Over the years, yours truly has interviewed a variety of interesting people. This time around, I spoke to a legend found in the annals of Hollywood lore.

As part of the buildup to the 2011 edition of the star-studded TCM Classic Film Festival, set to take place April 28 – May 1 in Hollywood, TCM is heading to 10 cities nationwide for a series of free screenings and live appearances by legendary stars.

Tampa Bay made this exclusive city list and arguably received the pick of the litter. On Wednesday, March 23rd, TCM will be screening the iconic Smokey and the Bandit at the Tampa Theatre. Introducing the film live will be Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz and he will be conducting a brief Q&A with the ‘Bandit’ himself, Burt Reynolds.

Last week, Reynolds made time to entertain a few questions about the production of “Smokey” and how it still manages to hold a coveted place in cinema’s vast history. And of course, the straight-shooting Reynolds provided a few colorful analogies when speaking about today’s filmmaking approach and reflecting upon his career.

Before we yapped about the 1977 film - which was a top box office draw during that year ($126 million), only losing out to Star Wars - Reynolds shared his always candid thoughts regarding my query on whether the action genre is unable to form an emotional connection with today’s audiences as it once did back then…

“Ah, that’s a good question. What we’ve forgotten how to do, is act with our gut. We’ve gotten a little too cerebral. We need to stop discussing it you know. We’re going to talk ourselves into getting laid and then talk ourselves right out of it. Instead of talk, talk, talk, talk…Just do it…Roll it.”

In some respects, he believes filmmakers are over-analyzing the product during the production phase. As for what his personal mantra is when on the set…

“You know it works on some gut level, but you don’t know why it works. And no one is going give anybody credit on that level (shooting). On that level it is just the work , so don’t try to figure it out and just enjoy it.”

That led us to recalling the Smokey and the Bandit shooting days. Which is obviously one of Reynolds’ fondest memories of his historic career. He was working alongside his good friend Hal Needham, who directed the heavy car-chase action flick, that ended up getting nominated for an Oscar for Best Film Editing. He also reminisced on working with co-stars Jackie Gleason, Jerry Reed and Sally Field.

He recalls Jerry Reed keeping everyone on their toes. Reed was given leeway to improv much of his dialogue in “Smokey” and Reynolds said you always had to be “on” when shooting scenes with Jerry. Yet, that’s the style Reynolds preferred when acting out a scene, since that is the way he came up in the industry.

With regards to Jackie Gleason, Reynolds believed that if they could just bring a sliver of the fun the two were having off camera onto the set, things would probably turn out alright for the respective piece.

So were there any obstacles the film had to overcome?

“Not a hitch in the giddy-up anywhere. In fact, we kept waiting for the shoe to drop. This is just going too well. I remember the first day of shooting, Hal and I looked at each other at two O’clock in the afternoon. Hal said we don’t have any other shots. And I said I know partner, let’s go home. And we did that every afternoon. We just moved on.”

Reynolds lauds Hal’s efforts on the set of “Smokey.” Without Hal’s persona, the action sequences would have never come together the way they did. He cites Hal as having a “pureness” about him. Yet, Hal had just enough “cockiness” and a certain edge to him, where you wanted to give it your all for this guy during the production stages. At this point, Reynolds was comparing Hal to a quarterback, and the attitude on the “Smokey” set was an, “All for one and one for all” mentality.

From there, I steered the chat toward the projects he’s done where things weren’t running on all cylinders. I asked Reynolds to elaborate on what went through his mind on such films as Boogie Nights, Striptease and Heat (1986). Did he get that feeling of ‘what the hell am I doing here’ and how does he maintain his composure in such instances…

“All the time. You have to gut it out (references playing sports). And that’s just what you’re doing as an actor. You’re getting into a situation where it’s us against the house, or me against the house, or it’s the script and I and the director against the house. It’s always someone against the house. And do you ever all run at the same time to try to get things going? Yeah. And you know what? Sometimes that doesn’t work either.

It’s so, one in a million, where all the moons are aligned and everything works and Smokey is one of those cases, where everything worked. And if you try to figure out too much, you’ll fall on your ass. Don’t over-analyze it, just be happy that its working and move on.”

Although everything was flowing on the “Smokey” set, the entire crew never realized that this flick would achieve the accolades it has. Reynolds believes this is occurring because audiences still want to revisit this product because it was a pioneer in terms how they shot particular sequences. Especially all the car scenes. By taking a bold approach and encompassing new techniques, the film more-or-less acted as a blueprint for other future products in the genre.

We didn’t delve too much into his career, but Reynolds is thankful for a few things. One being that he is just able to get up in the morning. And the second is that he still has that said career.

The once thrill-seeking Reynolds seems to have a solid perspective when looking back on the scope of his career. He doesn’t seem to have any regrets and is happy he was able to survive at certain turns. Or as he put it when I asked if he still had all the replica Pontiac Trans Ams used in Smokey and the Bandit…

“Yeah I do. Got one downstairs here as a matter of fact. I think in the middle of the night, of getting in the car and driving around town and having people say look at that poor bastard, he’s gone over the edge.” (Laughing).

The event this Wednesday at the Tampa Theatre has already sold-out.