was that lettuce for the goal was that like thought I did yeah thought you did I thought I did I really did I thought someday I'll get there being a house or the great big wall and I'll find out what happens back there pree disappointed nothing happens absolutely nothing happens that yeah and not only that but it's it's so expensive you know I mean it's it's unbelievable what it costs you know just I would go away I had this man that work for me Harry he was a wonderful guy and and a great fun and Harry would have a party while I was gone you know boss just so your friends are dead fun thirty thousand dollars part Wow yeah just just just a little pardon Chasen's you know catering and how did you find out I find out I had I find out I would the holy what what is this Harry and he said well we had a little party boss I thought you thought you'd want to ask you know anything these people are all your friends and you know we had Jason's catered it and it was it was a fabulous that went until 4:00 in the morning it was just great guy so fun so happy a good time I never did have any of those parties they're the only parties that I had I had parties and they don't have them now they don't have them now I don't I don't know why actors today we were so close when I was starting out because we were all starving and we're all telling each other where the jobs were you know I didn't get this job but you be great for it nobody does that anymore Rip Torn was your roommate Rip Torn was my roommate which in itself it is amazing because rip rip rip was that his real name rip oh no rip as real name is Elmore ll more torn which is why his name is rip and he he was incredible buddy but he he was the best actor I swear to you who was the best actor of all of us and it would always end up being Robert Redford George Peppard Steve McQueen myself whenever it slipped torn George Maharis and down to us you know and we'd all know Rip Torn was going because Rip Torn was the best actor he was the best of all of us but I knew something they didn't know he was gonna get fired just you had the most self-destructive thing about it so I would cuing cannot you I've learned every line about the third day rip it's a sumbitches far yeah they don't them they don't know what the hell they're doing I had just part I got it cold man I got you cold and I said so I would you know have Monique James was our agent I would say you call them and tell them that you have another actor who knows Effie I know the show is on tomorrow night and so I got I got my first show that I did with Robert Montgomery presents with James Cagney who's that this is his room mr. the James Cagney room and well it should be I mean if that man is not the most energy as an actor how dare you be lazy as actors and look at James Cagney how dare you his he can stand still and and and just bury his business intensity yeah yeah and and I had a very awful thing happened I I collect things by actors paint and that's a wonderful thing you paint yourself I paint well I paint myself back i Henry Fonda and I I wanted a James Cagney painting so bad because he's so good and and so I he had said something wonderful about me in a magazine and so I got his phone number and I called and I said mrs. Cagney and I said missus Burt Reynolds and I was wondering if I could talk to mr. Cagney and she said giving it's Burt Reynolds anyway yeah yeah he wants to talk to you okay yeah mr. kady I want to thank you for what you said about me and I know you and and the thing you said was so I mean I you're my favorite actor and I I don't know what to say I was wondering if I could have a picture and there was a long pause I thought it was a little long and then he went yeah yeah yeah and then a month later a pain yeah said Paris in the rain by James Karen he thought I wanted a payment so so I was so embarrassed that I called back tell him that I didn't want to paint a nice I said mrs. Gagnon I talked to mr. Cagney mrs. Burt Reynolds and she said Jimmy it's Burt Reynolds and he said y'all had Chiefs on a little bit you can't have another painting but but getting back to the the parties that we had at my house on a Saturday night would be we play charades is this Florida or here here and I swear to you that I'm not may lightning strike me and Jimmy right here the this was the group Betty Davis Esther Williams dead he white or yeah I'm doing the women now [Applause] you've always had a problem mixing up those juices I'm doing the women or since when Orson wasn't Orson Welles Orson Bean though it was Orson well well so character and I remember we were always played charades and Orson Welles was there and it started out you know it always started out mr. Welles mr. Rose was wrong mr. well mr. Davis but as the game got you know no actors are headed now and so after about three hours it was Austin you we were infuriated that he couldn't get it no and an ester came over to me and said could I need Betty Davis I said you don't know Betty Davis oh yes incredible you should know I was under contract to MGM and she was under contract to Warner Bros well see in those days they never met and then it's hard to believe but they actually you know like Kate never went into Valley still doesn't never been devalued alive she says no I can't go there it's a there's an altitude Chisinau that's just as I can't look I couldn't look there so so I said well she said could I meet Betty Davis and I said yeah and I thought oh I hope Betty's in a good no she never knew when Betty was in a good vote and and and I I won I said a nester it's big you know what Betty this is mrs. Esther Esther Williams and and Betty went and Esther went I think you're the greatest actress ever [Applause] thank God Esther has a fantastic sir and it was alright I mean it was okay I mean I did it was alright sit what did Betty Davis say when Joan Crawford died well they they hated each other they truly did hate each other and and and the crew no matter that what you read the crew loved Betty and but they gave respect to miss Davis I mean wasn't miss Crawford I'm gonna miss miss Crawford miss carska but but they were betty was you know she pick up a lamp there you know and she and I got the knower