- Title: Robert Redford announces his retirement
- Date: 11th November 2016
- Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (FILE - MARCH 24, 2002) (UNRESTRICTED POOL) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, ROBERT REDFORD, SAYING: "I'm not really good at referring to myself. I refer to other people, I can do it on camera but it's a strange feeling for me to be.... It's obviously a joy to be honored, it's a strange feeling, it's just hard for me to connect to it so it makes me a little shy, I guess, but I'm certainly honored but I think the thing that moves me is to be joined by my colleagues and peers. To me, there's no greater reward than to be honored by the people you work with so of course, I'm very moved by it." REDFORD BACKSTAGE AT THE OSCARS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, ROBERT REDFORD, SAYING: "The fact that Sundance has succeeded in what the objective was, which was to make some kind of contribution to the industry that would keep diversity alive by supporting other artists and particularly nurturing artistic freedom of expression, is a tremendous thrill for me obviously. So, I think it has made a contribution although how much, I don't know." (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR, ROBERT REDFORD, SAYING: "I think probably the high points are ones where I was able to make a film that I was told I couldn't, 'All The President's Men' was one, 'The Candidate' was one, 'Quiz Show' was one, 'Ordinary People' was one, 'A River Runs Through It' was one, so I think it's kind of a collective. There are performances that I am pleased with but I'd rather not get into that, but the films that I've made, probably the ones I love most favorably, are the ones I was told would never get made but by perseverance they did."
- Embargoed: 25th November 2016 21:14
- Keywords: directing acting Hollywood retirement Robert Redford
- Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES; SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, UNITED STATES; BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES; VENICE, ITALY; MONTE CARLO, MONACO;
- City: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES; SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, UNITED STATES; BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES; VENICE, ITALY; MONTE CARLO, MONACO;
- Country: USA
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment,Film
- Reuters ID: LVA00358059OT
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Robert Redford says he is planning on retiring from acting soon to focus on directing and on his first love - art.
The 80-year old star of "Out of Africa" and "The Sting" told his grandson Dylan in an online interview that he was getting tired of acting.
"I'm an impatient person, so it's hard for me to sit around and do take after take after take," Redford said in the interview published on Thursday (November 10) for the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. "Going back to sketching - that's sort of where my head is right now."
Redford, who has never won an Oscar for acting despite a storied 50-year career, will not be departing from the big screen any time soon.
He said he has two more acting projects in the works. One is a love story for older people with Jane Fonda, his co-star in the 1967 romantic comedy "Barefoot in the Park," and the other is a lighter movie with Casey Affleck and Sissy Spacek. According to movie website IMDB.com, both movies are expected to be released in 2017.
"Once they're done then I'm going to say, 'Okay, that's goodbye to all that,' and then just focus on directing," he said.
Redford recalled that his first love was art and that he spent time in Europe as a teenager "exploring story-telling through painting."
Movies like "All The President's Men," "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "The Way We Were" made Redford into one of the world's biggest movie stars of the 1970s and 1980s.
He later turned to directing, winning an Oscar for the 1980 film "Ordinary People."
In 1978, Redford helped found what became the Sundance Film Festival in Utah to promote independent movies and which has grown to be the most influential independent film gathering in the world. - Copyright Holder: POOL (CAN SELL)
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