Burt Reynolds, actor

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:00:00. > :00:12.It is time now for HARDtalk with Burt Reynolds.

:00:13. > :00:18.Welcome to HARDtalk make. He was one of America's best-known actors. A

:00:19. > :00:26.top box office draw with hit movies including Deliverance and Boogie

:00:27. > :00:29.Nights. He turns 80 in 2016, but as he looks back on his career, why

:00:30. > :00:30.does he say that although he's made more than 100 films, he's only proud

:00:31. > :01:00.of a handful of them? Welcome to HARDtalk. Thank you. You

:01:01. > :01:07.were brought up in Florida. You wanted to become a football player.

:01:08. > :01:17.What changed your mind? Money helped. Many accidents and things

:01:18. > :01:24.that happened. They weren't... One terrible car accident, where eye

:01:25. > :01:28.almost died. -- I. They did not have the jaws of life then. It took

:01:29. > :01:34.forever to get me out of the wreck of a new it car that my father had.

:01:35. > :01:42.-- Buick. They finally got me out and eye was in bad, bad shape. -- I.

:01:43. > :01:49.You have to have your spleen removed. That stock your ambitions

:01:50. > :01:56.to become a football player. That curtailed everything. I was feeling

:01:57. > :02:11.great when they got me out. Then Eickhoff and blood came out of my

:02:12. > :02:24.mouth. -- I coughed. I got in the ambulance. I was... There was a kid

:02:25. > :02:31.in there that I liked very much. Tommy Price was his name. I said,

:02:32. > :02:38.would you pray for me? Because I don't know how. He said, "yes".

:02:39. > :02:44.Thank God somebody was listening because I came out of that. You

:02:45. > :02:51.dropped out of Florida State University and you went to New

:02:52. > :02:54.York. This was in the 1950s. You joined a playhouse and trained to

:02:55. > :03:02.become an actor. But your father, a tough police chief, he did not think

:03:03. > :03:09.acting was a proper, series career, did he? -- serious. Even when I was

:03:10. > :03:18.making a serious living, he said, does that man worked, or is he in

:03:19. > :03:24.your profession? -- work. He was... You thought it was a sissy thing to

:03:25. > :03:31.do, you know? Did it hurt your confidence? He came around. But he

:03:32. > :03:41.was in his 90s when he finally came around. Because he died at 95 in

:03:42. > :03:49.2002. You had a tough childhood with him. He carried out corporal

:03:50. > :03:56.punishment. He did. It was all very kosher in America for a father to

:03:57. > :04:03.hit his son with a belt. And... But, belt was larger than any other belt

:04:04. > :04:17.that I saw. He was a big, strong man. 6"2. In a couple of places I

:04:18. > :04:32.still have indentations of the police department on the. Greedier.

:04:33. > :04:38.-- on me. -- Oh dear. You are a quarter native American. The you see

:04:39. > :04:48.yourself as a white actor? I am very proud of that. That I was able to

:04:49. > :04:55.play roles with dignity when I did have an Indian part. I had a lot of

:04:56. > :05:05.them. I thought that I had my head up and placed them well. In one

:05:06. > :05:08.film, Sam Whiskey. You changed the words because you found them

:05:09. > :05:20.insulting to native American. Yes, I did. -- Americans. What were they?

:05:21. > :05:30.They were all sorts of nicknames for Indian that had no dignity to them,

:05:31. > :05:34.no class. -- Indian. It hurts your feelings when someone says something

:05:35. > :05:38.to you that takes all your dignity away. When that person is somebody

:05:39. > :05:46.that you respect, it hurts a lot. And I respected a lot of guys that

:05:47. > :05:58.has no... They had no feelings toward me. You acted in a lot of, if

:05:59. > :06:04.I can put it this way, undemanding Western films. The native Americans

:06:05. > :06:12.were always the baddies that had to be defeated and so on. How did you

:06:13. > :06:19.square that with the fact you were a quarter of native American yourself?