so well that we just got silly with each other mates of it laughing so she would have me pick her up and take her to these parties and the day that I was to take her to this party at Bob Aldridge's house I called her up and she said look I I'm going to be late Chuck just go I'll see you there I'm okay and and that afternoon Joan Crawford died so the place of a hundred and fifty people and and I was way in the back like I always went way way in the back because I'd rather be shot in the foot of one of these things and I'm way in the back and I'm talking to man who writes for sex in the cinema in Playboy magazine you probably know I'm a pretty good writer and and Betty came in and the waves bartered you know something that big but people just she and she walked up to me know Austin quit and I'm going to say a bad word so just she came up to me into it I'll say different work but it rhymes rhymes with her she said well the pump died today and I said very I don't think you know this man writes for sex in the cinema and Playboy magazine and Betty said but she was always on time you have it you have an amazing gift for it incredible dead-on impersonation Wow no I don't I'm not I'm not I don't have to the only way to learn an impersonation is not from the subject matter it's from somebody who does an impersonation of the subject because they have picked this and that's how you learn them and and my neighbor was Gregory Peck and I'm one of the very few people that does Gregory Peck that's why I do Gregory Peck because everybody does everybody else but I do regular Peck and and and I used to see him in the morning he'd come out to get the paper and I'd say good morning mr. Peck and he'd say but I'd like to stay and tell you but I've only got five hours but I've always had a good year for people who do impersonations of other people and and it's important to have a veneer if you're an actor only because you're gonna you're gonna get a shot at who does you that you like as far as an impersonation of you Will Ferrell does be pretty and and he's scared to death you know he's six foot nine or something and he's petrified that I'm gonna kill it III really he does make me laugh and when he does does me and he does me talking to Alex Trebek yes and not knowing the answer to anything which is why image and you know we do certain parts for so long I mean if you do enough Smokey's and cannonballs and things like that you know you you just don't get a David Devon role you know I mean you're not gonna get a cocktail glass you just you're gonna get a Chevy maybe but you know I mean and I always wanted to play a college graduate and i-i've only in it'll be in two years I'll have been acting and getting paid for it I only counted if you get paid and getting paid for it for fifty years Wow not what I mentioned you put about college you were a big football star at Florida State one of the great broke records and the scouts were out from the Detroit Lions the the Baltimore Colts if something hadn't happened in your life you probably would have gone that route and I believe on Christmas Eve you were driving and went into a flatbed truck and then that changed your career well yeah it changed I actually should have died it was a miracle I they were stealing cement blocks and they had this flat part of a truck across the road and the cab went this way it was on a dirt road and I was going my usual usual 770 and it was 70 Burt so a service start with sin and I the luck there bright lights were on and I couldn't see me on the bright lights and when I saw beyond them there was this mountain of some up cement blocks and I I went underneath the truck and the blocks came down on top of me and busted my spleen and they took the spleen out yeah they sure did and I was in there for about three hours because they didn't have the jaws of life then and and the cotton my call my dad had this Buick it was an old 50-some Buick and you know big they were I mean they were like the Queen Mary and they're huge and it was about this size you know after everything brushed it down and and they were trying to get me out and I remember telling me the lieutenant who are they all knew he and I will get you out of there buddy don't worry we'll get JA there and I've been in there for two hours no no I I couldn't breathe I knew that I you know and broken some ribs because when I it's like a death of the breath it hurt but I didn't know I thought the busted my spleen and it hadn't started bleeding yet I mean hadn't it coagulate and I don't tell my father about this mm-hm don't tell my father the car is this big now I think he'll know something happen mm-hmm and they got me out and I I got in the back of his ambulance was kideth I went to school with who I knew was very religious his name was Tommy price and I said Tommy I I don't have a real good relationship with God you know but if you could just talk to him I can give me through this I'm gonna make something of myself just just please talk to him and you start praying for me and I got there and we got to the hospital and [Music] we had we didn't have a doctor because none of us had ever been sick so the only thing when I was the team doctor and the team doctor was dr. fort and he came in and he had me on the table and he looked at me and he said this boy's dying but he's he's he's a toughened and he pulled office you never seen Georgia ring and he just he went at me and he got my spleen out and that was Christmas Eve and New Year's Day I was running on the beach and it was one of those miracles and I've had I've had about seven of them and strong will you know you just I think you talk about your emotions as a kid was mad and mater I did I am mad matter because I thought I thought I can do something with my life if if my dad or just give me an attaboy you don't we all we all get directed the different ways don't we I mean some of us need a kick in the butt and some of us need an attaboy you got to have an attaboy in the South I say you're not a man till you know the man the man doesn't become a man until his daddy says you're a man in the South you're not a man until your father tells you you are and I always warned him to tell me I was a man and