The co-star Burt Reynolds utterly hated working with: “She had this thing about me”
Burt Reynolds might never have achieved the dramatic prowess of Marlon Brando or the industry influence of Clint Eastwood, but he was an undisputed star in his heyday, balancing rugged masculinity with self-aware humour. Movies like Smokey and the Bandit made him an icon of the 1970s, while his breakout role in John Boorman’s Deliverance proved that he could do more than project charisma.
Reynolds secured his start as an actor after an injury forced him to stop playing college football. He knocked around on television for a while, playing cops and hunky blacksmiths before he bridged the gap to movies. He hit the peak of his career in the late 1970s and early ‘80s, playing hyper-masculine characters in movies like Semi-Tough and Cannonball Run. He rarely appeared in critically acclaimed movies, but it didn’t matter; he was one of the most popular stars in America.
By the late ‘80s, however, Reynolds’ career was faltering. His characters were becoming more and more repetitive, and he was in danger of becoming a parody of himself. During this period, he made a string of box office bombs, including one which involved his worst experience with a female co-star.
The film was 1988’s Switching Channels, a remake of the 1928 play (and 1931 film) The Front Page, which was also adapted into the classic 1940 romantic comedy His Girl Friday. Reynolds stars as the director of a cable network whose ex-wife, played by Kathleen Turner, is his star news anchor. They spar constantly, but ultimately, of course, fall madly back in love. Unfortunately, things were not so romantic off-screen. In a 2018 interview with The Palm Springs Desert Sun, Reynolds identified the film as one of his biggest professional mistakes, pointing directly to Turner as the cause.
“That was the only leading lady I couldn’t get along with at all,” he confessed. “She had this thing about me and she was probably right. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. But, at least I was trying to be nice to everybody.”
When the interviewer asked whether he was talking about Turner, Reynolds simply replied, “Yep.” He may as well have said, “Next question” while he was at it.
The tension between the two stars reportedly lingered throughout the production. Switching Channels relied heavily on the chemistry between its leads, with much of the humour built around rapid-fire exchanges and romantic friction. When that relationship was strained behind the scenes, it inevitably seeped into the atmosphere on set, making the shoot far more difficult than either actor might have expected.
For Reynolds, the experience became another unfortunate chapter in a period when his career was already losing momentum. While he had spent years coasting on charm and blockbuster appeal, projects like Switching Channels failed to capture the same audience enthusiasm that had once made him one of Hollywood’s most bankable names. By the end of the decade, the film stood as a reminder that even the biggest stars could struggle when the magic behind the camera disappeared.
This is a fairly diplomatic description of an unpleasant on-set experience, especially considering that Reynolds was not the only one who found Turner to be a challenging co-star. Although she was one of the most prominent actors in the ‘80s with movies like Romancing the Stone, Body Heat, and Peggy Sue Got Married, she frequently clashed with other actors and suffered a sharp career decline.
For her part, Turner was equally unimpressed with Reynolds and once said that he was responsible for the worst on-screen kiss of her career. In a 2018 interview with Vanity Fair, she gave her side of the feud.
“Working with Burt Reynolds was terrible,” she said, revealing that he made her cry on the very first day of shooting. “He said something about not taking second place to a woman,” she continued. “His behaviour was shocking. It never occurred to me that I wasn’t someone’s equal.”
Needless to say, they never worked together again.
