The actor Robert Redford lured out of retirement: “She did everything to prevent me”
As a director, part of the deal for making it big is that you cannot ever compromise on your vision. What a filmmaker wants, they get, and although it may seem exhaustingly demanding, it’s simply part of the deal if you stand any chance of making it to the Hollywood big leagues. Having spent years in front of the camera before heading for the director’s chair, Robert Redford understood this idea all too well, but putting it into practice was easier said than done.
Having begun his stint behind the camera in the 1980s, following his peak acting fame in the decade prior, by the time the 2010s eventually rolled around, you would be mistaken for thinking Redford would be pretty well-versed in persuading the stars to flock to his films. But there is a lesson here in never becoming too big for your boots, because unbeknownst to the moviemaker, his biggest challenge was hiding right around the corner.
The year was 2012, and Redford had his sights set on directing and starring in the political thriller The Company You Keep. As part of it, he also had his eyes squarely on the target of the actor he wanted to cast as his ex-wife, but actually convincing her to leave her life of retirement behind and come on board with the project was another matter.
He had always felt a draw towards Julie Christie without knowing the actor, personally, he had always felt they shared something in common in the form of their career arcs, and, as such, he thought she was the prime candidate to appear as his estranged other half in the film. “She and I had similar attention as actors in the early ’70s … I felt this kind of kinship, not knowing her,” Redford explained in 2012, “And I then thought she was retired, and I saw Away from Her, and I was very taken with that, and then I just had her in mind.”
But it would take more than flattery and a parasocial connection to sway Christie into saying yes, as the Don’t Look Now actor had only taken on sporadic movie roles from the mid-2000s and onwards. Indeed, “She did everything she could to prevent me casting her,” Redford admitted, landing his vision for The Company You Keep and its all-star company in significant doubt.
Yet Redford knew he wouldn’t be a director worth his salt if he just let his prized star fade out of the picture, and called in reinforcements. Taking advice from Christie’s previous boss, Sarah Polley, who had been the brains behind Away from Her, the filmmakers put their heads together to bring the actor around to the idea. Reford recalled: “I called Sarah and I said, ‘Geez, am I just going uphill? Am I Sisyphus on this thing? What’s going to happen?’” But when Polley reassured him that this was all part of the plan, it turned into a matter of holding his nerve.
Eventually, by either some power of magic or even greater persuasion, Christie finally caved and took on the role of former Weather Underground militant Mimi Lurie in The Company You Keep, becoming her penultimate onscreen role to date. Of course, for Redford, this was a testament to standing his ground and refusing to ever compromise on his vision, but to everyone else, it proves that one actor is just as stubborn as the next.
