Robert Hays shared hilarious firsthand stories from making “Airplane!” including Leslie Nielsen’s fart machine that nearly broke his composure, the iconic “Stayin’ Alive” sequence, and his friendship with co-star Julie Hagerty.
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I grew up watching the film with my dad, and the more I rewatch it, the more I discover the wacky little jokes packed into nearly every scene. From lines like "Don’t call me Shirley" to moments like the "Stayin' Alive" dance, few movies manage to pack quite so much absurdity into a breezy 88 minutes.
As stars Robert Hays and Julie Hagerty continue the Airplane! Live screening tour, I had the honor of catching up with Robert over Zoom to talk about his friendship with Julie, keeping a straight face alongside Leslie Nielsen, the making of some of the movie’s most iconic moments, and the hilarious behind-the-scenes goofs you may have never noticed.
Note: This interview was edited for length and clarity.
Robert: I read the script for the very first time while on a plane from LA back to Minneapolis–Saint Paul. At the time, I was doing a TV series called Angie with Donna Pescow. The station had switched from NBC to ABC, which was a huge deal, so they brought in a bunch of ABC stars from their various series. I remember Howard Cosell was my favorite of all the people we got to travel with.
I was reading the script on the plane, and there was something on every single page that made me laugh out loud — or at least chuckle a little bit. I had so much fun reading it, and I had just as much fun making the film. It was truly an amazing experience.
Robert: When we filmed at LAX, we were in the hallway with all the regular passengers walking past. I mean, this was a low-budget film. It was three and a half million to make, which was a low budget even back then.
As they're filming me coming up to Julie, we do the scene where she leaves, and I look at the camera and say, "What a pisser!"
If you look in the background, you can catch a glimpse of one of the assistants pulling a cable. I guess he was watching the scene or something distracted him, and he didn't get the cable pulled out in time. (Laughs) You see it kind of sneaking out of the scene. There are a few other funny moments like that throughout the film.
Robert: I think it was at Sunset Cliffs in Malibu where we filmed the beach sequence. There was a big 10,000-gallon portable canvas tank, and it was rather chilly that day. So we had all this water dumped down on us, and one of the waves left a catfish flopping next to Julie. She didn't even know it was there until I told her, and she goes, "Ahhhhh!"
That wasn't on camera, but it was very funny. Gosh, we had fun.
Robert: It was hard to keep a straight face in almost any scene with Leslie, but especially in our first.
Lorna Patterson, who was wonderful, comes up to me and says, "There's a problem in the cockpit." And we do the "Cockpit, what is it? It's a little room where the pilot sits, but that's unimportant right now." So I go into the cockpit for the first time, and Leslie says, "Mr. Striker, can you fly this plane?" And I say, "Surely can't be serious!" That’s the first time I say that, and then Leslie delivers the other half of the famous exchange: "I am serious. And don't call me Shirley."
Leslie had a little "machine" — nobody really knew about it in Hollywood then, but now everyone does. It became legendary. It was a little thing he put in his hand and squeezed, and it was basically a fart machine. It was like a handheld whoopee cushion, and he just played it like a maestro. Your eyes would be watering, you're laughing so hard.
