Actor Burt Reynolds, whose film career spanned more than 50 years, died Thursday at the age of 82.
He spoke with Here & Now’s Jeremy Hobson in 2015 about his book, “But Enough About Me,” and his Hollywood career.
The swaggering actor rose to fame in “Deliverance” and “Smokey and the Bandit” in the 1970s, but he was perhaps most remembered for his role as a porn film director in the movie “Boogie Nights,” in which he starred alongside Mark Wahlberg and Julianne Moore. But Reynolds almost didn’t take that part. He repeatedly turned down the role before he finally accepted.
“I had so much trepidation about that film,” Reynolds said. “I thought it was a very daring film. And that wouldn’t hold me back, but I thought it was really stepping into territory that hadn’t been touched on film.”
For all his cinematic hits, Reynolds also had his share of misses: He rejected the role of Han Solo in “Star Wars” and later turned down “Pretty Woman.” Perhaps because of those missed opportunities, Reynolds said his advice for young actors would be to “do everything possible” to get on stage or in front of the camera.
“You learn more from doing a bad film sometimes than you do a good one,” he said, “and I think I should know an awful lot by now.”
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. 9(MDAwMTM1NDgzMDEyMzg2MDcwMzJjODJiYQ004))
