Burt Reynolds Believed His Nude 1972 Cosmopolitan Centerfold Killed His Oscar Chances for Deliverance

When Burt Reynolds got his start as an actor in the early '60s, starring in the TV shows like Gunsmoke and smaller films like Navajo Joe, he was famous and a very beloved personality, but not exactly an award-winning star — yet.

Then he was cast in the thriller Deliverance, alongside actors Jon Voigt and Ned Beatty.

The movie, directed by Jon Boorman, followed the story of four men whose backwater canoe trip went horribly wrong when they crossed some unfriendly locals. Reynolds earned accolades for his portrayal as cocky outdoorsman Lewis Medlock, and many thought he'd be a shoo-in for a Best Supporting Actor nomination during awards season.

However, just after he wrapped shooting the film, he did something he thought would be both funny and make a statement: He posed naked for a centerfold in Cosmopolitan magazine, at the request of gutsy editor Helen Gurley Brown. The move cemented his place as a sex symbol, but he later confessed that it damaged his career as a serious actor, just as it was taking off.

In the documentary I Am Burt Reynolds, now airing on the CW, footage shows that Reynolds expressed regret over the move.

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"I never would have done it if I didn't have Deliverance in the can," he said during an interview in the documentary. He had no idea that Hollywood's biggest directors would find it crass, instead of hilarious.

"It was for laughs," he said of posing naked. "It was a take off on the whole male chauvinist attitude of Playboy, and they're making a comment and they're right."

But, he was disappointed by the outcome it had on his career.

Director Adam Rifkin, who directed Reynolds inThe Last Movie Star, shared in the documentary the impact of the shoot on the actor.

"Suddenly he was sex symbol Burt Reynolds instead of serious actor. He always believed that photo killed his opportunity to get an Oscar nomination for Deliverance," Rifkin said.

Reynolds' niece, Nancy Lee Hess, also spoke about the moment during I Am Burt Reynolds, saying, "Everyone else enjoyed it, but I don't think it was something Hollywood approved of."

However, Jon Voight disagreed with that sentiment in another clip shown in the documentary.

"It did not [ruin his career.] It enhanced it. It was a gutsy move. It was his humor. Burt always had a sense of humor in every decision he made," Voight said with a laugh during an interview.

Later in his life, during an interview with Piers Morgan in 2012, Reynolds said that he no longer looked at it as a goof. “I’m very embarrassed by it. I thought it cost some actors in Deliverance an Academy Award,” he told the talk show host.

In his 1994 autobiography, My Life, has also said that women began to throw themselves (even more) aggressively at him than they ever had before after the photo shoot.

"Standing ovations turned into burlesque show hoots and catcalls. They cared more about my pubes than they did about the play," he wrote.

The actor later discussed the Cosmopolitan shoot with Steve Harvey in March 2018, not long before his death from congestive failure in 2018.

"I didn't know there was going to be a commotion about it," he said. "It wasn't a big deal to me. I said, 'I'll do it, but I'll have to have my hands…in front of me.'"

Reynolds then joked about the size of his manhood, adding, "And I have very small hands."