Robert Redford interview with Jonathan Ross Film 2007

you've directed uh something like seven films I believe in the last 27 years which shows you as being uh selective certainly I think in your projects what was it about this film this script that attracted you it's different uh the fact that it was it was very different in structure that interested me can you take three stories and thread them into one point of view uh how did that sound sound loud but quite nice decisive and manly I Bel anyway the the the the idea of taking three stories and putting them together uh was interesting particularly the the diversity of the stories you know a reporter trying to get to the truth with a senator who's trying to manipulate her on a new strategy to turn his party political fortunes around the professor trying to activate his student who's drifted away in apathy and cynicism into an easier track in life um that and then of course to soldiers that are on a mission that they believe is a mission that is Honorable I was intrigued by the fact that this studio would be willing to go for this I was attracted to the idea of Tom playing that role Merill and I were I guess a given and that we share similar feelings about our country and what can we do to express those feelings how important then was the casting in getting it made I mean was the fact that Tom was attached and that you were prepared to be in it as well as M Street was that a a big selling point for the studio do you think and is that a big selling point for the film to the audience well I don't think it had to I think it was probably a subtle selling point wasn't so subtle cuz he was now part of the studio but I mean that didn't affect my feelings about it I I think if anything I think Tom would be admired for you know taking the chance what intrigued me um was his qual the one that he would want to do it that he it would be a step in a new direction for him in terms of other things he' played that's one thing second he had qualities that I thought could be really interesting for this character because the character was written as a much older guy and Tom had certain qualities that were already on display he was you know very intense had a lot of energy had a very All-American appeal and I thought those are really wonderful qualities for this particular character to try to manipulate public opinion this goal for the future of Afghanistan is just a lot of hot air unless we solve the military problem first our special forces soldiers are going to take the high ground and key positions throughout Afghanistan before the snow thaws allowing the enemy mobility and the military part has to come first why because only after we've eradicated the enemy can we then get down to the true nuts and bolts work of keeping this new democracy breeding so it's basically kill people to help people no no that's not what I said I said the enemy you know you mentioned that you and M are maybe on the same page or certainly occupy a similar part of the spectrum politically in the US your your view to the country and and the government Tom Cruz is someone who I've met him a few times I've always found him delightful company couldn't claim to know where he stands politically and I don't think many people aware of that was that useful to you as a director having someone who perhaps doesn't come with that baggage we don't feel we know where he's coming from in terms of his approach to these things well I think first of all if if Tom was a real right-wing or real extreme Republican um character I don't think he would have played the part cuz he would have felt that that part was being sacrificed and uh um in a negative way I didn't know what Tom's politics were but the fact that he was willing to play a part that might be perceived negatively as a sort of a mellian character um would tell me that he's not he's not conservative how much of a Democrat he is ask Tom yeah but sometimes obviously actors play Parts which aren't necessarily in keeping with their own beliefs or feelings and I was curious whether it was something that attracted you to him perhaps or whether it was a useful thing to have someone in the RO who isn't we know kind of where you stand we know kind of where M Street stands we don't know so it kind of maybe helps the film a little bit that that you're not quite certain whether to trust him or at the beginning or oh yeah absolutely I I I think that's terrific I mean that was one of the things it would look it was not going to be a film about AG propaganda I don't think that works I don't think audiences respond to it and I don't think it changes anything to me you have to be entertaining first and and u i I would rather entertain by provoking thought and drawing a picture of your own Society or your own culture kind of a it's like a character sketch you can really look at and feel like you recognize things in it or amused by it or shocked by it or upset by it but not out andout propaganda and so you know back on Tom and I and Merill I think we just sort of became a package committing to the film as as artists and did our job as best we could let me ask you about filming in Washington because here you have a movie obviously which isn't particularly favorable about certain aspects of modern politics and you yourself are not known of being a huge fan of uh the common president um how much access did they give you how um easy was it for you to to make the film there in DC yeah well I had to change my name and go in Disguise um it wasn't easy I mean they were look you know the the the the