Robert Redford’s interview at first, for his last big role
Alone on the screen in 2013, in the beautiful film by JC Chandor, All Is Lost, the actor had agreed to confide in the first magazine. While the actor died on Tuesday, we republit this interview meeting.
He was one of the last major Hollywood stars. Robert Redford died at the age of 89. First had the honor to be able to meet the actor and director in 2013, on the occasion of the release of JC Chandor’s film, All is lost. An interview like no other. It was 12 years ago …
First: Hello Robert.
Robert Redford: Hello. Haven’t we met?
Ah no.
It’s fun, you remind me of someone …
Are you younger?
What ?
Sorry, it was not very good. It’s just that when I was a teenager, I wanted to look like you, to be the Robert Redford of Three days of Condor (Sydney Pollack, 1975). I had even bought a jacket that looked like the one we wear in the film.
The tweed blazer with the pieces with elbows? Very seventies …
Precisely that one yes. And it was by carrying it that I understood that not everyone could be Robert Redford.
(Laugh.)
I am very serious. Moreover, this is one of the first questions that I asked myself at the end of the projection ofAll is lost : Why are you? Why did Chandor ask you to play this role? By reading the summary, I was convinced that the film would be a Jeremiah Johnson (Pollack’s film, in 1972) on the water.
Which is not the case. Journalists often make the parallel but, in my opinion, it is a false track, even if these are indeed two survivals and that morality could be that when everything seems lost, some refuse to stop. Johnson fights Indians, cold, loneliness, but he stands in front of all this. He perseveres. Same for the hero ofAll is lostwho continues, perhaps because he does not know how to do otherwise. Other than that …
Robert Redford, magnificent in the storm of All Is Lost (Critique)
The film made me think more of People like the others (1981)in which you wondered about the instinct of life and death in “ordinary people”. A bit like here, right?
It did not hit me, but it is true that there is that in the JC film and that the anonymity of the hero reinforces this existentialist dimension. However, honestly, I did not think a single second of the films I had made during the shooting. On the contrary, I very clearly felt like I was a clean sweep, to start from scratch.
This is what I wanted to say with my question: I had the feeling that Chandor never tried to play with your mythology.
Explain to me.
When we see your film Quiz Show (1995)we immediately make the link with The men of the president (Alan J. Pakula, 1976)two films that criticize the American myth. In The man who murmured horses in the ear (1998)it is the liberal and green redford that finds itself behind and in front of the camera. Here, on the other hand, you seem to keep anything from your filmography. If I have to caricature, I would say that I have the impression that with Russell Crowe the film would have been almost identical.
Hmmm … I see. I inevitably bring Robert Redford in each of my films, but that’s it. I always thought that criticisms have not noticed enough how constantly I sought to interpret different roles. You were talking about Jeremiah Johnsonfilm after which I turned to vote McKay (Michael Ritchie, 1972). However, we cannot find two more opposite characters. Then I played in Our best years (Pollack, 1973) Before doing Gatsby the Magnificent (Jack Clayton, 1974). Do you see a relationship between this?
A certain idea of the counter-culture 70s, a committed lyricism and a certain class …
Maybe. In any case, it is the work of criticisms to put order in there. In my head, it has never been so clear. What I knew at the time was that I was suffering from being confined to certain roles and judged only on my physique. This is what pushed me to try new things, to blur the tracks. When I’m going to see a film with Clint Eastwood, I know exactly what to expect. This is not a reproach, but I know what his character will look like. For my part, I have, on the contrary, always looked for different things in the films I was doing.
What are you looking for in All is lost ?
Purity. No dialogues. No special effects. I immediately liked the idea of removing all the filters, no longer being able to cheat and be in direct contact with the spectator.
Pure play?
A little. When I started my career, I was fascinated by two forms of acting: mime and improvisation. I felt like the basis of this job was to pass emotions without verbalizing anything. For me, it was a form of supreme art. Tell the story through the body and action. All is lost allowed me to come back to that. No longer having the safety net that constitutes the word scared me at the beginning, but what a pleasure!
After having been absent for screens for a long time, you come back in leading man, and alone. Better still: you finally turn with an award -winning director in Sundance. It’s as if you closed the loop.
This is not my fact. The awarded filmmakers in Sundance never offered me anything, JC was the first to offer me a role. But it’s true that with All is lostI feel like I put things in their place. I was first actor, then I quickly became famous. From that moment, the choice was simple: either I repeated myself by doing again and again the same thing, with the same roles, or I changed direction. I needed to know what to do with this success.
Was it a burden?
It’s a big word, but yes, you have to be wary of the obscure side of fame. I immediately tried to know how to use it for more human, more creative purposes. I founded Sundance, I tried to bring out new talents, I launched a TV channel, I campaigned for the environment … However, recently, I realized that I had moved away from the heart of my job.
Who is…
Play ! In the most literal sense of the term. And it was at this moment that JC arrived with this film which, in its minimalism, looked like a bare.
All is lost is strangely elusive. You never know if it is to be seen as a political allegory, a character study or a pure survival.
The allegorical part, I leave that to the public and criticism. If I have to see a metaphor in this film, I would simply say that it evokes our existential loneliness. More and more people feel alone having the impression that political systems are disinterested in them. They are faced with famine, ecological disaster, the anxiety of the future. Perhaps the fight that my character leads for his survival is a reflection of the one that people deliver for their daily survival.
There, it is the 70s, liberal and committed Redford that resurfaces …
I just hope that we will perceive the subtlety of the film. I needed subtlety and our time in cruelly lacking, especially in terms of art. Suitable with me that contemporary films, especially blockbusters, are not very nuanced. Here, that’s it. You who asked me what brings my films together, what can give meaning to my filmography is perhaps it: subtlety or, in any case, recognition of the complexity of reality. Basically, all my films speak of America, but not America praised by the slogans according to the Second World War, not the America of the winners.
This time, it’s your turn to explain to me …
I have very lively memories of my childhood. I lived with my parents in the workers’ suburbs of Van Nuys, in Los Angeles, and the stories that were told at the time praised the greatness of my country. I grew up in a universe repainted in patriotic colors: red, white, blue. What we were trying to bring us into the skull at the time was that the important thing did not live in winning or losing but in the way we play the game. However, I quickly understood that all of this was only lies: what counted in the United States was indeed to defeat. It is for this reason that I wanted to interpret or stage stories about hypocrisy, illusions, lie. My country refuses to face its complexity and prefers to rock simple and schematic stories. I love the United States but I want to show the truth, describe this country as I see it.
But, suddenly, how All is lost Does he register in all of this?
From an economic point of view, it is almost an aberration. An independent film without special effects and with a single actor … Its minimalist side makes it almost a manifesto for a pure cinema. And then it’s a work that demands a lot from the spectator. Today, it is rare to see a project on a human scale that has such a ambition.
Basically, it is your great return to a certain form of artistic integrity.
I don’t know. I wouldn’t describe it like that, but yes, you may be right. This film allowed me to reconnect with something deep.
Robert Redford: “I will never stop playing or realizing”
