Hal Needham Quotes

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Hal Needham

Profession : Director

Birth : March 6, 1931

Anyone who thinks stuntmen are crazy is dead wrong. These guys are calculating. They rig things, they think about different ways of doing it... they're not afraid.

Hal Needham

I don't think I've had a better friend than Burt Reynolds. I could ask him for almost anything, and he would have said O.K.

Hal Needham

I was doing stunts for money, not for fame.

Hal Needham

I'm not a big fan of CGI. When I look at it, I go: 'Wait a minute. That's not possible.' And I think other people see the same thing. The movies I worked on, we did stunts for real. And I think it shows.

Hal Needham

Stuntmen bring a lot to the film industry, especially in action films, but if you start trying to give an Oscar for a stuntman, say he doubled a star, I think that takes away from the star's value.

Hal Needham

After the success of 'Smokey,' my profit participation only went up on future movies I directed.

Hal Needham

While prepping 'Smokey,' I saw a picture in a magazine of a Pontiac Trans Am that gave me a product placement idea. I could picture Burt Reynolds behind the wheel with Jackie Gleason on the chase. I called Pontiac and asked if they would like to have the car in the movie.

Hal Needham

When 'Smokey' was released and became a blockbuster, Trans Am sales went through the roof. If you wanted a black Trans Am, you had to wait a minimum of six months. By the time we were ready to shoot 'Smokey II,' I was on a first-name basis with Pontiac.

Hal Needham

The critics gave me bad reviews on every movie I made.

Hal Needham

Is there fear? No, there isn't. Now, I've made mistakes. I've broken 56 bones in my body, and each one was a mistake. But when we do stunts, there's just no room for fear.

Hal Needham

There's no more fun. All that digital stuff - we used to do that crap for real! I hate that stuff. Young kids who play video games seem to like it, but I don't.

Hal Needham

I can go back and fall on my head any time.

Hal Needham

I was always pushing the limits, going as far as I could. I would do all kinds of crazy things.

Hal Needham

I thought, 'Wow. Look at all of the money I made. I think I will change jobs.' And that's how I decided to be a stuntman instead of a tree-topper.

Hal Needham

I've done stunts when I was hurting so bad I couldn't hardly breathe and yet I would go ahead and do it.

Hal Needham

It was bad for a stuntman to have a reputation for being hurt, and worse yet to report it.

Hal Needham

It's true I don't play by the rules all the time.

Hal Needham

They started saying stuff like 'Should we cut the movie? Is it too this, too that?' It got drastic. It got heated. I said, 'Wait a minute, folks. I didn't make 'Smokey' for big-city audiences. I made it for the South, the Midwest and Northwest. Those are my people.'

Hal Needham

As far as I know, there is only one other director who was a stuntman - guy named Chuck Bail who directed 'Gumball Rally.' Doing stunts isn't exactly a common path to directing.

Hal Needham

Some stuntmen become actors, but Hollywood is a caste-oriented society. Most of the time you just don't have the opportunity to get out of your field if you're a grip, an electrician, stuntman, set designer, director or actor.

Hal Needham