:06:20. > :06:25.I had no problem with it. When I did those parts where they had Indians,

:06:26. > :06:30.I was the first one to speak up to the director and the producer and

:06:31. > :06:36.say, you have to change these things because it is not right, the way we

:06:37. > :06:45.are talking about them. But, when some new guy came along and said

:06:46. > :06:54.something, I spoke up, and said to him, "Don't say that". He said, "It

:06:55. > :07:07.is in the script". I said, not any more. Is Hollywood racist? Gazidis.

:07:08. > :07:17.Still? -- Yes, it is. Yes, it is. Yes, because they don't have... The

:07:18. > :07:24.blacks had heroes, like Martin Luther King. They were wonderful

:07:25. > :07:31.spokesmen. But the Indians had nothing like that. It was tough for

:07:32. > :07:38.them to get up and speak. Almost impossible. Because, number one,

:07:39. > :07:46.they are so shy. They do not have it in their vocabulary. So, I was

:07:47. > :07:54.very... I was very touched when they asked me to speak for them. And

:07:55. > :08:02.idea, speak for them. -- And I did. You really have to have the right to

:08:03. > :08:10.speak. You have to be an Indian. I'm not an Indian. I'm proud of my

:08:11. > :08:19.heritage, but I find the other part of it... I get quite angry about it.

:08:20. > :08:24.Venue became an actor, a very popular actor. -- Then you. By the

:08:25. > :08:41.1970s and 1980s, you were a massive, massive star. You appeared

:08:42. > :08:49.on Gunsmoke. Smokey and the Bandit was huge. Yet, some of your films

:08:50. > :08:53.failed to capture the audience, like Paternity. What went wrong for you?

:08:54. > :08:58.I was number one at the box office for five years. That had never been

:08:59. > :09:04.done before. Not for five years in a row. I am very proud of that. After

:09:05. > :09:12.that, the law of averages comes into play. If a guy is playing baseball

:09:13. > :09:18.and he is hitting 500, he is a big star, but, if he does that for five

:09:19. > :09:25.years and all of a sudden he is batting 300, nobody jumps all over

:09:26. > :09:34.him. Even if he had those are the years. I had those years. -- other

:09:35. > :09:39.years. But you don't get credit for that. When I go to heaven, I hope

:09:40. > :09:44.God is part Indian. (LAUGHING). But then your careers

:09:45. > :09:50.revived again in 1996 with the film Boogie Nights when you acted as a

:09:51. > :10:01.porn film director. But you were absolutely devastated that he did

:10:02. > :10:06.not win an Oscar. For that film. No, no, no, that is not true. But you

:10:07. > :10:15.were hoping to win it. Of course. But they also thought, how ironic

:10:16. > :10:25.that I hated the subject matter, and when I did do it, it had this

:10:26. > :10:31.incredible reaction. I had this incredible reaction to the character

:10:32. > :10:38.that are played. So, I felt betrayed in some ways. -- I played. I felt

:10:39. > :10:47.betrayed in some ways that the audience that I had worked so hard

:10:48. > :10:57.to get did not the irony of it all, that he I was, doing these films

:10:58. > :11:08.that were comedies and whatever that made much money for the studios. --

:11:09. > :11:11.that here I was. That, along came the time when you cannot expect to

:11:12. > :11:19.hit it out of the park with everything. And, during that period,

:11:20. > :11:27.I expected a little loyalty. No. In the memoirs, which you have just

:11:28. > :11:37.published, called But, Enough of Me.... You said, I have made over

:11:38. > :11:42.100 films that I am only proud about around five of them. You talk about

:11:43. > :11:48.challenging yourself as an actor. That is true. I wanted to challenge

:11:49. > :11:53.myself but nobody was giving me those parts. I was making them, the

:11:54. > :12:01.studios and producers, a lot of money, by doing whatever they call

:12:02. > :12:06.those pictures I did. So, if I fought them and said, I won't do

:12:07. > :12:11.this part because it is silly and it doesn't have a message, I would

:12:12. > :12:17.have... I would have been in big trouble. You have said that you were

:12:18. > :12:28.offered the part that Richard dear took in pretty woman alongside Julia

:12:29. > :12:34.Roberts. -- Richard Gere. It was even broached that you may be James

:12:35. > :12:38.Bond when Sean Connery did not want to do the part. Perhaps it was your

:12:39. > :12:47.fault that you did not take these great roles. I pass it up to

:12:48. > :12:52.stupidity. I was really stupid. Eyes and an American could not play it.

