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• Mr. Reynolds' official site
• The Longest Yard
• Mr. Reynolds' bio

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Tavis: I'm pleased to welcome the legendary Burt Reynolds to this program. He's had me laughing already before the camera started rolling. His terrific career in Hollywood includes classic films like "Deliverance," "Smokey and the Bandit," and "Boogie Nights." Retirement, though, a word apparently not in his vocabulary. Because this year alone--get this, this would be a career for some people, in this one year, Burt Reynolds is expected to be seen in eight--count 'em, eight different movies in one year. Later this year, you can catch him in "The Dukes of Hazzard," of course based on--

Burt Reynolds: There's only two good ones.

Tavis: Only two good ones. Ha ha ha! He said, "There's eight of 'em, but only two good ones." Anyway, you got paid for all eight, didn't you?

Reynolds: Yes, I did.

Tavis: You got paid for all eight. That's all that matters.

Reynolds: I think.

Tavis: On May 27, he stars in the remake of his classic film "The Longest Yard." The picture also stars Chris Rock and Adam Sandler. Here now a scene from "The Longest Yard."

Scarborough: I'm not asking him to play. I'll coach. I'm Nate Scarborough.

Paul: Nate Scarborough, the Heisman Trophy winner from Oklahoma?

Scarborough: The inmate from cellblock D. But about 100 years ago when I could run and gun, yeah, I was a Sooner then.

Caretaker: I heard you were dead.

Scarborough: No, I ain't dead. I've been right here rotting, waiting for a chance to get back at those sadistic guards, waiting for this.

Tavis: Burt Reynolds, nice to have you on the program.

Reynolds: Thank you, Tavis.

Tavis: First of all, I gotta thank you for keeping your word. We met each other for the first time a few months ago at Ossie Davis' funeral, one of your longtime friends. Did, what, two TV series together?

Reynolds: We were friends since 1964, I think, and--he's up there arguing with God right now, and God's saying, "I want your voice," and he's saying, "No, you gave it to me, and I have it."

Tavis: Ha ha ha ha!

Reynolds: He was an amazing man. The thought that came--and I'm sure came to you, too--in a very stunning way at that funeral was what a giant hole he will leave not only as an actor and as a friend and all, but in the movement, because he was the only one I knew that could jump from Martin Luther over to Malcolm X and come back and then go do a Kiwanis club meeting in Alabama.

Tavis: Ha ha ha ha! That's quite a stretch, isn't it?

Reynolds: Yeah, and everybody going, "What a guy." You know, he was absolutely amazing. He was a surrogate father, a surrogate brother. He was the classiest man I ever met.

Tavis: Yeah. I see Miss Ruby Dee at an event this weekend, and...

Reynolds: She's stronger than, you know...

Tavis: Yeah. Still looks great.

Reynolds: Doesn't she?

Tavis: I want to thank you, anyway. I met--I was saying I met Burt Reynolds at Ozzie Davis' funeral, and I asked him to come on the program, he said, I'll make it happen, and sure enough, here he is. You hear that all the time from Hollywood types. "Sure, Tavis, I'll come on," but you actually showed up, so thank you. I appreciate that. Eight movies in one year. Now, I heard the joke earlier. You said only two of 'em are good, but heh heh heh. But still, eight?

Reynolds: I know two of 'em are good. I don't know about the other...

Tavis: You haven't seen the other ones yet. But eight? How do you do eight movies in one year?

Reynolds: You just--you don't sleep a lot. You don't take any days off. But when you get to be my age, first of all, it's amazing that you're working. Happy about that. And you're alive, and that's always amazing to a lot of people.

Tavis: Ha ha ha!

Reynolds: And the only good thing about--the only thing good about getting old is that people think, "I bet you something sage is gonna fall out of his mouth." You know, kind of listen to you. And there's some pretty good parts, you know, when you get a little bit older. Gene Hackman can't play all them parts.

Tavis: Yeah. Yeah. Heh heh heh heh.

Reynolds: He's too rich, anyway. What the hell? There's--

Tavis: Why do you still feel the need to work this hard? I mean, you have made your mark. You have done your thing. Clearly you're still talented, but you've done your thing. Why work this hard? Why not get sleep? Why not go sit in the Riviera somewhere or go back to Florida and sit on the beach in Jupiter or--why work so hard?

Reynolds: Well, I have great passion for the work. I love the work, and I feel for me, 'cause I'm not a golfer, you know...when you live in Jupiter, Florida, and you're not a golfer, it's a strange place to live, because my next-door neighbor's Jack Nicklaus, and across is Shark and Lee Trevino, and all that, and I ain't gonna play golf with them.

Tavis: Yeah. Ha ha ha!

