{"id":83622,"date":"2025-05-08T04:04:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T04:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/83622\/"},"modified":"2025-05-08T04:04:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T04:04:14","slug":"when-robert-redford-decided-to-sabotage-his-own-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/83622\/","title":{"rendered":"When Robert Redford decided to sabotage his own career"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Robert<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Ken Dare, Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Robert Redford<\/a> wasn\u2019t always the iconic Hollywood leading man and independent film pioneer most cinephiles know him as. In truth, the star has been honest about the early years of his career, which weren\u2019t anything to write home about. During that period, he flitted between television gigs and stints on Broadway, while struggling with an uncomfortable truth about his acting career that nagged at his soul. In fact, it troubled him so much that he tried to hit the self-destruct button on his career by forcing a director to fire him.<\/p>\n

These days, Redford is seen as a titan of cinema, and for good reason. The man has made some of the greatest movies of the last 50 years and has been responsible for starting the careers of many other visionaries through his Sundance Film Festival. A genuine case can be made that, without Redford, American cinema would look completely different today. However, Redford didn\u2019t start out in movies; instead, he cut his teeth in the same place as many of Hollywood\u2019s biggest stars.<\/p>\n

Redford made his first appearance on New York City\u2019s Broadway stage in 1959\u2019s Tall Story, before following that breakthrough role with parts in The Highest Tree and Sunday in New York. By 1963, he was playing the lead role in Neil Simon\u2019s Barefoot in the Park opposite Elizabeth Ashley \u2013 a role he would famously reprise on film in 1967 with Jane Fonda.<\/a> By all accounts, he was superb on Broadway and displayed a talent for comedy that may surprise fans of his later cinema work. The New Yorker\u2019s Richard Radner noted, \u201cRedford had a wild comic energy that audiences these days have never seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, despite seeming like he was having the time of his life on stage, Redford was actually experiencing an existential crisis about his acting career. Fascinatingly, it wouldn\u2019t be the last time that he would experience doubts about whether he wanted to continue acting, and the precipitating factor was always the same: his undeniable good looks.<\/a> Indeed, Redford spent many years battling the notion that he was a vacuous pretty boy with nothing valuable to say, simply because he happened to be pleasing on the eye. It meant he often struggled to be taken seriously as an actor, which weighed heavily on him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat point in my life was kind of a dark period,\u201d Redford confessed to New York Magazine when asked about the Barefoot in the Park stage production. \u201cI wasn\u2019t sure I wanted to act. I decided, \u2018I\u2019m gonna sabotage this. I\u2019m gonna make them fire me.’\u201d<\/p>\n

This may seem a drastic course of action for Redford to take, but he was so unhappy in his own skin at the time that it made a perverse kind of sense to him. So, he began to test Nichols\u2019 resolve in various ways, including refusing to learn his lines, and fully expected the director to give him his marching orders. To his surprise, though, Nichols recognised what was happening and refused to fire the mixed-up young looker. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re gonna be in the play no matter what,\u201d Nichols told Redford. \u201cYou can just lie down on the stage, but I want you to be in the play.\u201d<\/p>\n

In hindsight, Redford realises his behaviour was immature and foolish, and it was only because of Nichols that it wasn\u2019t disastrous for his career. However, he also believes throwing caution to the wind in that manner helped him work through his issues, too. \u201cWhat a risky thing for Mike to do,\u201d he marvelled. \u201cI let out a lot of rage in improvisation, and through a craziness I discovered I had when onstage. It was like working with a therapist, that time with Mike \u2013 but at least you knew the therapist was a little nuts.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n

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