‘City Heat’: When Burt Reynolds and Clint Eastwood were fired on the same day
Burt Reynolds is one of the nefarious bad boys of the film industry, with a reputation for doing things on his own terms and often getting in trouble for it. After building a name for himself as one of Hollywood’s heartthrobs with guest roles on television shows such as Flight, The Lawless Years and Pony Express, Reynolds signed a contract with Universal Studios and starred in the hit show Riverboat, with people comparing his talent to the likes of Marlon Brando but with a slightly less reliable working style, with the actor quitting after just 20 episodes and later expressing regret over the decision that made booking future roles very difficult.
However, he managed to turn things around and eventually saw himself on the silver screen, finding success with films like Deliverance, Navajo Joe and The Longest Yard. During his time on the backlot, he formed a close friendship with Clint Eastwood and revealed the shenanigans the pair got up to behind the scenes.
While both starred in very different films, Reynolds and Eastwood ended up working together in 1984 on the crime comedy City Heat, which follows two men who put their differences aside as they try to capture a mobster called Primo Pitt in order to save those closest to them. This was the only time the pair appeared on screen together, but they met many times during the filming of their other projects, with Reynolds describing their antics off-screen that often got them in trouble.
Eastwood seems like a serious and dedicated actor, but he didn’t always think highly of the types of films he starred in. Reynolds said that he wasn’t convinced that the combination of action and comedy required much talent, and perhaps it was this disdain towards the genre that led to both actors being fired by Universal on the same day.
When describing the day they were let go, Reynolds explained, “…Just from being bad actors. And they were right. We were leaving the studio, walking towards his truck, and I said, ‘You’re in a hell of a lot of trouble.’ And he said, ‘Why?’ And I said, ‘Because I can learn to act. You, on the other hand, what are you going to do? You’re never going to learn to be funny or have a personality or speak.’ And he said—it was so right on—’I’m just going to do what the public wants. I’m going to kill a lot of people and beat up a lot of people.’ I said, ‘Yeah, you’re great at that.'”
Despite this incident, Eastwood forged a lifelong career from these types of roles, while Reynolds will be eternally remembered as one of the most unpredictable stars, never playing it safe and ducking out of projects when he found something more interesting.
His habit of jumping ship would be undeniably annoying for any producer or studio, but it is this quality that perhaps made him so thrilling to watch and earned him a reputation as one of the most dangerous leading men. Maybe this rubbed off on Eastwood, which ultimately led to their notorious double-firing.
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