Name: Is Christopher Reeve Too Tall To Play Superman? | David Letterman
Uploaded: 2025-09-25T15:00:54.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Is Christopher Reeve Too Tall To Play Superman? | David Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-09-25. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Is Christopher Reeve Too Tall To Play Superman? | David Letterman' from Letterman on Comedy Buff. Published 2025-09-25. Transcript available.

Good to see you. Thanks for being here.
Pretty nice. Pretty good deal.
How you been? Very well, thank you.
Nice to have you here.
You started as a soap opera guy, right?
Yeah.
Was that your first, like, professional big deal acting thing?
I think so, yeah. I worked for a while in the theater, and I was going to
school,
and I ran out of money to pay the bills.
And so I went and auditioned for a soap opera.
Which one was it?
It was called Love of Life.
Is it still on the air?
No, it went off the air. I went to jail, and after a while, it went off the air.
But I didn't have enough money to go to school, so I went to the soap opera,
and I surprised myself by getting the part. I wasn't expecting to get it.
But I was a bad guy. I was married to two women at the same time.
A bigamist.
Yeah. I was taking kickbacks for the mayor's office.
I was trying to extort $500,000 out of my mother,
all under the guise of being the tennis pro at the country club.
How many years were you on this thing?
I did it, two years.
Now, do people buy this, or do they think, well, it's just mild to...
Oh, yeah. They buy it in heavy doses.
So they actually believe that a situation like this could result?
No, they want to believe. We become like family.
And actually, there's a very important function. A lot of people who are
hospitalized or don't have family or whatever,
they really develop... I remember one time I was in a parking lot at a Friendly's
ice cream store in Route 93 in New Hampshire,
and I'm sitting on the roof of his car, on the hood.
The roof came later when I could fly.
I was sitting on the hood of the car, eating an ice cream cone.
This woman comes up from behind me, and without saying a word, takes her hand
back and goes, boom!
And hits me across the shoulder and says, how dare you treat your mother that
way?
Yeah.
That was it. There was no opening.
Now, can you talk to the woman and say, well, look, you know, it's a television
show.
I just read the lines. I learn the lines on the bus, and then I go to the
studio and say the thing.
Did that do anything for her? That settle her down?
No, no, she was upset.
That's a real interesting phenomenon, though, isn't it?
They get very involved.
Yeah.
And then you were offered other parts on television, I guess, roughly the same
time or after that?
Yeah, I did a play on Broadway, then I was out of work.
What was the play?
It was called A Matter of Gravity with Catherine Hepburn, and I played her
grandson, which is a great experience.
But then I was out of work.
Well, that must have been fun working with her.
Wonderful. She scared me to death, but I also adored her.
Scared her because just of who she is and what you're doing.
Her standard, her excellence, her whole kind of moral fiber, you know, her
courage and integrity as a person.
And she brings all of that to her work, and she just comes on with such truth
and such authority that it makes you sort of a little afraid.
Yeah, I would think so.
I had to learn to get comfortable with her.
Yeah.
But she's extremely generous, and I've always been very grateful that she
phones to see how I'm doing sometimes.
She goes to see movies that I'm in and calls.
You know, she calls us about once or twice a week, dying to do the show.
Where is it even happening?
Yeah, she asks about you, but she wants to come on here and just, you know, mix
it up a little.
Right after that job.
I was out of work, though.
I was totally out of work, and so I went, and someone said, my agent said, you
should try to get into film.
So I said, okay.
Now, that's good agenting, isn't it?
At first.
So how about films?
Movies, maybe?
Okay.
Clever.
No, at first he told me that I'd be too tall for films.
The first thing, I walked into the agent's office.
See, now we're talking about the insanity with the Pentagon, but this is also
nuts.
Too tall for films.
This guy, a very big, important agent at the time, it was called Creative
Management Associates.
Yeah, well, that's a big deal.
Yeah, they've changed.
Anyway, I walk into the office, I'm 17 years old, and I come in, he'd seen me
in a play,
and I come in to meet everybody, and they take a look at me and say, no, you're
way too tall for films.
See, what kind of bonehead thing is that to say?
You know, Chris, I've been in most of the theaters here in California, and
those screens, jeez, they're...
I don't see any way you're, you know...
I have to shrink it.
I think that what they were thinking about is the problem with leading ladies,
is that, you know, I was...
But don't...
Could they stand them on a box and all that stuff?
I know, but I'm so fed up with that kind of thinking.
Anyway, so you overcame that.
So I'm out of work.
I go out to California, and I go for auditions, and the first thing, they go
really crazy.
I go into this office, and they say, we're doing a pilot, and it's going to be
great.
And I find out it's a lot of money to me.
It's like $12,000 for the episode.
I say, it's terrific.
And it's called The Man from Atlantis.
And this was actually made with Patrick Duffy.
That's right, he was.
This guy comes from Atlantis.
He used to be a fish or whatever, and he can breathe underwater.
And they say, you're going to have green eyes, and how do you swim?
I say, I swim okay.
And you've got to spend a lot of time underwater, like sitting in a chair and
doing things.
I go, okay, that's, yeah.
And I mean, I'm a real snob.
I'm coming from New York and all this stuff.
You're a New York actor.
Yeah, and I'm trying to take this stuff seriously.
We're talking about getting fitted for green contact lenses and learning how to
breathe underwater.
Can you make it for two minutes, or do we have to reload the film, or what?
And so I'm babysitting for this dog on the beach in Santa Monica, and I'm
practicing how to beat a man from Atlantis.
I go for a swim, and come out, and flop on a beach, and do it, and joggers
going by, and I think it's just totally, totally spaced out.
Yeah.
And then there was another one called Lucan, which I could have played a wolf.
So a guy who was like part wolf, part man.
Yeah.
So I could have been a fish or a wolf, and at that point I decided, no, it's
back to the theater.
Yeah, but it's interesting that they think maybe you're too tall for films, but
not too tall for TV.
Yeah.
How is that?
I don't know.
You're squishing in there.
And in the movie now, is this out now, Street Smart?
It's out tomorrow, funny you should mention it.
And what is this one?
I just happen to have a product here.
It's about a guy who gets in a lot of trouble.
It's a guy who really has no kind of, it's about personal ethics versus
ambition.
Guy gets, he says to his editor, he's a reporter, I can do you a story on a
street pimp.
And goes out and finds no one will talk to him.
And then he gets in big trouble because he fakes the whole story.
He invents it.
Oh, yeah.
You've heard of Janet Cook.
Yeah.
And it's happened a lot of times.
And then a real pimp out of, you know, the bad part of town comes and gets him
for pretty complicated reasons.
It's a good film.
Were you happy with it?
Yeah.
Yeah, it came out very well.
All over the country tomorrow or just selected cities?
Selected cities.
Yep, Street Smart.
And a new Superman film in the summer.
That comes in July.
Great, I hope you come back then.
Okay, thanks a lot.
Nice to see you, Chris.
Thanks for being here.
We're back, kids, with Elaine Bussler.
We're back, kids.