Robert Redford on His Last Role as an Actor

(bell ringing)

(slow upbeat music)

So I'm glad that you made this movie

'cause it's with my colleague David Grann's story.

But how did you plan for this to be your last film?

How did you envision it

why this film?

Why this story?

I think I made a mistake

in talking about talking about retirement.

Because I think that distorted the spotlight

away from the people that deserved it

which was David Lowery and the cast.

And the story,

it would have been much better

if I had just slipped quietly out of acting

and into something else.

So I think that was a mistake.

I'm sorry about that.

You've played some out laws in your time.

I'm very attracted to outlaws.

Why is that? I think it

has to do with my sensibility

and I think it had to do with just how I was raised

And from the time I was a little kid on.

I didn't ever want to break

the law but I didn't want to be restricted by the law.

I was always wanting to be just slightly outside

where I had a sense of freedom

that was not permitted if you were

too much inside the law.

And so I think once I was able

to do anything about that I liked

the idea of portraying outlaws.

What's the outlaw canon of Robert Redford?

Obviously Sundance Kid,

I mean there's a number of them aren't there?

If you go down the road

I think the Sting.

There are other examples. Now this guy

robs banks almost obsessively.

He feels alive.

Exactly. When he robs banks.

Yes. And you think

you're gonna get a kind of

soppy end where he finds love and reform.

No, no, no. (laughing)

Not quite do you admire him?

Obviously I did because I'm playing him.

You know I'm egocentric in that regard. (laughing)

But I also think he was just an extraordinary character

because normally if you think of a villain

you think of people robbing bank syou think of villains.

Right.

That look like villains, act like villains

and carry the expression of villains.

But this guy was having a good time.

He was just having a good time

but somebody said, Well

do you do this for a living?

Is this why you do this,

you do this for a living?

He says No I do it because I'm living,

I'm just living.

And so he dd it because he just loved doing it

and he always got caught.

Always got sent to prison,

always escapes.

He wasn't particularly

great at it. No, no

that's why he got caught you know.

And then he went to prison 17 times.

Yeah. And escapes 17 times.

So my gut was telling me wait a minute

this guy's so,

he's so loose in the first part of this

when he's robbing banks and he gets caught.

But what he must really love is the idea of escaping.

Yeah, that must have been his real m.o.

You know.

Tell me about how you fasten onto a project like this?

What do you choose?

You're offered things all the time

throughout your career.

You've had a,

I think it's fair to say you've had a blessed career.

And what do you find just not up your alley

and what do you search for

from the time you were in your

twenties to now. Well it starts with story.

It's the most important thing story for me.

And I think that

one of the disadvantages are

and as new technology has increased

and it's made possible special effects

in film you see a lot of the movement

a lot of the attention going in that direction

for special effects. Um.

And sometimes it's at the cost of a story

so because a lot of filmmakers

once they can use high tech to do special effects

they get focused on that.

So there's a lot of razzle dazzle

but sometimes it's like eating cotton candy.

You come out of a theater

and you say whoa that was really dazzling to watch

but where was the story?

Well do you think

that an era is coming to a close.

Because we hear over and over again

that the studio system

and the ability for studios to make movies

that aren't about a franchise super hero

you know the categories.

Kind of made for either 15 year olds

or have come out of comic books.

The ability to make a movie

like this to get financing for it

is really rough.

And it's much harder to get to yes

in the films and a lot

of talented people are moving their talents

over to television. Yeah.

Do you think that your career would have been

more in television or in another medium

had it been come at a much later time?

No because I did a lot of television I think

a lot of people are not aware of.

For example all through the 60s and much of the 70s

I was just television.

I did a lot of twilight zones

and Alfred Hitchcock's and so forth.

And I loved it,

I loved it,

I loved it because it was

you didn't have a lot,

you had to act on your feet.

You had to move quickly.

But for me the most important thing was

as special effects increased,

as technology went in that direction

and a lot of the young filmmakers got

got almost hypnotized by it,

I began to see films lose the value of story

and spend more of the time on razzle dazzle.