Reynolds: And, uh, then I've got a shot knee and a shot hip, and everything kind of goes south on me when I swing, so I don't play golf, and I never was a--I was from that generation in the fifties where tennis was a, you know, sissy sport, so we didn't know about, you know, how tough Jimmy Connors was then, you know. I mean, it was a sissy sport. So it's difficult for me to get anybody to come to my house and box me or play football, the only social sports I know. So I go--socially I feel at home on a set, always have. I know most of the crew. Course, what I get now is, "You worked with my father on--" "You worked with my grandfather--" "Shut up! I don't wanna know about what--where you're from." Uh, "Trained my father." "Thank you." It's nice. I mean, it's a very warm, nice feeling. It's kind of a little nest, and it feels good, and then you socially, you see the people on the weekends or in the evening or whatever, and you get to meet sexy people like your former guest here. This lady was just walking by me, and I fainted, that you were talking to.

Tavis: Speaking of--that's a perfect setup. Speaking of you and women who you have found beautiful down through the years, I was reviewing your biography, which came out a few years ago and reminded that only Burt Reynolds--true story here, people. Only Burt Reynolds could be on his deathbed and pick up the nurse who was attending him.

Reynolds: Well, it was easy at that time.

Tavis: Tell me the story.

Reynolds: It was a dying wish. How could she turn me down?

Tavis: No, no.

Reynolds: I mean, I said, "Look, if I make it out of this alive--" And it looked bad.

Tavis: Yeah. So what'd you say? I wanna hear this line.

Reynolds: I said, "If I come out of this alive, could I have the pleasure of your company, just to be in your presence. It makes me feel like I'm going to make it. Not you, but make it." She smiled, and I knew I was gonna make it then. Said, "Look, if you were gonna take me, just let me come back for this date." He was good to me.

Tavis: Now, what--and you did go out with this woman.

Reynolds: I did go out with her.

Tavis: You survived, yeah.

Reynolds: She told me a lot of stuff that I didn't--one thing I became very cognizant of is that when I was in a coma for a little while, and you do hear everything, so I've had some friends that were in comas, and you--I go up, and I talk and talk and talk, and I know they can hear me, 'cause I--these two ladies were talking about their apartment, and I thinking, "What the hell are you talking about? I'm dying here." Course, my eyes were rolled back, and I was, you know, in a coma, but they were sitting there, "What did you pay for that apartment?" And I told them all later what they said. They were shocked that could I hear them. And then when I started to come out of it and saw this pretty lady, and she said, "Your heart stopped," and the doctor said--I know this kid, and he ripped off his University of Georgia ring and climbed up over me, and they had taken my spleen out. Jammed his hand under the chest and grabbed my heart and squeezed it like that, and then they said, "We got something." And it was one of the very, very early heart massages, so you know--but at that point, I had had pretty much everything massaged, but not my heart, and that--that was a good thing.

Tavis: Yeah. What did--and I don't want to get too, too deep here, but I am fascinated by this, because I saw you, again, at Ossie Davis' funeral, and in the right occasions, you obviously can be very introspective and very philosophical. Did you learn anything from that experience, or were you too young at the time to really appreciate it? 'Cause you were young. You were pretty young then.

Reynolds: I was 18. Yeah. I learned something very quickly, and that's that it can be over very quickly. Uh, I suppose, in retrospect, I got a deep feeling of faith. It's never left me, but it's not--it's not about a certain religion or being in a certain building or a certain... It's just that there is greater power, and I've been in my fashion, as the song goes, "Very true to You in my fashion." I've had a pretty interesting relationship with whoever it is up there and a lot of talks, lot of conversation, and that's where Mr. Davis used to come in. It's important to talk to--a lot to somebody. And that came out of that, and the other thing that came out of that was that I--My father and I had been really butting heads. He was the chief of police, and I had, as usual, been going about 110 miles an hour and got a ticket, and I was worried about that ticket. I had it crumpled up in my hands, and I had taken a shortcut down a dirt road, and some guys were stealing cement blocks, and they had the truck out across the road with the cab pointed this way, with the bright lights on. And I had the ticket in my hand, and I looked up, saw the bright lights, and kept going, but I wasn't going my usual 110, because I had just got a ticket. I was down to about 40 miles and hour and in a big, old--God love 'em--Buicks, and I was quick enough and fast enough, in phenomenal shape. I'd just stepped off a football field from football season. It was Christmas, night before Christmas. And I--instead of hitting the brakes, because I saw this flatbed with blocks, I dove under--under the dashboard. Whole top of the car came off, and all the bricks came down on me. And I was lying there, and was--never lost consciousness, but I knew-...it was like, you know, Tyson hit me with a really good kidney shot. I knew something was torn up in there. And they were...-took forever and ever. They had no Jaws of Life, and it took forever to get me out of there, and there was a lieutenant. I'll never forget his name. It was Clark Bibler. The car looked about like this, and I said to him, I actually said, "Don't tell my father."

