The actor who disappointed Robert Redford with his performance: “Too dynamically active”
The term ‘living legend’ suits Robert Redford to a tee. Beginning his career in the late 1950s, the star made a name for himself on stage and screen, appearing in huge films like All the President’s Men, The Sting, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. His contributions to cinema run much deeper than performance, however. As a founding member of the Sundance Film Festival – a reference to one of his greatest roles – Redford has been able to usher in an entirely new generation of actors and filmmakers, ensuring his legacy as one of the greats.
As well as starring in movies and promoting them to a broader audience, Redford is also a dab hand behind the camera. He directed his debut film, Ordinary People, in 1980, winning the Oscar for ‘Best Director’ on his very first try. Since then, he has helmed Quiz Show, Lions for Lambs, A River Runs Through It, and more.
The Presidential Medal of Freedom winner has had the privilege of bossing around some of the biggest names in show business. Ordinary People starred both Donald Sutherland and Mary Tyler Moore, while he’s also directed the likes of Scarlett Johansson, Will Smith, Meryl Streep, and Tom Cruise. The cast of The Conspirator, Redford’s eighth film released in 2010, wasn’t too shabby either, featuring Robin Wright, Kevin Kline, and Norman Reedus among others.
One of those ‘others’ was James McAvoy, the star of the film. He plays Captain Frederick Aiken, a real-life Civil War veteran-turned-lawyer who serves as defence counsel for Mary Surratt (Wright), the only woman charged with the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Though critics were perfectly happy with his performance, one person who wasn’t best pleased with McAvoy’s effort was his director. At least, that’s what the actor himself told Yahoo.
“Nothing bad about him, he’s an amazing actor (and) great director, (but) I think he wanted the kind of performance he would give and he didn’t know how to get that out of me,” the Scotsman recalled. “There was never a clash, there was never anything bad, I think there was just sort of disappointment and frustration that I felt working with him. Even when we premiered it, I still felt like he was just slightly disappointed that he cast me… This could be totally unfair to Robert Redford, but I think he felt I was just too dynamically active or engaged in the storytelling process.”
Despite falling out with Gene Hackman on the set of Downhill Racer, there are few reports of Redford being difficult to work with or not able to give proper direction. McAvoy says as much in his quote, going out of his way to protect the legend’s reputation, but it’s still very weird that these two couldn’t click. We know Redford can direct, we know McAvoy can act. Everyone else was pretty enamoured with his performance, so why not the man in charge?
There is every possibility that McAvoy overthought this, letting his nerves get the better of him in the presence of screen royalty. Equally, Redford would have had a completely different view of this movie from everyone else, as he was involved in so many key aspects of it. We probably won’t ever know the real story.