The studio system which ran everything for awhile

is interested in one thing and that's profit

you know and money and I understand that.

I was part of that.

But I began to see that there are other stories

to be told,

there were other ideas out there

that weren't being given a chance

that's what led to starting Sundance.

For the independent film.

At what point did you think I can do that.

I can be an actor

which is different from a movie star.

I can be an actor

and then the other thing might come.

What was the moment in your career

where you felt that you had passed

through a door.

Probably early 60s 'cause I had started out

wanting to be an artist.

Movies were something I just went

and looked at for awhile

but I didn't pay that much attention to them.

And then I went to Europe

to study art

and somewhere in the process

I lost that,

I lost that desire.

And then film came into it kind of naturally

starting with television.

And because television was live

and is this live feeling that you had.

And also you're with other people.

You're with other people and you can interact

with the energy of someone else.

I wonder how you

what relationship you have to your

own physical appearance?

I had freckles,

I had a lot of hair that was totally out of control

and so if anything I was more made fun of.

It was very hard. I'm not sure I believe that.

Well no made fun of in a fun good way.

As you matured as an actor

what became easier,

what became more difficult?

What's the hardest part of being

an actor now that you're 82?

And what became less of a burden?

You out grow that business about how you look.

And it's more about what you do

with who you are.

And it felt very,

much more comfortable for me

to be judged by what I did rather

than what I look like.

And so that's been a blessing in a sense.

What do you feel

that were the risky moments?

Well playing a different kind of character

that was maybe

could be viewed as really negative you know.

For example?

Well I guess

the most recent one was Old Man and the Gun

although that's,

it's too light hearted to be.

But we like him. Yeah.

He can rob as many banks

as he wanted. So it's not a good example.

It's not a good example. You're charming us

as much as you're charming Sissy Spacek.

I'm at a point now where I can

really be judged for the work that I do

not how I appear.

And so therefor I think some of the films

that I did recently were more being judged on that basis

rather than how I looked.

So then why stop? Yeah.

Has acting become difficult in some way?

I just feel that I've done that

and I've been doing that since I was 21.

That's a long time

and I've had a wonderful time.

It's been a great time.

But I just felt it was time to move on

and no longer be judged by this thing.

That would not permit me to move to that thing.

So therefor I'm in the process

of transitioning now.

So you've been in any number of political films.

We are sitting here at a really bizarre political time.

But we've had one actor as president

in Ronald Reagan and we've got another one

in Donald Trump.

What do you make of him purely

as a performer? A poor one.

Ah he would fail as a performer.

His flaws are so transparent.

How do you mean? Unless you're paying

no attention his flaws are so transparent

I mean almost comical in certain.

What he considers strong and good

transmit as something else

and so to me that's painfully obvious

and as a result I don't think it's gonna last.

I really don't.

What do you mean that it won't last?

I don't think his.

You think his bubble's gonna burst in some way?

Yes I do believe that.

When I don't know.

I think it will.

But I'm guessing you were not an admirer

from the get go.

But he won and he had

a top rated television show

so somebody must have thought he was

a great. Well somebody did

but not me.

I didn't watch that show.

I can only judge what I saw when he stepped forward

to run for president.

What do you fear most

about the Trump moment politically?

Well that he's in his own personal bubble

and he doesn't see his own flaws.

And if they were presented to him

he just wouldn't accept them.

It's very very strong ego

that doesn't permit any outside stuff to come in.

And I think that's dangerous for the country.

'Cause it lacks humility.

You've been an environmentalist

for decades tell me

about your concern

about that now in the moment

that we're in? I'll always work towards

the environment I always do whatever I can.

Whatever I can.

But then also moving towards documentaries

and directing you know.

I love documentaries.

It's long form journalism

as I've said about the New Yorker.

So we're not gonna see you on a porch

whittling away,

you're not gonna

retire as such. No I'm not,

there's gonna be no porch in my house.

Thank you very much.

It's a pleasure.