Most of Hooper was filmed in and around my hometown of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. My wife attend the extras call daily but unfortunately was never picked. She did have lunch at a table where Robert Klein, who played the asshole director of the film within a film, was also dining. She said he was an absolute prince of a guy, a Manhattan comic among drawling Southerners. He was engaging and hilarious at times, as you might expect, and most gracious about autograph requests. One day when nothing much was going on, Buddy Joe Hooker gave my wife a thrilling ride on a powerful Harley along the course of the big destruction explosion-a-ganza scene. I got the feeling she was rather stimulated by the experience of wrapping her arms around Buddy Joe's velvet ribs, as the Boss sang. The shoot took twice as long as planned because it was done in January and February when he weather was rotten, wet and cold 80% of the time. Original title was The Hollywood Stuntman before changed to Hooper, I suppose as a hopeful homage to channel the panache of better films such as Hud, Harper and Hombre.