:12:53. > :13:03.But I probably could have. -- I said an. I messed up. It wasn't for me.

:13:04. > :13:12.And, all my good friends said, you are really stupid, and I agreed. It

:13:13. > :13:17.was stupidity. I have to put it to you, Burt Reynolds, that in 1972

:13:18. > :13:26.when you post naked for the centrefold in Cosmopolitan Magazine.

:13:27. > :13:29.That completely took off and everybody talked about it and the

:13:30. > :13:39.image was reproduced in all sorts of ways, you did that willingly as the

:13:40. > :13:46.editor of it said. I am not trying to be lofty about something as silly

:13:47. > :13:53.as that, but, I thought, it isn't fair that we put down women for

:13:54. > :14:05.doing that, but if a man does it, it is OK. Well, it wasn't OK. I got a

:14:06. > :14:14.lot said to me about it. But I thought it was time that somebody of

:14:15. > :14:19.the male persuasion did it in a magazine and set it up and had a lot

:14:20. > :14:30.of fun. And ID and. I had a lot of fun. -- And I did. I am not crazy

:14:31. > :14:39.about going to a party and having them Jamie a centrefold and saying,

:14:40. > :14:44.would you sign it? -- showing me. I just say, no, I won't. You carry

:14:45. > :14:55.that around all the time, do you? It was an iconic image of you lying

:14:56. > :15:06.on your side with just your hand protecting a modesty. Which are not

:15:07. > :15:12.small. It made me happy. You did not make any money out of it, did you?

:15:13. > :15:17.That is a regret, because you talk about the fact a lot of actors do

:15:18. > :15:21.not have control over their image, the tough studio contracts we have

:15:22. > :15:27.seen in the past. Do you feel we are celebrating actors and yet there is

:15:28. > :15:35.a lot of exploitation that goes on? Yes, I feel that. Sean Connery has

:15:36. > :15:43.handled his career brilliantly, but he is a little angry about the way

:15:44. > :15:50.it was handled and he never got the big bucks from Bond. That is one of

:15:51. > :15:58.the reasons I turned it down. After a certain period, you think, I am

:15:59. > :16:02.not going to do it any more. As you look back, you say there are times

:16:03. > :16:06.where you say you do not hold grudges, but people kicked you when

:16:07. > :16:13.you were down, but you do not want to get even with them. No. You have

:16:14. > :16:19.had some very low moments. You did not make the money you could have

:16:20. > :16:25.the in Cosmopolitan. In the mid-19 90s, the mid-19 90s comedy were

:16:26. > :16:33.declared bankrupt. That was one of the points in your life? I was

:16:34. > :16:42.bankrupt. I had a hell of a good time spending the money. It did not

:16:43. > :16:50.take me long to come back from the depth of financial poverty to making

:16:51. > :17:00.a lot of money. It is a crazy business. You talk to somebody and

:17:01. > :17:07.they say, you were a bankrupt, but in 2000, you were making $3 million.

:17:08. > :17:14.That is not bad. So you bounced back again. I fought my way back and did

:17:15. > :17:18.very well. But there are some things for which you have paid a heavy

:17:19. > :17:23.price which you can't bounce back from in your career. You were so

:17:24. > :17:30.applauded for carry out your own stunts during your career and you

:17:31. > :17:35.are now really feeling that. You say, for instance, you broke your

:17:36. > :17:39.tailbone during deliverance. You say, my backache, that is

:17:40. > :17:46.deliverance. You have pains that you contribute to your various films. My

:17:47. > :17:55.entire body is a route map to all my injuries and stunts that I did in

:17:56. > :18:04.some macho stupidity moment, I said, I can do that. I paid for it. I am

:18:05. > :18:09.paying for it now. But if you asked me to do it over again, I would

:18:10. > :18:19.probably do it. I loved going through the waterfall. There was

:18:20. > :18:26.such a euphoria. You know. And your news, your shoulders. And when you

:18:27. > :18:35.are starting with Clint Eastwood in one film, there was an iron chair.

