The first failure that made Burt Reynolds fear for his career: “I never understood why”
While many people dream of becoming film stars, the reality of the industry is much rockier than a lot of people realise. There’s no proper security in being an actor unless you play your cards right and manage your money well; otherwise, a few wrong moves might have you falling from grace. In some instances, actors find their careers ruined because of their own controversial behaviour – think Armie Hammer – but then there are those who find themselves victims of bad reviews, leaving them wondering if this is it.
When Burt Reynolds starred in a certain 1980s film, the actor, who had risen to success in the 1960s with a role in the show Gunsmoke before appearing in ‘70s classics like Smokey and the Bandit and Deliverance, found himself in a precarious position. He might have earned acclaim with these movies – and he was even in the running to star in The Godfather – but by the start of the ’80s, he was heading towards a period of decline.
In 1981, he appeared in the David Steinberg-directed Paternity, which also starred Beverly D’Angelo and Paul Dooley, and followed Reynolds’ Buddy as he decides to seek out a surrogate mother to make him a father. The film failed to impress critics, although it did make $11million in profit with a total box office gross of $18.8m. That’s still not a lot, though, and with a lack of interest from critics, it became a low moment in Reynolds’ career, far removed from his days of appearing in gritty films like Deliverance.
It got to a point where Reynolds feared that the film would actually ruin his career, and to be honest, it definitely didn’t help. Two years later, he appeared in Stroker Ace, which was also a major failure, suggesting that Reynolds’ box office success might’ve been coming to an end. Talking to the New York Times, the actor said, “I never understood why the critics were so hostile to Paternity. I always knew what kind of picture it was; I didn’t buy any tuxedos for the awards shows when I made that film. But it’s not a terrible film.”
He added, “I think it got the worst reviews that I’ve had in eight or nine years. Rex Reed once said to me in a shining moment of truth, ‘You know, the critics have never been able to hurt you, and that’s probably what gets us so angry.’ Reviews of my movies have usually been bad, but 83 per cent of the movies still made money. I keep track of these things.”
Reynolds had to reckon with the fact that he was failing at the box office, and he couldn’t help but feel nervous about the possibility of his career sagging towards an end. “Paternity probably eventually will turn a profit. By my standards and by the studio’s standards, it will be a tremendous flop because it didn’t make $45m. Of course, if IBM made a $2m profit this year, everyone would say, ‘What a fantastic year.’ For me, a $2m profit is a disaster. But what scared me more than anything else was that for the first time, the reviews really did have an effect on box office. They kept people away.”
Luckily, Reynolds eventually bounced back from a string of failures, even earning an Academy Award nomination for Boogie Nights in 1997.
