The movie Burt Reynolds gave up on halfway through: “I was going through the motions”
It doesn’t always track that actors are born performers. For the most part, you have to work very hard to make it in Hollywood. In fact, you could say that of the few people who have comparatively ‘made it’ in Tinseltown, there is only the tiniest percentage that have achieved their success without putting in the effort. Burt Reynolds was certainly a man who had put in his fair share of hours.
With a more than extensive resume, Reynolds can be considered a timely performer, if nothing else. Not all of his movies may have been worth that time, but the heartthrob was such a consistent face on screen that you’d be forgiven for thinking he always gave his movies everything he had. The truth is, some of those pictures were a little less all-consuming than they should have been.
Boogie Nights is perhaps the most famous example of Reynolds wanting to check out of a movie early, following some disgruntled feelings when working with such a green director as Paul Thomas Anderson, but one picture the star admitted he gave up on halfway throug production, seeing the movie die a death in the second half. For that reason, Stick remains one of the more forgettable moments of Reynolds’ career.
Adapted from the Elmore Leonard novel of the same name, Stick was a Universal production that suffered greatly from studio interference. Considering how desperate Reynolds was to make the film, it was a sad story: “I wanted to make that movie as soon as I read the book,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “I respected Leonard’s work. I felt I knew that Florida way of life, having been raised in the state. And I was that guy!”
But producers were unhappy about releasing the movie, so how did things go so wrong? “I turned in my cut of the picture and truly thought I had made a good film. Word got back to me quickly that the people in the Black Tower [producers of Universal] wanted a few changes”.
The executive in charge pulled the film from its release schedule and set Reynolds the task of reshooting the second half. This is not a totally uncommon request, but Reynolds seemingly mentally vacated the movie. “I gave up on the film. I didn’t fight them. I let them get the best of me,” said Reynolds.
The real nail in the coffin was the author’s response to the movie: “Leonard saw the film the day he was interviewed for a Newsweek cover and told them he hated it. After his comment, every critic attacked the film, and he wouldn’t talk to me. When I reshot the film, I was just going through the motions. I’m not proud of what I did, but I take responsibility for my actions. All I can say–and this is not in way a defence—is if you liked the first part of ‘Stick,’ that’s what I was trying to achieve throughout.”
Hollywood is all about hard work, but that doesn’t mean people can’t get jaded. Just like any other worker, when Reynolds was faced with a complete reshoot, he decided to phone it in and down tools until he could clock out and start a new day elsewhere.
