From Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, to The Sting and All The President’s Men, Robert Redford is a true cinematic icon – and he’s about to go into retirement. The actor has announced that his upcoming film The Old Man & The Gun will include his final role in front of the camera.
The film, from A Ghost Story and Ain’t Them Bodies Saints director David Lowery, casts Redford as Forrest Tucker, the real-life career criminal who was still pulling off bank heists and evading the authorities well into old age. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, he said: “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. I thought, Well, that’s enough. And why not go out with something that’s very upbeat and positive?”
In the forthcoming issue of Empire, hitting newsstands on 9 August, Lowery spoke about directing Redford in his final ever screen role. “He mentioned that right before we started production,” Lowery recalled. “All of a sudden, the weight of that statement landed on my shoulders!” He added: “I think the movie is as much about [Redford] as it is about this character. It’s about someone in the twilight of their life, doing something they love. There’s an inevitability to the character that is impossible to separate from Mr Redford himself, and an inherently bittersweet quality.”
Even in the later years of his career, Redford has continued to take bold, major roles in independent and major studio films, from sailing drama All Is Lost, to his villain role in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, a film inspired by many of Redford’s ‘70s political thrillers. The Old Man & The Gun is set to arrive in UK cinemas on 7 December.
Read more from Empire’s David Lowery interview in the September issue, on sale on 9 August and available for online pre-order here{
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