As tributes roll in for Hollywood legend Burt Reynolds, who died of cardiac arrest Thursday in Florida, a Chattanooga native in the film industry says he feels like he's lost an old friend, though he'd only known the actor for a couple of years.
Richie Walls, a producer on the Tennessee-made film "The Last Movie Star," says he first met Reynolds on-set in Nashville in 2016.
Warner Bros.Burt Reynolds, left, in "Deliverance," the film he once said was most quoted by fans. The line he heard most often? "You got a mighty pretty mouth." (Warner Bros. photo)
Burt Reynolds is shown here in New York on March 14, 2018. Reynolds, a wryly appealing and self-mocking Hollywood heartthrob who carried on a long love affair with moviegoers through performances that could often be more memorable than the films that contained them, has died, a spokesman said on Sept. 6, 2018. He was 82. (Tony Cenicola/The New York Times)Co-star Ariel Winter (of "Modern Family") "had come in a couple of days before, and I'd met her, but I didn't meet Burt until he stepped out of the Lexus," Walls says.
"It was the experience you would imagine it to be," he says of Reynolds' movie-star persona. "He was like he was in the movies, the coolest guy on Earth."
Reynolds was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood during the 1970s and '80s, with a string of successful movies including "The Longest Yard," "Deliverance" and the "Smokey and the Bandit" flicks.
"The Last Movie Star," released in 2017, was written with Reynolds in mind.
"Adam Rifkin wrote the script just for Burt," Walls says. "If Burt didn't want to do the film, the project would never have been made."
Filmed mostly in Knoxville, "The Last Movie Star" centers on a fallen movie star (Reynolds as Vic Edwards), a college football legend turned stunt double turned leading man, a career trajectory that mirrored Reynolds'. In his 80s, Vic is convinced by an old friend, played by Chevy Chase, to accept an invitation to receive a lifetime achievement award at a film festival in Nashville. The ceremonies are far from the glamour he expects. After a drunken fit, he storms out, demanding that his driver (Winter) take him back to the airport. Then, on impulse, he directs her instead to drive him to Knoxville, his hometown, where he has unfinished business.
Writer/director Rifkin based much of the humor in the film on Reynolds' own life. Some of Vic's retrospective clips in the movie are from Reynolds' films.
"The Last Movie Star" was released to On Demand and DirecTV before its national release. It played the final day of the Chattanooga Film Festival in April.
The film began streaming on Amazon Prime in July. In his syndicated television column, Kevin McDonough noted that "Critics have cited the film's sentimentality, but it gives Reynolds an interesting ride into the sunset ... ."
Walls, who lived in Chattanooga through his eighth-grade year and now is chief operating officer of Whitener Entertainment Group, says he's grateful to have had the experience.
"He definitely had more fun than anybody [on set]," Walls says. "He made the whole experience magical for everyone."
Contact Lisa Denton at ldenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6281.
In this Dec. 23, 1978, file photo, Burt Reynolds and Sally Field attend the off-Broadway play "Buried Child" in New York. Reynolds, who starred in films including "Deliverance," "Boogie Nights," and the "Smokey and the Bandit" films, died at age 82, according to his agent. (AP Photo/Rene Perez, File)