There are retirements and then there are Jay-Z/Steven Soderbergh retirements. In the latter, someone shocks the world by saying they’re done, lay low for a bit and then suddenly are back in the game a year later. (Or in Soderbergh’s case, and at least when it came to movies, five years.)
There’s a chance when Robert Redford recently retired, though, he had actually Jay-Z/Soderbergh retired. Just over a month ago, the Hollywood legend announced The Old Man & the Gun, his second film with Pete’s Dragon director David Lowery, would be his last.
“Never say never, but I pretty well concluded that this would be it for me in terms of acting, and [I’ll] move towards retirement after this ’cause I’ve been doing it since I was 21,” Redford told EW. “Why not go out with something that’s very upbeat and positive?”
Well, he did say “never say never.” Jump a month-and-a-half, and Redford is already walking back those comments.
“That was a mistake. I should never have said that,” Redford told Variety at the film’s New York City premiere. “If I’m going to retire, I should just slip quietly away from acting, but I shouldn’t be talking about it because I think it draws too much attention in the wrong way. I want to be focused on this film and the cast.”
Redford, 82, has been threatening to retire for some time now. Back in 2016, soon after Pete’s Dragon and right after making the sci-fi indie The Discovery, he said he’d do two more films then throw in the towel. Indeed, he’s since done two more films — the other is the Netflix romance Our Souls at Night, which reunited him once more with Jane Fonda — and he currently has no other gigs lined up.
You hear that Hollywood and enterprising indie filmmakers? You should totally look this Redford kid up. He’s available and still looking for work.
(Via Variety)
