Burt Reynolds’ unfulfilled dream of sticking it to his critics: “That’d shock them”
Man, it would have been great to have been Burt Reynolds.
At the peak of his powers, the Michigan-born star was one of the most famous people on the planet, with hit film after hit film to his name. His sculpted good looks (and world-class facial hair) elevated him to a kind of rarified air that we mere mortals can barely dream of. He was, quite simply, the man. However, all that glitters is not gold.
Reynolds was a guaranteed moneymaker in his prime, but he wasn’t always a hit with the critics. Those of snootier persuasion considered him as little more than a seat-filler; a handsome, empty-headed mannequin with little-to-no ‘genuine’ acting talent. Marlon Brando considered him so lowly that he vetoed his casting in The Godfather, sparking a long-running feud between the two icons. When his career took a nosedive in the mid-1980s, there were many who rejoiced in his misery.
Before he fell off the map, the star of Smokey and the Bandit was all too aware of his reputation. While he probably slept easy at night on a bed of cash, comments about his perceived lack of ability must have gotten to him. He had several ideas about how to get back at those who had dismissed him, including one that would have seen him revisit his roots.
”I’d love to do Broadway,” he told The New York Times in 1981. ”I’d like to do something that’d really shock them. I think I could really shock them.”
Technically, Reynolds had “done Broadway” 20 years before this interview. He originated the role of Skip in the Hugh Wheeler play Look, We’ve Come Through in 1961. This was very early in his career, before he’d made a name for himself in the movies. He was so low down the pecking order, when the play went on tour following a successful run in New York, he doubled up as the cast’s bus driver. It was that same year he landed his first film roles and, once that part of his life took off, he never went back to the stage.
Eventually, the once-and-future heartthrob would get his revenge, and he did it without treading a single board. In 1997, Reynolds starred as Jack Horner, a porn director with a heart of gold, in Paul Thomas Anderson’s sensational Boogie Nights. Having been out of the spotlight for a decade, suddenly, Burt was back.
Critics loved the film and they loved him in it. He was nominated for his one and only Academy Award for ‘Best Supporting Actor’ and stood a decent chance of winning, but ran into the brick wall that was Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting. Finally, he had the satisfaction of proving that he could actually act. Even if he reportedly hated every second of making Boogie Nights.
Reputation is a funny old thing. Even with all the success in the world, Reynolds couldn’t move past the fact that people thought he wasn’t very good. It’s quite sad that he let this dictate so much of his thinking, when the so-called ‘lesser’ films he made brought so much joy to so many people.
