30 Years On Down The Trail: An Interview With Burton Gilliam

Judge Patrick Naugle

August 2nd, 2004

It's been 30 years since Mel Brooks's western spoof Blazing Saddles trampled its way into local multiplexes. To celebrate the film's anniversary, Warner Brothers has reissued the film as one of their coveted two-disc special edition DVDs.

One of the Blazing Saddles's most memorable character actors, Burton Gilliam (Fletch, TV's Evening Shade), sat down with DVD Verdict's Patrick Naugle for a Q&A about what it was like working with director Mel Brooks, his current projects, and the horrors of waking up on a Sunday morning with a strange and uncomfortable bedfellow.

Patrick Naugle: How did you end up in Blazing Saddles?

Burton Gilliam: I had done a picture called Paper Moon and that was about five months before starting Blazing Saddles. I was a fireman in Dallas and I'd never thought about being an actor, and suddenly I was doing this feature called Paper Moon. And everyone said maybe you ought to quit the fire department and come to Hollywood. About three months later, I got the call for Blazing Saddles. So Mel Brooks had to convince me who he was and asked me to come out and talk to him about this picture. And I asked if they were all going to pay me and he said, "You're coming first class, boy!" I talked to him and told him no and went back to Dallas, then Mel called me again and I told him no, and the third time I found out that they had a lot of money -- at least I thought it was a lot of money -- so I put some real thought into the thing, quit the fire department, and was in Blazing Saddles.

I had no real background in acting expect for Paper Moon. But I think I was good in front of people. When I was a boxer -- I was a boxer for 15 years -- I enjoyed putting on a good show. And I don't mean a show where I acted like a fool. A good show to me was hitting them with a left jam and knock them out as cold as I could. That was a good show to me. And I knew they liked me. I was a popular fighter. (laughs)

PN: Why do you think Blazing Saddles ended up being so popular?

BG: I think it was because we were coming out real bad times; Vietnam was gearing down, we were coming out of all the student unrest in the colleges, and I believe people were at that time ready for something crazy to happen. And Blazing Saddles was crazy. The people took to it like a fish to water. I think three or four years later, when the country had kind of settled down a little, the movie couldn't have been made to start with. It certainly couldn't be made today; there are too many factions that are against some of the things that were said in the film, even though things were said in fun. They were accepted then, but most likely wouldn't be accepted today.

PN: What was it like working with Mel Brooks on the set?

BG: He is a little bulldog on the set. He knows what he wants. He's got tunnel vision. And he knows he does. With that tunnel vision he doesn't see things around him, he just sees right down that tunnel and he just runs over people. I've seen him push people out of the way just to get his message across. But at the end of the day when he wraps he'll go to people and say, "Man, if I said something bad to you today or when I pushed you, I didn't mean to." But until then, he's a bulldog. Then again, if it weren't for him I'd be a retired fireman. I love him, man.

PN: What was it like being around so many comedy veterans?

BG: Well, Slim Pickins was one of my heroes. I'd worked with Madeline Kahn on Paper Moon, and of course Harvey Korman had done all his stuff for years on television...I was going to say I was awed, but I wasn't awed. I was appreciative of where I was, but I knew from doing Paper Moon and I could make this work there below all these great actors. I think I held up my end of the picture.

PN: Was Mel Brooks a hands-on director? Was there a lot of improvising?

BG: Mel puts you out there and tells you that he's got confidence in you and to do it this way, and doesn't lean on you anymore. You understand right off the bat that this is the way he wants it done. Whereas Peter Bogdanovich gets right in there and tells you every little movement to make. If he wants you to pick up a pencil, you pick up a pencil. If he wants you rub your eyebrow a certain way, you rub your eyebrow a certain way. He wants you to do those things. Mel expects you to just know those little things. And one of the little things is to know your lines! (laughs) But Mel is a little harder to work for because he never gave us the little fine things, you had to know those yourself.

PN: Do you have any memorable experiences from the Blazing Saddles shoot?

BG: Oh yeah! I was staying at the Universal Sheridan Hotel and I woke up on a Sunday morning and I had no idea what a kidney stone was, but boy I'll tell you what: I had one! I thought I was dying. I had just been down into Hollywood and bought some used jeans. The only thing I could think of was that somebody had somethin' and passed it on along to me!

After about two hours of suffering at the hotel, they sent me to Burbank to a hospital and they said I had a kidney stone. On Monday, I went back to work but I was still hurting because I had not passed this kidney stone. People don't know this, but Mel Brooks took pre-med classes thinking he'd be a doctor, until they found out he was a little bit crazy and could write crazy. But Mel diagnosed me, telling me I had a such-and-such kind of kidney stone. He told me all that stuff and said they weren't going to have me ride my horse that day and that I'd be doing other things. He was great about it.

PN: Do you keep in touch with any of the cast?

BG: Nope. Every now and then I'll talk to Alex Karras ("Mongo"). And I see David Huddleston ("Olson Johnson") once a year at various charity events out on the road. I see him, and that's just about it. It's been about four years since I've spoken to Mel Brooks...but I still love him!

PN: Finally Burton, what are you working on now?

BG: I've just started producing some things. I'm doing a sitcom called Out on Bail. There's never been a sitcom done in Dallas and we're doing it there. About a month ago, I went down for a few weeks to work on a picture called Drop Dead Sexy which stars Jason Lee. I think it's gonna be a big picture. Crispin Glover is in it and he's great -- I never realized he has as much talent as he does. He's good stuff.

PN: Burton, thanks for talking time out of your busy schedule to talk with us!

BG: I enjoyed talkin' to you and hope to see you somewhere down the road!