Barbra Streisand reveals how she convinced Robert Redford to star in ‘The Way We Were’
In her new memoir, Barbra Streisand recalls how she convinced Robert Redford to star opposite her in the 1973 hit movie The Way We Were after he twice turned down the opportunity.
The romantic drama was directed by Sydney Pollack and follows the story of the unlikely couple, Katie Morosky (Streisand) and Hubbell Gardiner, who fall deeply in love despite their different backgrounds. Arthur Laurents adapted the screenplay from his 1972 novel of the same name.
In an excerpt from her upcoming memoir, My Name Is Barbra, released in Vanity Fair, Streisand looks back on how she and Pollack secured Robert Redford for the role of Hubbell Gardiner.
“Bob is that rare combination … an intellectual cowboy … a charismatic star who is also one of the finest actors of his generation,” Streisand writes. “But like my husband, he’s almost apologetic about his looks, and I liked that about him.”
Continuing, Streisand added: “So I wanted Redford for Hubbell. But he turned it down.”
Streisand then asked Pollack for help, as he was close to the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid star. “I have to give Sydney credit. He was as persistent as I was, because we both felt that only Redford would make the picture work,” Streisand recalls. “It’s like playing tennis … I knew my own game would go up when I was opposite a strong player.”
Streisand revealed that one of the reasons Redford initially didn’t want to sign on was that he felt “the script was so focused on Katie that Hubbell’s character was underdeveloped. (He was right.)”
She explained: “Bob asked Sydney, ‘Who is this guy? He’s just an object …. He doesn’t want anything. What does this guy want?’ In Bob’s opinion, he was ‘shallow and one-dimensional. Not very real.’ ‘A pin-up girl in reverse,’ as Sydney put it.”
However, she knew that Redford was perfect for Hubbell, so she instructed Pollack to give the actor whatever he wanted: “Write more scenes to strengthen his character. Make it equal”. To entice Redford, they hired two writers, David Rayfiel and Alvin Sargent, to help develop the character.
However, it was still not enough. “But Bob’s answer was still no. I was heartbroken,” she wrote. At this point, the producer Ray Stark wanted to go for a different actor, but Streisand claims that Pollack begged him for one more week to secure Redford’s services – and it worked.
The actor and singer explained: “I told Ray to give it to him and kept praying. The negotiations went down to the wire. I was in the middle of filming Up the Sandbox in Africa, and one day I got a telegram from Sue Mengers that simply said: ‘Barbra Redford!'” Streisand wrote. “That’s when I knew he’d finally said yes … and I was so thrilled!”
Concluding, she added: “The courtship had been tough, but Bob’s reluctance had a big influence on the script and ultimately resulted in a richer, more interesting character.”
My Name Is Barbra is released on November 7th, 2023.
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