truth is you know there's not a lot you have to say about the administration of my country right now it's pretty Exposed on its own and for me on on a personal level I guess you could say whatever anger I felt that I think a lot of people felt that even though we had we had doubt or skepticism about whether there was a legitimate election in our country that was won legitimately we were asked after 911 to put that away to put any concerns away in the interest of being supportive of what had to be done when the nation was in shock and a sense of hurt and it was also a time when it was very touching to me to see the the world pretty much at Large come in support of us and and sympathy for us I was very touched by that so we we buttoned ourselves up in terms of challenging this Administration on any level whatsoever we saluted and we put flags on our porches and and we said we're with you we're behind you we do what you ask us to do and to find out in the course of time that we were lied to that we were manipulated and literally stampeded into behaving a certain way and give up some of our Democratic freedoms like dissent and debate and questioning by being told we were unpatriotic we raised a voice that was something I don't think is easy to forget or to forgive so for me looking at on a personal level I resent that I resent being ripped off that way as I'm sure a lot of Americans do but what you what you really feel bad about is if you look at how did this happen and you find out that if you go back in history in American history which I guess I can look at a little bit you know the age I am I look back on my lifetime and I say you know I've actually lived through some pretty amazing times if I stop and think about it you know uh McCarthyism the Korean War Watergate and Iran Contra and now this what you see is forget the specifics of those times what was underneath it what was the the mindset that created what was the behavior around each of those modes you find it's very similar so there's a repeated pattern that keeps showing up about the same mindset that causes the same issues your cou is dealing with what he sees as an apathy or or a kind of um desire to take the easier path through life a self- serving path presumably that wasn't always the case or or do you think time has changed so much that people now young people don't engage with the the things that should concern them or do you think it was always so there's been just too many years that young people have looked to what should be leadership particularly a moral leadership and it's just isn't there and they said well why am I going to waste my time with that it's so transparently dysfunctional is so transparently idiotic or insulting to my intelligence as a young person forget it I'm not going there without ever thinking that the consequence of not going there in some way by not taking some action may lead to a more depressed future for them hello Mr Bennett yes this is Bob Woodward of the Washington Post I'm sorry to bother you at home I was wondering if we could confirm some information on one of your employees Mr Howard hunt oh what kind of information it's just profile information mostly we know for example that he works for melanin company or did work for melanon company as a writer he's also a novelist we know that he works in the office of Mr Charles Coulson at the White House and the CIA and the CIA well if you're conducting that kind of an investigation certainly it comes as no surprise to you that Howard was with the CIA no no surprise at all one of the things I find fascinating in the new movie and it's only alluded to it a little is the kind of control over the media uh and the reluctance of modern media to engage um against the government to take on issues that maybe might lose them support and favor where they need it what what are the similarities in your mind between All the President's Men and this and do you think a film like All the President's Men would get made today no no it wouldn't get made today not like that film because again the conditions were different for everybody um journalism just focusing on on that I mean I I was really happy to make that film it wasn't easy to make there was no Studio that wanted to make it because they thought by the time you get this made Watergate will be yesterday's news and I said but yeah it's not it's about what people don't know it's the story behind the story that people think they know what was the real work the hard work that journalism went through with these two characters it was just about hard work they were Relentless in their Pursuit and the consequence was very positive okay the ethic of that of that profession uh part of the ethic has gone you know having to get two people to go on record before you could print something the other thing is that uh technology changed things it created other forms of distribution for information that's another thing and the the the big one I think is that at a certain point I think somewhere in the 80s um a lot of the a lot of Journalism uh newspaper business in particular moved to to market share the business Affairs was going to control the papers so you just knew where that was going to go you just knew that entertainment and sports would be moved up to the front it was all about making money which meant that anybody that deliberated over a story would lose it was about scoops and then television was changing so there all these changes I think contributed to no I don't think you could make exactly that film exactly again an exclusive let's get the basics up