ROBERT REDFORD & BRAD PITT
ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD, TWO SCREEN STARS FORGED A DECADES-LONG BOND
The screen icons look back on their nearly 30-year friendship — from their first impressions to their lasting bond.
Brad Pitt had just broken out on the big screen in 1991’s
Thelma & Louise when director Robert Redford cast him as a fly fisherman in A
River Runs Through It. As if the young actor weren’t nervous enough, he had to overcome the fact that he had spent his life worshiping the film legend. “You’ve got to understand Redford was one of my heroes,” Brad said at the recent Santa Barbara International Film Festival. “I’m sure I was probably trying to impress him each day. I should’ve been focused more on the part itself.”
Still, Brad made quite an impression on Robert. “When he first came in, he had a look about him,” Robert remembers. “I said, ‘Yeah, he’s going to succeed.’ ”
Nearly 30 years later, Brad, 56, has unquestionably succeeded, and Robert, 83, has enjoyed watching his journey to the top. Back when they made River, “You could see how raw he was, how unsure he was,” says Robert. “I could see him groping, trying to find himself. We spent a lot of time on that film talking about the future.”
In 2001, the duo would reteam as costars in the action drama Spy Game. Like their characters, “we had, as a matter of fact, a sort of mentor-protégé relationship,” says Brad. “Interestingly, this kind of relationship helped us with Spy Game.
The fact that we had worked together before gave us a common history that was the basis for our film story.”
LOVE THAT BOB
Though their professional paths have diverged in recent years,
Robert and Brad remain friends.
“There’s this mutual respect that goes all the way back to the beginning,” says Robert. “Whenever I see Brad, whatever has happened in between doesn’t exist. It’s just like I remember from the very beginning.”
The feeling is mutual. When Brad was growing up, Robert “was really big in my house,” the younger actor says. “He’s great.”
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