Tavis: Ha ha ha ha!

Reynolds: Like he was gonna go, "Yeah, that looks the same."

Tavis: Yeah.

Reynolds: "Don't tell my father." When they put me in an ambulance and a kid from high school was in the ambulance, and his name was Tommy Price. I said, "Tommy, pray for me. I don't know how to pray." And he was a very religious kid, and he was praying for me, prayed for me all the way to the hospital, and I made it. My father and I after that were sort of--kind of came together in a strange way, but never the way that I always wanted, which was--I always felt when I went to an Italian family or Jewish family, I thought they must have dropped me off on the--'cause my father, we don't act like that. We don't kiss. We don't hug. We don't--and I was very demonstrative and wanted him to be, and it took a long, long time, but when--he lived to be 94. About when he was 89, about 90, we were--

Tavis: Hugging and...

Reynolds: Hugging, yeah, and made up for a lot of time, said a lot of things we should have said, made peace with him, but I thought I had made peace much earlier, but I really hadn't.

Tavis: When you and your former wife Loni Anderson adopted--Quinton?

Reynolds: Yeah.

Tavis: Your son Quinton, how did that relationship or lack thereof for those years with your father, impact your being a father to Quinton?

Reynolds: Oh, It was--it has a tremendous impact. I mean, first of all, I was gonna give him so much love that I was gonna drive him a little crazy maybe. You can't love a child too much. But everybody always handed me babies, and they all look like oatmeal to me. They'd say, "Hey, isn't that a pretty baby?" and I'd go, "Yeah," and I was thinking, "They look just like oatmeal."

Tavis: Ha ha ha!

Reynolds: "What are you talking about?" And then Loni and I got, Quinton, and I went, "Now that, that's a beautiful baby." "It's yours." "What a beau--" And it was--he was--"It." He was two days old, and I just--I fell in love with him, and so fast, so quickly. And I loved to change his diapers. I loved--I loved to be--the smell of his head when he was a baby, and my affection for him is so real today, right now. We're very affectionate, and he's such a gentlemen. But I just was determined that if he didn't know anything else, he was gonna know he could tell me anything, say anything to me, I wasn't gonna judge him, I was just gonna love him, and hopefully be there for him. Not that my father wasn't a phenomenal man, great man, but he wasn't gregarious and open and loving, you know, demonstrative, and I guess sometimes kids are embarr--especially young men are a little embarrassed about that, but he's totally unembarrassed about being kissed on the cheek by his father.

Tavis: We mentioned earlier in this conversation sports and your love of it and your involvement in it. We also mentioned, of course, that you've established--after all these years, established yourself as one of the finest actors in Hollywood over the years with a long résumé to prove it of movies. I wonder, though, how you think your life...-how different your life might have been had you not blown out your knees and been a professional football player as people thought you were going to be. You spend time thinking about that at all? I mean, you ain't done bad, my friend. You ain't done bad. How different might it have been, you think?

Reynolds: Well, I think about that a lot, in terms of people wonder why professional athletes and actors immediately have a sort of bonding. It's very simple. It's very easy to figure it out, because we're as good as our last picture. They're as good as their last ballgame. High highs, low lows. My career chart looks like a heart attack victim, and you look at any quarterback, you know, it's--

Tavis: Up and down.

Reynolds: There's nobody, except Montana, maybe, who goes like this, but--Theismann was like that, and Bradshaw certainly started off very erratic, and-- when I asked Mean Joe Green and--and Terry and guys like that to be--have a little part in the picture, people would say, "Why--how do you know they can act?" I said, "What, you think they're gonna be nervous?" You just win the Super Bowl, I don't think they're gonna be nervous. And of course they immediately understand when you say, "I'll be back." They look in your eye, and they go, "Oh, yeah, he'll be back." I never questioned anybody's ability to come back. The thing that they have to get, as Sly so eloquently put it, you got a tiger in your eye, can never go away. I don't care how old you are, it can't go away, and the thing that actors have that athletes can't is that afterlife, where--an athlete's career is over at a certain age, and yet he's young, he's a young man, if he's got something like this to go to, where I can still--I get to beat guys up, 6'5", you know. Not after they say cut, but up until--

Tavis: Up until then, yeah. Ha ha ha.

Reynolds: Yeah. Every once in a while, they look in my eye, and they go, "That old man, I don't know. I think we have to kill him."

Tavis: Yeah.

Reynolds: And they're right. They would. They'd have to kill me. As long as you got them thinking that way, you're safe, see.

