Robert Redford Announces Retirement From Acting
Actor Robert Redford has been a consistent screen presence since the mid-1960’s, last appearing in David Lowery’s fantasy adventure film “Pete’s Dragon” alongside Bryce Dallas Howard and Wes Bentley. But in an interview with his grandson for the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Redford announced that he will retire from acting after completing his two remaining projects and instead focus solely on directing.
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“I’ve got two acting projects in the works,” Redford said. “Once they’re done then I’m going to say, ‘OK, that’s goodbye to all that.'”
His last two performances will be in “Our Souls at Night” opposite Jane Fonda, which Redford described as “a love story for older people who get a second chance in life opposite,” and in “Old Man With a Gun,” a “lighter piece with Casey Affleck and Sissy Spacek.”
Dylan asked Redford if he would return to his early passion for painting and he said that he might consider it.
“Yeah, a lot — and a lot lately because I’m getting tired of acting,” he said. “I’m an impatient person, so it’s hard for me to sit around and do take after take after take. At this point in my life, age 80, it’d give me more satisfaction because I’m not dependent on anybody. It’s just me, just the way it used to be, and so going back to sketching – that’s sort of where my head is right now. So, I’m thinking of moving in that direction and not acting as much.”
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Redford will sit down for a conversation with film critic Amy Taubin at the Walker Center tomorrow night, November 12.
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