in the scroll right away what's the action Janine hello it stinks I mean I don't know what just came with it's a bad feeling it just it feels feels bogus it feels yeah I mean are you being paid to investigate your feelings we can't do this again do what again we can't just buy the whole little program like we did the run up at the first oh please stand back while my head detonates this is your guy right is that my he goes right to you he asks you the questions he's handing you an exclusive it's propaganda and we don't have to broadcast everything that the government wants us to do we no we Broadcast News the launch of a new military move is news are you feeling a a Teensy consci attack here uh it's fantastic to see uh Mel sweep in any movie I always was it nice for you to catch out with the game well it was weird directing her because we had acted together but it was fun she must be I would have thought not for you necessarily but for most directors quite an intimidating person to approach when you're telling her what you want from her she's not intimidating to me because I know all about her insecurities and she mine so what was fun with Marl we could play I I love to play with actors I mean that in the professional sense that that you you can say Hey you know you're working with a good actor so you can say let's let's play around with with personal Dynamics you know you're let's take the profile you're you're 57 year old woman you're you're taking care of you got a woman mother on Health Care you got bills to pay and but you're also 57 so forget the issues right now how about those moments where you're human being at that age and you have bodily thing you you just have behavioral things you can play around with that's fun that's that's fun for an actor it's sort of oddly reassuring to see you performing on screen I know as well cuz you know you know you know what you're doing and it's exci well you think you do you you never really know what you're doing laughed loud and long and all the while his eyes went to and Thro quote he full plain I see the devil knows how to roll farewell farewell your skipping verses well I leave out the dull Parts farewell farewell but this I tell to thee thou wedding guest lay your head back he prayeth well who loveth well both man and bird and Beast looking back at your career if you look at some of the movies you made if you look at the period when you were in the sting and the way we were they were two of the biggest grossing movies of of the 70s there uh at the same time when other films made a huge amount of money and were hugely popular papon terms of that that I suspect wouldn't be deemed Blockbusters today perhaps wouldn't get made in the same way has the has the emphasis shifted are audiences not prepared to accept more complex films these days you think I think to a degree yes because of the culture it's a more in-your-face culture I think due to a lot of things I I think that Studios might not make those films unless there were some guarantees attached to them so there's probably more films made but it was a very different business in those days uh ironically I I made I love making those films because to me I was in the entertainment business and the question was can I go between making good old solid entertainment films a good romantic story which I I still believe in I I think we should have more uh but romance is treated differently now in this age in this culture but to make a good romantic story um to make a good Western because I I love being in westerns because I love the west and I love horses and and I had a lot of fun but those were straight out entertainments being able to go between entertaining and doing wonderful films like that and smaller films that were a little bit more edgy or darker that were more about our culture and our times that was equally interesting to me I like being able to go between the too now now it's not so easy because the business has changed last night you promised you'd never leave me well it's just till 5:30 just until 5:30 Cory if it's a good marriage it'll last until 5:30 see you tonight hey what was that a kiss I don't want you to get inside this is a nice hotel was that a kiss cuz boy if that's what kisses are going to be like from now on don't bother to come back at 5:30 Cory I can't kiss you anymore my lips are numb now we please go inside if you don't give me a real kiss I'm gonna give you back your pajamas right now [Music] wa could you make it 4:30 ironically I made more money um on Indecent Proposal than any the other well maybe not ironically cuz it's you know a huge huge popular movie huge popular movie but I think it got creamed politically but you know it was sure fun to do let me ask you about um sundan because when you when you involved in setting up Sundance uh did you did you think it would have the effect of the kind of reach that it has and the impact that it has on the film business no no I had no idea I I started it out of a kind of passion of an idea that I thought was fresh and new it came from some something I think altruistic and that that IID spent a decade working very hard I'd sometimes done three or four films back to back and I'd had a degree of success and I thought you know success can be dangerous I mean success is great as it is to have has a a dark side to it if you get too wrapped up in it you mean in ter well if you get sucked up into it suddenly start repeating yourself because it's been a successful movie so for example I never wanted to do a sequel I thought there too many great stories out there to