it never did and III was searching my whole life for a father figure and unfortunately I got I should have picked Jimmy Stewart he lived right down the street well between Gregory Peck talking slow well-dressed uttering of Jewish directory talk too slow and Jimmy I so I got Bob mention Bob Bob Mitchum was the wrong father we just I just led me down the path it was pretty wild and I was pretty crazy but I wanted a man I want a man who I respected and looked up to and loved to say to me you're you're a man you are a man and it was Bob Aldridge it was my mentor Longest Yard yeah he I loved him so much tell me but I couldn't understand what he said but but but but Aldridge and I were so close and I'm going to forget we were doing this movie with Catherine Deneuve and went to Paris signer and he said he has only Bob good to he said no he signed the that's exciting Tom caller Catherine didn't though I mean she's the best actresses in the world I mean it's just beautiful she's a nice person why do you have to call her a she said she's an actress I mean there are some directors like that and I'm sorry but I loved him so much anyway he we got her to do the movie and she didn't speak very very little English and it turned out I thought pretty good but the movie was called I think it was called hustle but what happened was the word got out that I died in in the picture and it took off it made first three days it made like thirty million dollars and I saw Duke I saw John Wayne and I said he said you got a hit I said yeah it's a it's great he said I hear you'd die I said yes sir I do I get I get I get killed he said you can't die you death best people that America doesn't want pictures you're on right in the dumper because people expect certain things from certain cigar they they they want a certain feel good they wanted to feel good picture with you yeah mm-hmm you know is an interesting character trait when you were a child there was a kid at school Jimmy we had a terrible home life you brought him home and said to your parents can we house him can he move in here and that's pretty incredible and your father went upstairs took your clothes put it to the side and said he's here that's pretty incredible on both ends when you and him it speaks volumes for him because my mother I said Jimmy's gonna come live with us I had gone to his house he was 11 I was and a man was beating him up and when you're 11 you know and you've never fought a man it's a different experience and we but the tools together we got him and and I took him to the house and I said to my mother Jimmy's gonna live with us and she said you better ask your dad and and he came home and I said pop Jimmy's gonna live with us and he said I said yes sir and he went upstairs and he stuck his hand right in the middle of my closet oh my half my clothes earlier I said those are Jimmy's clothes mmm using yours and he saved first time you had a girl for a word with him first time you have a problem you're out and and Jimmy we adopted later Jimmy's buying and it says volumes about my father and my father who never gave me out boys he never hugged me in there when he we saw Quinton I don't know why I just jumped a whole generation he went as now here's a kick why did you wish it was you he loved he loved Quentin's I mean so much like I couldn't I never I never could get as close to hmm my dad is a squid and I don't know why it did jump a generation but it did it and and in hindsight when you look back because sometimes patterns happen in somebody's life knowing what you know now what do you think it was that may have caused that with your dad and you I'm almost positive that we knew nothing about going to war and coming back so messed up with nobody to talk to and Charlie turning I hope you have here one night because I don't know if you all know this but Charles Durning is the third was hiding a decorated soldier in World War two the third most highly decorated and I he brought him to meet my dad and he was talking to Charlie and he said to me get out and I said sir he said get out I said why and he said you weren't there and I wasn't there and I went outside and looking in the window and I see the two of them and then I see their foreheads touching and then I see it dear come on my dad side which I've never seen in my life and he he looked he obviously loved Charlie said in respect to Charlie so much but Charlie said to me I was 15 yards from your death at Normandy Beach 15 yards from and we didn't know your dad was I said how'd you do my dad was he said we'll look at Private Ryan if you look at the footage of Private Ryan in the beginning there are all these boats coming up dropping off troops in the water but there's one that goes alright reach and just keeps going like it's a cab you know going in Dusseldorf it just keeps driving and driving and said fine stops and what happened was my dad was a master sergeant and this guy was dumping guys off they were drowning go back get a bunch you know they drowned again because he wouldn't take him up far enough my dad took this gun out it stuck in this guy's ear and he said take us to the beach and the door came open and the captain got it first lieutenant got it the second lieutenant got it so my dad had four major bail you know right there and he was promoted it's a captain before he hit the beach and a Charlie says when you look at the footage there's one boat that lefty wow that's way up on the beach and that was your dad's well and I said did you did you know him from that and he said we'd heard of him and and he said I said why were you crying and he and your dad said will they ever forgive us for all the guys we killed charlie and Charlie said I I don't think so I don't think they can it was it was that guy who said take me to the beach that like the best years of our lives I was looking out the window and a cab drove up and this man got out of the back of the cab with medals all over and my sister I said let's go out but she said don't know let him let him creep mom and and he grabbed my mom and he came in and took a whole bunch of money out of his pocket I mean I don't know how much it was but it seemed like thousands of dollars probably about 25 or 