Burt Reynolds Honored At Key West Film Fest
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KEY WEST (CBSMiami/FKNB) - Actor, director and producer Burt Reynolds received the Golden Key Career Achievement Award from the Key West Film Festival Thursday night.
Reynolds was in the island city for a screening of the documentary "The Bandit," a CMT original from filmmaker Jesse Moss, that was one of the highlights of the festival's fifth year. "The Bandit" explores the making of the unlikely smash hit, "Smokey & The Bandit," as well as 1970s superstar Reynolds and his best friend and stunt double, Hal Needham.
During the discussion with David Fear of "Rolling Stone", Reynolds reminisced about Needham handing him a script he had co-written for a film called "Smokey & the Bandit."
"I read it and I said, 'Hal, this is the worst script I've ever read in my life," Reynolds recalled. "And he said, 'Yeah, but will you do it?' and I said, 'Sure'."
Reynolds also spoke of the fun he had working on the film with cast mates including comedian Jackie Gleason, who he praised as a master of the vaudeville school of entertainment.
"I never studied my lines, because he never said his lines," Reynolds quipped. "I never knew what he was going to say, so whenever he stopped talking, I would just throw something in."
The Key West Film Festival continues through Sunday with afternoon and evening screenings, question-and-answer sessions with filmmakers and industry insiders, and the presentation of the second annual Brett Ratner Florida Film Scholarship to a Florida student filmmaker.
The Florida Keys News Bureau contributed to this report.