Tavis: Let me ask you, to the point you made earlier--I'm just--I'm loving this conversation. To the point you made earlier, which I wanted to get to anyway, how have you navigated this heart monitor career of yours? 'Cause you have been up, and you've been down, and you've been at the top, and you've had to make comebacks. You've had an up-and-down career, and nobody's judged, you know, by one project. It is a body of work. But how have you navigated this up-and-down process of a career?

Reynolds: I think you are judged in this country. I think you're judged in this country especially now, much more than when I started. It's instant. Everything's instant. Instant food, instant this, instant that. Instant pleasure. They get bored very quickly. They, whoever they are. So what do you have build up inside of you is this is not--it's not over. This is a minor setback, and what am I learning from this? Because there must be a plan, there must be a reason that I'm being suppressed down. It's because when I do get back in a certain position, I'm supposed to be a little smart. And if that be the case, then I'm just about brilliant now. If you learn by crashing and burning, oh, man, I've got my Master's Degree.

Tavis: You can do a seminar on that, huh?

Reynolds: I can do a seminar on get up and go on, you know. Every actor, especially actors, it's about the part, it's not about when you can play it or not. It's about whether you are going to get the chance to play it. And when I teach young people, I try teach them that I could teach you, and you can be a good actor. That doesn't mean you will ever work. I have to teach you how to get the job, because then you can compete. So the first thing I'm going to teach you how to do is cold read. Then I'm going to teach you how to come in a room and look somebody in the eye and shake hands with them and somehow make an indentation in their mind where at the end of the day they go what about that one guy? I liked that guy. And that's what it's about. There's 80 million people out there that want to be or think they can be--everybody thinks they can act. It's just that when the big red light comes on sometimes, they turn to water. And it's whether they can gather themselves up and do it. I came from a generation of live television where 70 million people were watching and the light came on, and you had to deliver. And if you didn't, word got around real quick, and you never got another job. And also there were no stuntmen. My roommate was Rip Torn, and Rip said I got a job for you. I said great. Have I got dialogue? He said you got eight lines. I said eight lines? That's great. And then he said we're going to set you on fire, and I said what? He said we're going to set you on fire. I'm set on fire? Yeah. What the hell are you talking about? He said, no, I told the guy that you could do it. I went, yeah, man, how bad could it be, right? I went down there. No fire suit. No special equipment. There was a prop guy that was older than Moses standing next to me. He went, I am going to put some glue on you, son. Glue? Gonna put glue on ya, and then pfft. But he said for God's sake, son, don't breathe. Don't breathe? No, don't breathe. Go right through that. That's candy glass. Through that window? Through that window and just roll around and don't worry, we'll be out there. When? When the light goes off. When the light goes off. Yeah. So they lit me up. I didn't breathe. I went through the window. I rolled around and eventually I felt these hands and a blanket over me. I got up. The smoke went away and a guy came up and shook my hand and said, 'That was terrific.' I said, I loved it. And he said, 'Now, next week.' Next week there's another fire gag? No, no, he said, it's a high fall. High fall? I can do that. Never done stair falls, high falls, set on fire. But because it was live, I got to say the words, and then they set me on fire. So that's really how I got in the business. I came in the back door.

Tavis: Did I read somewhere right quick--my time is up and I hate this. Did I read somewhere you've broken 43 bones in your body?

Reynolds: Yeah.

Tavis: All these stunts. 43.

Reynolds: Yeah, I'm the best weathervane you know.

Tavis: All right, in 30 seconds, tell me what you loved most about this remake of the "The Longest Yard."

Reynolds: Well, I'll tell you in two words: Chris Rock, Adam Sandler. There were a lot of hits. When I saw the first guy being carried off on a stretcher, I said this is going to work. It's going to be good.

Tavis: Eight movies over the summer--over the year, I should say--you can catch Burt Reynolds in, but the "Dukes of Hazzard," I'm looking forward to seeing that, I used to love the "Dukes of Hazzard." The "Dukes of Hazzard" and of course "The Longest Yard," Burt Reynolds in those and some other stuff that I ain't got time to tell you about, but you'll be seeing it anyway. It is an honor to have you on the program.

Reynolds: My new friend. Thank you very much.

Tavis: And mine as well. Nice to have you here. Thanks for keeping your word. I appreciate it.

Reynolds: Thank you.

Tavis: A legend in his own time, Burt Reynolds. That's our show tonight. Before we say good night, though, I'd like to welcome all of you watching tonight in Alabama on Alabama public television. Nice to have you. Hope you'll catch us here weeknights here at this same time. And a reminder: you can catch me back on public radio this weekend and every weekend on PRI, Public Radio International. Check your local listings. Thanks for watching and keep the faith.