Burt Reynolds Hated Making Boogie Nights
The mustached legend has some choice words for director Paul Thomas Anderson.
Burt Reynolds had quite the run in Hollywood. His offhand manner and iconic mustache brought louche appeal to classics like The Longest Yard, White Lightning, and Smokey and the Bandit. His flings with Judy Carne, Dinah Shore, Sally Field, and Loni Anderson earned him a reputation as one of the industry’s most prolific lotharios.
That playboy pedigree would be make for a brilliantly meta performance as porn legend Jack Horner in 1997’s Boogie Nights, for which he received his only Academy Award nomination. Though Paul Thomas Anderson’s masterpiece about the 70’s porn industry may seem to be the culmination of Reynolds’s career, Reynolds reveals that he hated making the film.
During a media tour for his forthcoming memoir But Enough About Me, the 79 year old had some choice words for the auteur.
When asked if he’d ever work with Paul Thomas Anderson again, Reynolds told GQ, “I don’t think so. Personality-wise, we didn’t fit.” He continued, “I think mostly because he was young and full of himself. Every shot we did, it was like the first time [that shot had ever been done].”
Reynolds hated the experience so much he turned down a role in Anderson’s acclaimed follow-up Magnolia and has never even seen the finished film.
Even more shocking, Reynolds took issue with the film’s subject matter, pornography.
“I don’t like those people, I feel like they are due for a very hard time because they tried to do legitimate film and they’re never going to be able to,” Reynolds told The Guardian. “It’s sad, they were very sad people and they showed up a lot of times on set. It’s a one-way street, if you go down that road as an actor, you’re finished.”
Regardless of his thoughts on the film, Burt seemed right at home during a reunion with his beautiful Boogie Nights co-star Julianne Moore at a recent taping of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
He’s still got it.
It's a "Boogie Nights" reunion! @_juliannemoore #burtreynolds @briftdotorg @colbertlateshow pic.twitter.com/ZUYZOw81Si
— Leslie Gray Streeter (@LeslieStreeter) November 17, 2015
More #burtreynolds and @_juliannemoore @colbertlateshow pic.twitter.com/6c3STbGjCm
— Leslie Gray Streeter (@LeslieStreeter) November 17, 2015
Photos by Silver Screen Collection / Getty Images
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