The movie Robert Redford called a turning point in his career: “It went way beyond being an actor”
Every actor who makes it to the top of the industry always has a particular project they can look back on and cite as the moment everything changed. It’s the jumping-off point that catapults them into global stardom, ushering in unprecedented fame and success. For Robert Redford, there are several contenders in his filmography, but he already knows the answer.
Redford’s case is also complicated by the fact that he didn’t just succeed as a Hollywood star but also as a filmmaker, taking the director’s chair for several acclaimed projects such as Ordinary People, which transformed his legacy as an artist. Even then, it’s his acting that first made him a household name, paving the way for his filmmaking efforts in the future.
During a conversation with Rolling Stone, Redford once opened up about the impact of fame and stardom that actors experience when people finally start referring to them as Hollywood stars. According to the actor-director, it changed the way he approached his interactions with the external world as well as his image of himself, especially because he never thought he had that kind of star appeal when he was growing up.
Redford explained the transition: “Suddenly, you’re referred to as a glamorous figure, and it’s flattering. Then shortly after that, you begin to realise that what’s also coming with that is reduction, that you’re then going to be seen in only one light. So, Redford’s a movie star, and therefore, that’s all he can be. I mean, you feel like there’s more of yourself to play with, to work with. It begins to unnerve you that you see yourself actually reduced, that you are this, therefore you can’t be that. Then, another kind of struggle begins.”
When asked about the movie that changed it all, Redford cited works like Downhill Racer and The Candidate which laid the groundwork for his stardom. However, the project that actually pulled him up to an entirely different level was Alan J Pakula’s definitive Watergate film All the President’s Men, where he delivered an incredible performance as Bob Woodward.
“All the President’s Men was one effort,” Redford declared. “Producing that movie took a long time; it was not easy. It was a three-year effort and a real commitment — it went way beyond just being an actor. Actually, it started before that with Downhill Racer and The Candidate, but somehow, it never quite sunk in with people that I was producing those movies. I was just ‘the actor’. All the President’s Men was the first real shift, and I suspect a lot of All the President’s Men had to do with fighting for the more serious side of myself.”
Starring alongside Dustin Hoffman, who portrayed Carl Bernstein, All the President’s Men perfectly captured the paranoia and anxiety of the period when people were steadily losing faith in the institutions that they were supposed to rely on. The importance of the movie was reflected well in not just the widespread critical acclaim but also the impressive box office numbers, proving that audiences were engaged and moved by Pakula’s depiction of a newly unfolding scary political reality.
