Aged 87, will Hollywood legend Robert Redford return to the big screen? This is the question we ask ourselves during the broadcast of “The Man Who Whispered in the Ear of Horses” on Chérie 25.
Robert Redford, 87, is one of the most legendary Hollywood figures still alive. Will the actor and director, Oscar winner in 1981 for People Like Others (and Honorary Oscar in 2002), return to the cinema?
A sacred monster of world cinema, the artist has not appeared on the big screen since the live action adaptation of Peter and Elliott the Dragon in 2016. We were able to see him again on streaming platforms with The Discovery and Our Souls night, released on Netflix. As for The Old Man and the Gun, it landed directly on Prime Video in France.
This project is also the last film in which Robert Redford appeared. Since then, he has only made very rare appearances in documentaries like Jane Fonda in Five Acts or Green Lung and the Red Carpet.
He is also producer of the feature film All Illusions Must Be Broken, a documentary by Laura Dunn and Jef Sewell. Through the eyes of Pultizer Prize-winning American anthropologist Ernest Becker, the documentary examines human mortality and the limits we impose on ourselves to deny it.
Robert retired?
If we haven’t seen Robert Redford in a work of fiction since The Old Man and the Gun, it’s for good reason. In fact, the actor decided in 2018 to end his career.
“You should never say never, but I have come to the conclusion that it would be good for me acting-wise, and I will retire after that because I have been acting since I was 21. I I said, ‘Okay, that’s enough.’ And why not stop at something very optimistic and positive?he explained in August 2018 at the microphone of Entertainment Weekly.
The actor emphasized that the setting and story of The Old Man and the Gun had naturally led him to this decision. He plays Forrest Tucker, a real-life bank robber, who escaped from prison 18 times between the 1930s and 1980s, unable to give up his passion for hold-ups.
“For me, he was a great character to play at that time in my life. What touched me most about him, I hope the film shows, was that he robbed 18 banks and that he was arrested and incarcerated 18 times. But he also escaped 18 times. So I wondered if he wasn’t willing to get screwed just so he could enjoy what really turned him on: be able to escape?”
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Preserve the mystery
However, a few months after making this statement, Robert Redford qualified his remarks, wishing “preserve the mystery.” According to the actor “It was a mistake. I should never have said that”he admitted in the columns of Variety. “I shouldn’t talk about it because it draws too much attention.”
Perhaps the 87-year-old artist is not stopping himself from returning to directing, without necessarily going in front of the camera, like Clint Eastwood. However, his last film as a director dates back to 2013 with Sous Surveillance; he directed this thriller in which he also stars Shia LaBeouf.
For his part, David Lowery, director of The Old Man and the Gun, confided an indiscretion at Esquire ; according to him, Robert Redford had mentioned, during filming, that this was his last film as an actor. 6 years after this feature film, it is clear that Redford has no longer appeared in a work of fiction. It would seem that the artist is now in peaceful retirement, far from film sets, and that he does not intend to return.