IN WORK

Hot Pants Hilliard is the waitress that works at the 'Choke and Puke' off of West 85.

Character Background

Obviously Hot Pants knows Bandit based on their interaction. According to the Early Draft of the script, there is a deleted scene that implies that Hot Pants and Bandit had planned a date for the evening Bandit left for his beer run to Texarkana, TX. She was not very happy about being stood up. Bandit breaks the bad news to her via CB on his drive between the Fairgrounds and Cledus' House.

Because Bandit stood up Hot Pants the night before, when he contacts her for help "heading off the smokeys" she is much more reluctant in the Early Draft than she is in the Final Movie to assist.

Actress

In a strange twist of fate, all of the original Hot pants scenes were filmed in Conyers, Georgia, in September of 1976. But disaster struck when the film was damaged during shipping back to California, forcing a complete reshoot of the scenes in California with a new actress in the role.

Despite exhaustive efforts to identify the original actress cast as Hot pants, her identity remains a mystery to this day.

Actress 2

Hot Pants was played by Susie McIver Ewing (as Susan McIver). All of her scenes were filmed in California in December, 1976. More than 2 months after filming wrapped up in Georgia. According to Susie, she never met Burt Reynolds until the 40th Anniversary celebration of "Smokey and the Bandit" during the Bandit Run in 2017.

Original Drive-In Filming Location