When Robert Redford bravely decided to cut Donald Sutherland’s “most virtuosic”
When cinephiles tune into the Oscars every year, they are always treated to clips of that year’s nominated acting performances. What tends to follow is a collection of moments of Hollywood’s biggest stars swinging for the rafters in their films’ most emotional moments. These clips scream “ACTING” and will blow the roof off any Oscars ceremony.
However, when it seemed like it was time for Donald Sutherland‘s moment in this kind of spotlight, something strange happened.
In 1980, Sutherland starred in Ordinary People, a harrowing drama about a family that falls apart after the accidental death of one of its sons and the attempted suicide of the other. Sutherland plays the father, Calvin Jarret, a man desperately trying to connect with his remaining son, Conrad, who feels alienated from his friends and family after trying to take his own life. He is also trying to keep his marriage to Mary Tyler Moore’s Beth together, but sadly, the incredible stress put on the family is too much for their relationship to endure, and they end up separated.
Robert Redford directed the movie, and it showed that one of Hollywood’s most enduring leading men also had a keen eye behind the camera. In fact, he took home the ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Picture’ Academy Awards, coaxing arguably a career-best turn from Sutherland in the process. While shooting the film, though, he made a tough call about one of its most pivotal scenes, and Sutherland vehemently disagreed with him at the time.
Interestingly, it was Matt Damon who told the behind-the-scenes story of this disagreement during a 20212 SAG Foundation interview, having been told the tale by Redford on the set of The Legend of Baggar Vance. “That great scene with Donald Sutherland, where Mary Tyler Moore comes down the stairs and he’s sitting there at the table, and it’s so simple, just this shot of him,” Damon explained. “He says he doesn’t love her anymore, that their marriage is over. So brilliant, and so simple, and I had heard it was a reshoot.”
Amazingly, Redford told Damon that when they originally shot the scene, Sutherland fired on all cylinders with one of the rawest, most explosively emotional performances he’d ever given. Damon revealed, “Redford told me, ‘Donald did, in a vacuum, one of the most virtuosic pieces of acting I’ve ever seen in my life. Snot was flying, tears, rage. It was amazing. It shell-shocked people on the crew. They were applauding afterwards’.”
Unfortunately for Sutherland, when he asked Redford what he thought about the scene, his answer took him by surprise. “We don’t have it,” Redford said, to Sutherland’s chagrin. It turned out that, despite Sutherland’s astonishing performance, Redford didn’t feel it was what this particular scene needed. Sutherland disagreed, naturally, probably feeling like the scene was his ticket to a ‘Best Actor’ nomination and a barnstorming clip at the Oscars.
So, to assuage his star’s concerns, Redford said, “I’ll make a deal with you. We’ll wrap this scene and move on. I will cut this into the movie, and if you want to reshoot it, we’ll reshoot it.”
Several months later, he showed the cut of the film to Sutherland, and when the emotionally volcanic scene arrived, Redford claimed, “Donald leapt out of his seat and said, ‘He’s got it! He knows!'”
To Sutherland’s frustration, seeing the scene in context with the rest of the film proved to him that he’d lost the bet. Redford had been right all along. The movie didn’t need him to act with a capital “A” in that scene; instead, it demanded something quieter, sadder, and more emotionally honest. By this point in the story, Calvin is tired and defeated, in full knowledge that his marriage has disintegrated, and that didn’t require any more emotional fireworks.
In the end, Redford’s decision was right for the film, and critics and audiences wildly acclaimed Sutherland’s overall performance. However, controversy raged when he was the only primary cast member of the film snubbed by the Oscars, and it’s tempting to wonder if he ever regretted agreeing to cut this showpiece moment from the picture.