30 dollars and he gave it to me he said no go buy some and I didn't want to go buy anything I wanted to hug him mm-hmm and they they wanted to be together naturally and I didn't see him that day and I bought him an ashtray $35 and felt alpha and then we I just never we never connected somehow you had strong friends always in your life including when you were a kid and one of your friends Carmen Battaglia was very instrumental in helping you make the transition from football into the arts in some way well I had this a bunch of guys I was with leek horse over yesterday I know if you're watching this being Billy Corso is amazing guy he played the other halfback that I played back back when FSU and he was always funny and wonderful I said to Lee and Carmen Battaglia I said I said what are you gonna do and I said I'm gonna go be a movie star I didn't say I'm gonna go out there and fall on my ass I'd say I'm gonna go out there no bye I said I'm gonna go be a movie so mmm-hmm and Carmen Battaglia said call me call me when you make it and Lisa it's gonna be great man parties in the pool they attest not one guy on that team doubt that I was gonna make not one guy but there are people on the way who inspire and help people you had a teacher Duncan in English Lit and drama who saw something in you and Cassie went outward-bound yeah I was in an English literature class and like all football players I was in the last row and and he he said we're doing the Romanus sister Byron Shelley and Keats I said you back there come down here so I came down and sit down on my squatted on the floor and he said you're gonna be an actor when I say you're out of your mind he said you know you're gonna be an actor and I said I'm not gonna be an actor I'm gonna you know my knees gonna get on it fix it down and then I'm gonna try to play and then I'm a played semi-pro ball or whatever no no no coach and teach but I'm not gonna be an actor I would away by be an actor for and he said because that's what you're going to be he said I'm having readings this afternoon for outward-bound I didn't know what the hell that meant and so I went to the reading and he opened the book and he said read right there and I went there yeah he said you got it and it was another guy he had done that with named Monte Markham Monte Markham is one of our best American Shakespearean actors we have a great teacher Monte Markham had never acted in his life was a total screwup and Duncan had said you're gonna be an actor and the same thing happened he just had that I called him the giant elf he was six eight and and he just was the most magnificent teacher I'd ever had in my life and and made me fall in love with English literature and we never know how those people come into my life these angels yes who shape us and sculpt us well I think spire everybody in this room has had somebody tell them bump them just just just a little bit you're the main actor one I mean somebody in this room had somebody not laugh at him when they said I'm thinking I'm gonna be an actor somebody in this room or the other way around you said I'm gonna be an actor and they said huh and you said I'll shove that I'll shove that right in your ear and it doesn't matter what the motivation how it comes whether it comes from the negative or the positive you have to start the engine negative positive and that's where it comes from from somebody telling you you can do it you all right Battaglia son was a linebacker at Louisville all-american gorgeous I mean gorgeous and he said I would like you to try to help my son be an actor and I thought that shouldn't be too tough I mean the guy's gorgeous just six foot four and anyway I thought I really think I can do it I think I can do anything I really put my mind to it what's the matter nothing the matter with me do you talk like that all the time he said yeah I don't like that I guess what you're gonna do take a bunch of rocks and put them in your mouth they're going down to the ocean tonight and you're gonna scream all night long those rocks in your mouth and tomorrow night we're gonna put rocks in your mouth and I'm gonna give you a script you know and you're gonna read and in about two months no I'm not a speech teacher not a psychiatrist I don't know anything about that and forgive me for taking somebody's kid and handing it so fragile II I had no right to do that teachers have no right to do that but I did it guess what he don't you talk to just like this now and he works all well thanks to you taking the time and the interest yeah let's see I I told him you put rocks in your mouth you could talk anyway I didn't know that it's the Burt Reynolds scholar you just got it you somebody's got to tell you see that's what you do mm-hmm and you'll be all right you got a scholarship from Florida State to the Hyde Park Playhouse in New York Joanne Woodward saw you and she was pivotable she was pivotal in helping you well I was walking across the I was an apprentice at the time I talked just like this and I had a real a real real southern Georgia accent sad southern Georgia and she said would you help me knock keys I said ma'am she helped me with my cues I said are you from the south I was born in Americus Georgia nothing wait girl she said you kidding me she said to down here and read with me so leave a reading back and forth back forth and she when Hanlon have started the American place theater misdirecting he walked by and she said when buddy is gonna play al and you just paid the guy that was gonna play al he'll be thrilled because he gets paid to play don't have to act not to pay buddy nothing can play out you know I didn't know who she was but I thought she's important so I saw I played al which was a great part very funny part football player teaches guy how to walk sit so opening night I mean it's you know standing ovations etc etc and she said I'd like you to meet my fiancee can that way I'd meet this little guy we had say the Aza football hero and oh is this okay and she said that's it and I looked over and I saw bluest eyes I'd ever seen in my life and I think I liked him better than Joann and we became really really close friends and she got me my agent who was Maynard Morris and Monique