Entertainment Weekly is touting that their recent interview with Robert Redford for his upcoming movie The Old Man and the Gun as the ‘exclusive’ quote from him where he says he ‘might’ be retiring from acting. The news about Redford’s impending retirement from acting has been around for two years, actually, so they’re most likely in bed with the movie studio, who is trying to think of the best way to get people into theaters to see The Old Man and the Gun.
Redford, 82, revealed in 2016 that he would say goodbye to acting after “Old Man.”
“Never say never, but I pretty well concluded that this would be it for me in terms of acting, and [I’ll] move towards retirement after this ’cause I’ve been doing it since I was 21. I thought, Well, that’s enough. And why not go out with something that’s very upbeat and positive?” Redford says in a press junket interview, noting that the “framework” and the story in Old Man helped shepherd him to this conclusion.
In the David Lowery-directed film, Redford plays Forrest Tucker, the real-life career criminal in love with his self-appointed job of robbing banks and breaking out of prison. “To me, that was a wonderful character to play at this point in my life,” the Oscar winner says of Tucker, whose stickups spanned over 60 years. “The thing that really got me about him — which I hope the film shows — is he robbed 17 banks and he got caught 17 times and went to prison 17 times. But he also escaped 17 times. So it made me wonder: I wonder if he was not averse to getting caught so he that could enjoy the real thrill of his life, which is to escape?”
If Redford, an Oscar winner for Best Director (Ordinary People) wins an Oscar for acting for his role in “Old Man,” the chances of his actual retirement from acting go up a lot more. If he doesn’t, don’t count out another role that would appeal to Oscar voters. He needs to give Clint Eastwood a run for his money in the quest for Oscars acting gold.
