The movie was shot primarily on the Chattooga River, which divides South Carolina and Georgia. Additional scenes were shot on the Tallulah Gorge in Georgia, Salem, South Carolina, and Sylva, North Carolina. Shots of the town which did not call for the actors to be present were shot in Monaca, Pennsylvania.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068473/trivia
According to Turner Classic Movies, John Boorman wanted Lee Marvin and Marlon Brando to play Ed and Lewis, respectively. After reading the script, Marvin said he and Brando were too old, and suggested that Boorman use younger actors instead. Boorman agreed, and cast Jon Voight and Burt Reynolds.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068473/trivia
But there’s plenty of room for love, too. With Fan Up, we ask pop-culture people we admire to tell us about something they really, really like. The fan: Though he’s best known for his acting roles in everything from The Office to the upcoming Vacation, Ed Helms also dabbles in music, having played the banjo for years.
http://www.avclub.com/article/ed-helms-dueling-banjos-and-magic-deliverance-220803
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Billy Redden (born 1956) is an American actor, best known for his role as a backwoods, mountain boy in the 1972 film Deliverance. He played Lonnie, a banjo-playing teenager of the country in north Georgia, who played the noted Dueling Banjos with one of the principal characters. The film was critically acclaimed and received nominations for awards in several categories.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Redden
Given Helms’ background in bluegrass, it’s no surprise that he was drawn to the genre by one of its most successful LPs: Eric Weissberg’s Dueling Banjos. The A.V. Club talked to Helms about that record, and about how he learned to separate the sound of the banjo from having to squeal like a pig.
http://www.avclub.com/article/ed-helms-dueling-banjos-and-magic-deliverance-220803
Billy Redden, the boy with the banjo, liked Ronny Cox and hated Ned Beatty. At the end of the dueling banjos scene, the script called for Billy to harden his expression towards Cox's character, but Billy couldn't pretend to hate Cox. To solve the problem, they got Beatty to step towards Billy at the close of the shot.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068473/trivia
But they just shredded all these great old fiddle tunes on guitar and banjo, and it’s a really exceptional and I think very important album in the bluegrass canon, because Deliverance had such a big impact on pop culture when it came out. It was part of what brought bluegrass into the mainstream, briefly, in the ’80s.
http://www.avclub.com/article/ed-helms-dueling-banjos-and-magic-deliverance-220803
He played a banjo in the skit. In 2009 Redden played again his usual role (The banjo man) in Ace Cruz's film Outrage:Born in Terror. In 2012, 40 years after the release of Deliverance, Redden was interviewed in association with a documentary, The Deliverance of Rabun County (2012).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Redden
Jack Nicholson had agreed to play Ed as long as Marlon Brando played Lewis. However, the actors' combined fees added up to more than $1 million, half the movie's budget, forcing director John Boorman to cast cheaper actors.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068473/trivia
AVC: When you were growing up, you probably didn’t think of him as a guy that played banjo, but rather as the guy from The Jerk who just happened to know how to play banjo. EH: Yeah, and the banjo was like this great, funny prop that was part of his comedy. It’s funny, I never really mixed my music with comedy.
http://www.avclub.com/article/ed-helms-dueling-banjos-and-magic-deliverance-220803
who was the kid who played dueling banjo in the movie
Billy Redden was the kid who played dueling banjo in the movie.