James and I went from there to New York and did mr. Roberts mm-hmm you played Mannion 85 bucks a week 85 bucks a week and Heston was in it yes it was it was that Moses in your first to Broadway show now I you know you can't do yes it's not right because God loved him he was a fabulous man and and you can't do Charlton Heston chokes so now you know but he was the most uncoordinated man you couldn't hand him a pencil that he wouldn't drop it and and I remember opening night we all all of us were like this bill really and then you saw first before he couldn't get out maybe just see if you couldn't find this way out from behind there God God love him I mean you know and he would say call me Chuck you can't call him Chuck it just wasn't known as a child he was not a Chuck and and so one night I said to him Monday's everybody was dark and we did a show for all the theaters that were dark that Kim saw your show so it was all actors and I said wouldn't it be funny if you said to me who made that who made that and I said instead of saying Stefan asked he made it in the machine shop if I said Stanislavski made it in your machine shop you see because we've got actors out here and they would think that was funny and he went [Music] so I somewhere it got planted back there and with what a hot and I don't and he said who made that and I said Stanislavski made better gentleman I've always loved stanislavski's work place went crazy that was huge Latin and I could see in his mind going I've got to remember how I did that got to get that laugh every night like that now I know I've taken up way too much time I just want to say a couple of things I I had a theater for 14 years and I got what they call it the John Houseman award which was I employed 14,000 14,000 extras actors grab people's things over a period of 14 years we did play every three weeks and a musical every six weeks and we never closed I never asked an actor to be in this play I would say to the actor what do you want to be in say - Julie here's what he wanted me she'd say deathless says I'd said well you're the lightweight for Willy Loman but if you want said I've always felt that Willy Longman's wife wasn't doing it and I said really I never thought about when she got to that you know that the cemetery scene I mean that she tore me mmm pieces mm-hmm tell me please mr. della we won't it'll make some joke about this but he's won best directors editor work with in my life he directed a lots of lots and plot of plays at my theater and and and and acted in lots of shows and he's the kindest man in the world so two people and it's it's absolutely ridiculous that he's not in a wheelchair doing what lionel Barrymore did and making us laugh why in the hell should Lionel Barrymore be able to do it because it was 75 years ago and we're not supposed to do it now he he is an amazing actor you do drama I can do we need what you do in Florida when you did in Florida we need that here because there's so many actors so many talented actors who just want to work I want to say something about that we have a terrible reputation for our theater here and of course they love it when we take a play from here to New York just so they can beat the hell but more than that I I did a movie not proud of the movie it was a lousy movie but I couldn't understand one liked to bet best scenes that were in the picture we're cut out and they were cut out so they could have more car chase which is what we needed in that picture and that's a shot they shot these young girls I know I I've directed and I know how young girls they come in they're nervous they're scared they're under 20 maybe their bombs out there maybe not and and the guys they take picnics blossom and they either cry or they take the glass off or whatever but they made a separate film I didn't know it Willie didn't know it and they released it and I didn't get any money from it I made two movies well actually I wasn't in the movie with the girl without the blouse but they used my name to sell it so with an actor like Tom Cruise or Tom Hanks or the old Burt Reynolds gets a few million I think it should be mandatory that we give a million dollars to say for lawyers to go beat the hell out of the studio's we can't we can't go up against we can't go up against the star power that they have as lawyers but we can if we got the money and that's what resis the mm-hmm wheels that's it's it's it's having lawyers who say you can't do two movies and tell the actors they're doing one motor that's not right you can't do that and we're gonna soon you and they'll keep on suing them until they'll stop they'll stop it I mean they'll stop it probably very soon cuz they're gonna they're gonna lose a lot of money on this one a few lawyers get their way but but we don't we sag don't have the the lawyers that MGM has Warner brother says and you know Sony acts and if we had the money on retainer for those guys because that's really what it comes down to yes because my daddy can beat your daddy it's my lawyer can what pure Merck you've been a movie star for a long time has it lived up to what you thought it would be because a lot of people in this room would love a taste of what you've experienced well probably would I truthfully I loved loved I loved it what I hated it I loved it when I was climbing the mountain I loved it boasts then on top of the mountain I got really goofy because I couldn't see the bottom and I was going so fast and I I got all messed up and there's only one way to go I mean if you're number one in the world yeah there's only one way to go when you're box-office number one five years in a row what's that feeling like well I didn't understand it I didn't know what it was at the time I didn't know I just knew that it was real weird that you could sit in there and and say but they'd say well let's do a picture about a bunch of people driving cars across the country I think it's a Corning idea [Music] I'll tell you what if if you can get Sinatra Sammy Dean and I got DOM and we got and and I started naming off all these people they went because nobody ever said that to me before mm-hmm we can get him and I didn't know that I had the power that I had and I didn't use it the