Deliverance to play Lewis Medlock. Jack Nicholson was considered for the role of Ed, while both Donald Sutherland and Charlton Heston turned down the role of Lewis. Other actors who were attached to the project included Robert Redford, Henry Fonda, George C. Scott and Warren Beatty. The film is infamous for cutting costs by not insuring the production and having the actors perform their own stunts (most notably, Jon Voight climbed the cliff himself). In one scene, the stunt coordinator decided that a scene showing a canoe with a dummy of Burt Reynolds in it looked phony; he said it looked
Casting By to show us the profession’s evolution from studio system type-casting to the rise of large ensemble films populated with unique and diverse casts. In their July 25, 2013 cover story on the film ("Rise of the Casting Directors"), "Backstage" wrote, "the film features what is arguably the greatest assemblage of talking-head star power in any documentary ever made." The interviewees include numerous Hollywood legends: Woody Allen, Ed Asner, Jeanine Basinger, Ned Beatty, Tony Bill, Peter Bogdanovich, Stephen Bowie, Jeff Bridges, Glenn Close, Ronny Cox, Robert De Niro, Richard Donner, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Duvall, Clint Eastwood, Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Taylor