Burt Reynolds Explains the Story Behind the ‘Purdy Mouth’ Line in a Scene From ‘Deliverance’

Several months before his untimely death, actor Burt Reynolds appeared on Conan to talk about his career. During the interview, Conan brought up the subject of the deeply disturbing 1972 film Deliverance, particularly the oft-quoted line “He got a real purty mouth ain’t he”. Reynolds responded with an amusing story about how the role of Banjo Boy was cast and how that specific line came about.

So we started with that scene…the scene where he says ‘you got a mighty pretty mouth” …Those two guys…I told Cowboy, you can say whatever you want, if they don’t like it they’ll cut it out. Well he just started ad-libbing up a storm and they kept every word because it was gold.

The disturbing scene from Deliverance.

Reynolds also talked about his friendship with Marilyn Monroe.