right way had I been as smart as mr. Redford had I have been a smart ask mr. De Niro in terms of press had I been as smart as a lot of my friends Teresa would people would think I was really intelligent but I always answered the question see how is the engine that's it or did you go or you and suck or even Sarah miles room the other night yeah I should have said you know that's done your business and if I take the answer I'll have to kill you I didn't I I did I lived what I thought was a movie star line and I had a ball terrific time and somewhere a long line I learned that at and made it look easy you you you have a naturalness about your acting well that is some say that is don't you agree with that that is a natural Mary I was recently watching deliverance and there was one particular scene the negative start slope and that Biddy getting abused and whatever and I watched what you're gonna do with the body after you had done the arrow thing and I watched the arc where you started from started light and then you created a whole a whole arc of where you went with the scene it was just just sensational well I was I was in one take because we had five cameras and because John Boorman said and that baby won't do this twice right yeah and I was proud of the work I did in that picture and I found a character that I mean well and grew up with them and I had him and I really had him and Ed and I have done seven pictures together and he kept saying to me yeah yeah and we've listened nothing not you're gonna get an Academy Award now and you're gonna be nominated for yeah are you crazy now if if you was outside right now somebody go aren't you the guy that burned in that picture and and I we were doing a film got in South Carolina than us and I'm in my you know my really intelligent psychiatrist mine felt that it would be important if he vented himself and went down the river so I said Ned I go down the river every year just to see if I can do it and I don't do it in the canoe but I do it remember and if you went down that I think we would read of those demons and he said really yes I'm telling you I know I'm talking about so he said okay so now they have what nobody went down that river before them moving nobody now they go down every 45 minutes it's called the deliverance syndrome develop t-shirts the deliverance thing so we get in this rubber raft recently beads in there and he said are you sure this I'm telling you just to get rid of this stuff down the river and the guide forgets we were in the movie then he goes not down here is where Jon Voight climbed up what we call it boy baton now he climbed right up bedrock right there he did it himself by God he did and he fell and the crew Cody say it is life they did now we're going down here we're going to come on around then we'll be coming up we'll be coming up to what we call I don't got it are we gonna stop for lunch and he said yes we will be stopping at it's now called the matter the name of of the river Tom we've moved on past Orson it's in the map of Georgia it's actually in the map of Georgia where it's in all the culture that was in the other river but the part where we shot the scene is it's called the medical word for male intercourse thank you I asked him a lot of intelligent but you've been bright he could have but jumped right on sodomy anyway it's right in the map it says sodomy Creek and Ned went mrs. Ned now who I I'm straightening out his life yes [Applause] [Laughter] I certainly want to get out and have some lunch no you wouldn't get out of the boat you wouldn't that's what's gonna side of me Creek and it didn't help him at all really didn't and I thought it would I thought it would you know cleansing and an amazing thing happening with that movie men who were so Cavalier were so Cavalier and I think they still are too Cavalier they say the way the word rape and it makes me crazy because they don't understand what they're saying and what happens to a woman and when the movie came out men were destroyed by that picture they were literally like crawling out of the theater and Medad a profound effect on men's attitude about that that kind of being overpowered of not being and being helpless and losing everything you think that's where man thinks that everybody's going to tell everybody and people wonder why James that he didn't write another great book he wrote another book it wasn't a big book I have a theory on this kind of like my psychiatry theater no but I have a theory on this and that is that it really happened and he told me and he told John and he told me it and he told Ronnie separately it really happened now we all together went it didn't really happen did he tell you that - again he had told me that - he told all of us he was void I met Luis I met me I met Ned's character they didn't get there in time they didn't kill him had they killed him the book would have had an in name so he had no other you know there wasn't no other book to write so he wrote that as closure he had him closure yeah yes exactly mm-hmm and and and and as you know incredible he was an incredible teacher great poet great great poet but why was the only one one book in his head interesting do you think the the Cosmo layout cost you the an Oscar nomination for that movie and I think you have said that you thought that happened without a death I do without a doubt mm-hmm I think if you're if you're gonna do something like that and and be a silly as that and I thought it was silly I was trying to make fun of all these men who you know their wives have to come home and go out in the garage and there's all this silicone on the wall or hanging up you know in the refrigerator door and they've got no way to get back so I you know Helen Gurley Brown come ask me a hundred times finally I said okay I'll do it I have total control over the picture and and I laughing and I was a funny goofy remark you know you know I look silly and I'm doing something but the bear I don't know and but no one no one thought anything was going to happen I mean listen you know with no big deal I was doing the Rainmaker in Chicago and I drove up and there was about a thousand people there police everywhere magazine had sold for 75 