be told rather than repeat yourself with a sequel on the other hand you understand why there's a sequel because it made money the first one and so you make another one but you were kind of in that period really when that first began didn't it the idea that if a movie was a hit make number two I think so yeah I I I can't remember what the first one was but I think so now you see it as a lot it's fine it's a good business there's plenty of space for that doesn't interest me but because of the all the stories to be told anyway to answer your question yeah what was your question my question initially was well in a round about way was the success of those bigger movies that helps you find about Sundance what happened was that I I hit a point where I thought you know it's been a decade of hard work there's been a lot of success and I need to stop and and not get overwhelmed by it uh because I want to keep things fresh and in so doing I thought I might just take this year and put something back cuz I'm old fashion in that respect I believe in putting something back if you've been fortunate so I I spent a year researching what it could be and I came up with the idea of the Sundance Institute which is creating kind of a workshop for independent filmmakers but make it all about independent film because I could see at that time that was 1980 that the film business was beginning to move already into a more centralized place which mean there might be less opportunity for those more independent type films so I thought well maybe I can keep that alive but but even go further by creating an opportunity for young new people to have a place to come and work free of the marketplace free of the uh pressures of the marketplace like competition and money so I put it in the one place I could afford which is my property in the mountains in Utah and so that's how it started and it started very humbly in a very low budget and I put my own money into it to get started I thought well I'll spend a year on this and and see how it goes so it took about three years before that took hold once it took hold and I was I was still working the business I would do you know like the natural or you know Out of Africa what but not as many as I'd done in the 7s but what was happening is that Sundance was growing and then I realized there's no place for these projects that get developed here to go because the marketplace is controlled by the by the mainstream uh companies and they're not interested in that so we have to create a showcase so I started the film festival just to have a place where they could come see their work but it was meant in the beginning for for them just to come together and see each other's work at least there's that then from there you know the rest of the story it grew and it grew and it grew with the success of some of those independent films that came out suddenly once you had a movie like uh well you had sex lives and videotape then you had The Brothers McMullen which pushed big films out of the market place and and when that happened the mainstream part of the business started to take notice and came up and began to focus on buying some of the films themselves they didn't want to be left out in the cold so when they came up it turned into a market and would you like that little bit of Utah back that bit of Utah uh that's a good question to be honest with you sometimes no I guess not I mean it it's it's had great value and it's given a lot of opportunities to people which I feel good about there's been a lot of rewards but I I have I do miss some of the time the free time but also time to do the work I love most doing which is making films when Robert Redford received an honorary Academy Award in 2002 the citation made particular mention of his support for independent film making but alongside that work he's continued to style in a string of mainstream Studio Projects you're doing combat Duty after a while life just becomes snapshots most of them horrible but not all of them 3 years ago in Bosnia I was driving a small unit through an i town and I saw something pretty interesting I saw an old man sitting on a bombed out porch playing a game of dominoes with what I presume is his grandson when I saw that I thought you know it's my turn I didn't retire after that as I should have I took one last assignment it was a mistake so gentlemen I'm done I'm not fighting anyone or or anything anymore I'm doing my time here I'm going home and God willing I'm going to sit on the porch and play a game of dominoes with my grandson who I've never met one more question before we park up um you worked with most of the the new crop of young Leading Men it seems to be Will Smith Brad Pit Tom Cruz other do any of them have what you had do you think in in your in the same way are you kidding God it's the more money I mean the only answer that makes any sense none of them have an old you how nice to spend some time with you thank you so much thank you very much pleasure thank you are you assuming I already made a decision and also that I'll live to regret it all I'm saying is that you're an adult now and the tough thing about adulthood is that it it starts before you even know it starts when you're already a dozen decisions into it but what you need to know Todd no lifeguards watching anymore you're on your own you're your own man and the decisions you make now are yours and yours alone from here until the end film comedy

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Length: 23min 25sec (1405 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 05 2024