:18:36. > :18:42.When I was fighting, he was a stuntman, he picked up the wrong

:18:43. > :18:48.chair. The chair was not breakable. We had a breakable chat. This was

:18:49. > :18:59.the real deal. He hits me across the face with it. Broke all the bones up

:19:00. > :19:05.here. I never quite got over it. It still hurts me. And it affected how

:19:06. > :19:10.you could eat. I could not eat anything, I could not chew. The

:19:11. > :19:19.thought of a stake was so thrilling for me, but I could not eat it. So I

:19:20. > :19:26.had to have the juice of the state. As a result of that, you lost a lot

:19:27. > :19:29.of weight for various reasons. In the mid-19 80s there was a rumour

:19:30. > :19:36.that you might be suffering from HIV/Aids. When Sally Field, who is

:19:37. > :19:39.no longer with you then, was asked whether you were suffering from

:19:40. > :19:47.aids, her response was, I do not think he is. But there's always

:19:48. > :19:53.something going on a roundabout. I heard that she said that. I was very

:19:54. > :20:00.heart by it. I did not know what she meant. It was not good. What do you

:20:01. > :20:09.think she might have meant? I think she meant I was crazy and loved life

:20:10. > :20:19.and had a lot of girlfriends. One of them might have had aids. But it is

:20:20. > :20:25.not true. I did not have aids. I was losing all of this week because I

:20:26. > :20:41.could not even chew. You cannot gain weight from pudding. I guess you

:20:42. > :20:43.can. It was a rough time for me. You stopped the pain with morphine and

:20:44. > :20:50.other prescription painkillers to the extent that you became addicted

:20:51. > :20:57.to prescription pills and had to go to drug rehabilitation. Drug abuse,

:20:58. > :21:06.obviously not illicit drugs in your case, is that part and parcel of the

:21:07. > :21:13.Hollywood scene? I am not going to take the rap for Hollywood. They

:21:14. > :21:21.would not take the rap for me. If you get hurt as badly as I was, you

:21:22. > :21:31.cannot eat, so somebody gives you a pill and the pain goes away, you go,

:21:32. > :21:45.will be. You will just have a lot of them. It made me happy. I was also

:21:46. > :21:54.just a piece of crap in terms of a father, a husband, any of those

:21:55. > :21:59.things, to take responsibility. I love my family more than life. That

:22:00. > :22:14.is your son, who you adopted when you married to a second wife. He is

:22:15. > :22:24.amazing. He is an editor and now. He edits one of my films. I just adore

:22:25. > :22:31.him. You are approaching your 80th birthday and you have said you look

:22:32. > :22:36.back on your career that teaching is now the most important thing in your

:22:37. > :22:42.professional life, because you teach young actors. You would take being a

:22:43. > :22:53.good teacher over being a good actor. Is that what you hope your

:22:54. > :22:59.legacy would be? I do feel that way. Teaching is like directing. You are

:23:00. > :23:06.in control and you have some young people who are dependent upon you. I

:23:07. > :23:21.have been very proud of the students I have taught. They are great kids.

:23:22. > :23:33.One lady is in her 80s. I call her a kid. She makes me happy. What I

:23:34. > :23:45.teach in my classes is not to act, but to let them catch your act. You

:23:46. > :23:54.cannot catch them acting. You say you are not bitter. And that you

:23:55. > :24:02.hate self pity. I do. Argue a happy person? Until I sat down with you, I

:24:03. > :24:09.was really happy. But Reynolds, let us end it for you. Thank you very

:24:10. > :24:11.much for coming on HARDtalk. You are welcome.