bucks downtown and they had take me in the back the Rainmaker doesn't come on stage until the end of the first act and it was a theater in the round and so I come in my entrance no no I'm back here like no waiting come in and it's very quiet you know just the place some reason the place not really playing that well and then I come in I start I walk down the block another house and a woman tackles me tackles me and throws me to the ground and I'm trying to get her lay and then a some Usher's pull her off me then another woman grabs me then I get a I get up on on stage and and and it's just it's it's horrible and I don't know if you know Sally whew but Sally takes the business pretty serious best actresses in the world and and and so someone's started to step up and grab me and she just cold-cocked and I said you're really missing out on some wonderful actors performances by doing this you know please promise I if you want me to sign something sign it afterwards I'll sign anything but enjoy the play and enjoy these other actors and and behave yourself and they could they wouldn't we had a we had a close Wow the Rainmaker closed because of the cosmos ringer parameter which is the reason I told you that story is because of why I think that if you're setting an academy and you're looking at people and you like guys good in disguise but this ass you know in a magazine and you know he's not a serious actor he's not an act have you ever felt that when you were voting then would you take that into consideration somebody else's activities outside of their performance of course I I think we've all all of us and if you and if you tell me you didn't you're lying we've all done something I'm talking about people that have made it in a certain capacity whatever made it is we've all made mistakes and done something we shouldn't have done if we get caught you get clobbered and you I could name actors that I've heard stories about I could name actors that I have seen film back in the 30s that they did to get money who went on to win Oscars mm-hmm those films run we're not as well distributed as Jasmine about and I yeah III think yeah it is forgivable it is forgivable but that's we we're in this crazy business where we have to make a living and we have to we have to sell vacuum cleaners and shoes and cars and things and and do stuff put up a red thing on our nose and go you know and and then you finally get a little bit further the only way to learn how to act is to act you cannot learn it in acting class you can't learn it in acting class I'm sorry you can learn some things that are bad habits should do but they don't teach you how to get the job do they they won't teach you how to act but they don't teach you how to code read they don't teach you how to walk into the office they don't teach you how to make an impression they don't teach you how to before you walk out of that room ain't nobody else but you that that guy's going to be thinking about that's a teacher experience you had the opportunity for all that great experience but but but it's it's it's so logical for all of us in this business to understand that we're following somebody who's doing the same thing we're doing so how do we change it how do we change up on them you know we're pitching are you going in there pitch what's the guy throwing he's throwing he's throwing basketballs well then let's throw a little fungo added man let's let's this you don't don't throw throw fastball come in sideways on and and and and then let's let's just do something else change you do something that makes the guy be impressed with you and and understand what what this business is about and this business is about you know a we look at a horrible thing like OJ Simpson whether he's guilty or not guilty I'm not going to get into but I'm telling you that what's gone on in in the publicity department of America this is staggering that we're that my son is is growing up into right when I look at reality television and watch some girl giving birth to an egg I I mean what happened to Playhouse 90 while your why you mentioned we introduced your son to the audience your son Quentin look - could you stand up for a second and say hi to everybody [Applause] let's officially ask mr. Redd Dom DeLuise said a standout put him on man dad never stand up for the moment yeah zom zom wrote a card here I've been a friend of Burt Reynolds for a long time he used to come to my house for dinner he doesn't call anymore I send over pasta I send over a pizza he doesn't return my calls can you please tell him I said hi we used to be friends what can I do to get back in his good graces I love Dom DeLuise try to be more intelligent when questions are best yeah I don't know if this is on but I think Burt you should have a show and and talk I think it would be wonderful because you know you could go on the road or we could sell these suckers for you know what copy this is quite wonderful this is obviously you're not I'll just take a chance of Lester crap but you are a natural storyteller I don't know where you don't have a show well I think we have two tickets that's you got to take this but you were when you did Carson and guest-hosted that opened a lot of people's minds about your great comedy of they changed my career Johnny Carson and Johnny Carson when you went through that terrible two years in Florida after the nutcase hit you with a wrong chair which set you back a couple years it was Carson who called every week that's a giant and that's a friend and when you came on the show I believe he said how you got through he said well you know I've died read my little black book of all the friends that stayed with me and you open the book and it was empty I was dying of AIDS I guess I had a slight case of it because I didn't die and I had broken my jaw I couldn't swallow I couldn't chew and so I was down to 127 pounds and nobody called nobody came and I I couldn't get a job for two five years and it says you know we bill from up here to down there doctor down there and there there is a the greatest award in the world it's not the astronaut the Emmy and a Tony and the greatest Oscar in the world if you want to call it an Oscar I call it the survivor