The Burt Reynolds role Jack Nicholson and Paul Newman didn’t want to play: “They both passed”
Things could have turned out very differently for Burt Reynolds had he accepted even one of the countless high-profile roles he turned down at the peak of his popularity, with Jack Nicholson’s success serving as a constant reminder of what could have been.
The actor was desperate to play Randall P McMurphy in Miloš Forman’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and he was the director’s top choice. He was overlooked in favour of Nicholson, though, which saw the latter win the Academy Award for ‘Best Actor’.
History repeated itself in a roundabout way a decade later when James L Brooks offered Terms of Endearment‘s Garrett Breedlove to Reynolds, who knocked it back and then watched Nicholson once again stroll onto the stage at the Oscars and collect his prize, this time for ‘Best Supporting Actor’.
That’s without mentioning James Bond, Han Solo, or Richard Gere’s Pretty Woman role, all of which would have had a transformative impact on his career. Reynolds may have been the biggest star in Hollywood in his pomp, but he also developed a well-earned reputation for being the industry’s ultimate nearly man.
He would have been well within his rights to view Nicholson with envious eyes, but the shoe was at least placed on the other foot on one occasion. Reynolds forever rued the two parts he passed up that went the former’s way, only for the pair to switch places when he ended up bagging a lead that had initially been earmarked for not only Nicholson but Paul Newman.
Bill Forsyth’s 1989 crime comedy Breaking In may have flopped at the box office, but it features one of Reynolds’ best and most overlooked performances. Relying on his charm, the actor is excellent as ageing thief Ernie Mullins, who accidentally finds a protege when burgling a house on what was supposed to be his last job.
The director wanted John Mahoney for Mullins, but the studio demanded a bigger name. Thanks to producer Harry Gittes, who’d worked on Drive, He Said, and Goin’ South – and ironically served as the namesake for the Chinatown protagonist Reynolds coveted – it wound up with one of the biggest.
“Through Harry, Jack Nicholson read the script,” Forsyth told Talkhouse. “Paul Newman did, too; god bless him. They both passed. We made our way through the A-list, and I got to the point where I changed my mind and said, ‘OK, let’s go all out. If we’re gonna have a movie star, let’s have somebody like Burt Reynolds.'”
Fortunately, Reynolds was nowhere near as reluctant as Nicholson and Newman, seeing Breaking In as a change of pace. “I’ve spent all that time making the characters me,” he said of his decision to go against the grain. “This is the first time I’ve done it the other way around.” He didn’t quite disappear into the role, but it remains an underrated turn.
