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
Burt Reynolds audition for the latter. The film's producer later said, "To be honest, we were not enthusiastic at first. There was the hair and his reputation, but we were curious." Reynolds got the role and earned some strong reviews. Reynolds was a supporting actor in "Frankenstein and Me" (1996), "Mad Dog Time" (1996), "The Cherokee Kid" (1996), "Meet Wally Sparks" (1997) with Rodney Dangerfield, and "Bean" (1997) with Rowan Atkinson. He had the lead in "Raven" (1996), a straight-to-DVD action film. Around this time he claimed he was broke, having gone through $13 million. In 1996, Reynolds' agent said "Regarding Burt,