award not only survived you came back won a Golden Globe for Boogie Nights an Academy nomination I mean it's incredible I mean you went through two and a half years I don't know how you did it you were up to fifty Halcyon tablets a day you want to go you went cold turkey you almost died we're in coma and you came out of it fully that is amazing it's the same guy who beat Verne in that race has a will and an attention and intention to live fully and to be a survivor is extraordinary you're really an inspiration well thank you and I look out all these people tell them they won't believe me but I'm telling you you have it in you exactly what I have not we mustn't ever ever ever ever give up there's a few questions from the people in the audience John Reiner has a question how's your work as a director affected how you approach your work as an actor makes you so much better an actor such a better actor yes totally you you have to be careful because when you're thinking as a director you you may have a guy from don't mean anything bad by this from MTV who's directing the movie and I see him going oh crap and I say what are you doing and he said I'm trying to figure out the first shot and I say well maybe pointing towards the actors you you you have to keep your mouth shut and it's hard to do sometimes but you yeah it makes you a better it makes you a better actor Isaac is cliff clipper off here cliff is 89 years young establish stunts unlimited in the 60s with Hal Needham worked on Hooper Gator the fuzz rough cuts semi tough starting over The Longest Yard the end how long has it been since you've seen cliff I tell you something about Claire we love stand up for a sec we lift young is 89 years young [Applause] tell you something about him I could take him outside take him up on the roof pick him up and say can I throw you off of here partner and what you say try it I love me too there's a there's a spree decor among guys that like that like us have done things that we shouldn't have done and and oh man do we hurt in the morning oh boy do we hurt but it's it's like the guys that flew over the hump in the Second World War yeah there's a closeness that I can't describe to you that's fabulous I'm gonna tell you one quick story and then I'm gonna stop because we have to stop I have to stop well i'ma tell you this one quick story because this is this is for you my friend because of hal needham hal needham was the highest-paid stuntman in the world and no one had a higher threshold of pain I've ever met in my life no one never saw him take an aspirin never saw him take a buffer never saw nothing he broke his neck one time he went over and told the hamlets driver they broke his neck in the hamster didn't believe him and he beat him up we were we were staying together and he came in one night and he was all about a stove up you know like this and I'd never seen him like that and I said what's the matter roomie he said I wrote in the back I said Jesus look back well les uh no you know a lot of people say that but I if he said it I thought maybe he probably did so they used to have these little drivin kind of like driving Hospital things on Santa Monica Boulevard where you go ahead medical attention and I drove into this place and a pretty nurse came out her name was Barbara she's really pretty and and she said what's the problem and he said I think I brought one that just means go back there but you know and I seen kept eyeball in there and everything and I thought your back's broken forgot and then this little man came out he was a doctor and I could tell right away the doctor and Barbara had a little thing going that's not good so anyway how comes out in this outfit that Cary Grant wouldn't look good in you know that stupid thing they're tired and and they they put him up and they take the x-rays and he comes running out of there and he said good your back is broken and I announce it I told you that well I will we're going to have you know we've got to drain you know there's fluid on your lung we're gonna have to drain that right away I mean you could die and how me and he'll you know he's still looking at Barbara you know and he says let's get on with it you know other partner where you from so the doctor is getting real po2 he goes over and he gets a needle it's that long it's that long I don't know if you've ever had your long string but it's not and he backs off and he's gonna he's gonna make this stunt guy cries and house looking down at Barbara yeah and I want to know I want to see a little bit of sweat pump up or I just want him to go I've never seen do anything I'm up like this up in his face and he's like this you know and the doctor goes [Music] now there's this brown awful gravy looking stuff coming out it's just awful looking and he'll never said how he never said anything Barbara had had just before he did it the doctor said Barbara you better get down there in a whole Western eum's legs because he could think you know so burrows down there she hit her and he as the gravy was coming out he defecated all over coming all over and he said I guess getting your number now be over [Applause] anyway so Burt you just got a new car and we got a little something for you here for the new car oh that's great one-of-a-kind one-of-a-kind [Applause] I know you got a lot of trophies Burke but I'd like you to read this to buddy Lee common Battaglia was right football's loss was the greatest win from movie TV stage fans all over the world congratulations Burt I'm becoming a shining star and this is a bunch of guys that play ball with and really love and this is terrific the one-of-a-kind Burt Reynolds [Applause]

Channel: SAG-AFTRA Foundation

Views: 72,396

Rating: 4.820106 out of 5

Keywords: SAG Foundation, SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Acting, Actors, Conversations, Burt Reynolds, Boogie Nights, Deliverance, Smokey and the Bandit, Striptease, Evening Shade, Gunsmoke, Hawk, Dan August, The Longest Yard, Semi-Tough, Hooper, The Cannonball Run, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Q&A, Interview, Career, Retrospective

Id: 76wII3_D6BE

Length: 111min 1sec (6661 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 07 2018