Robert Redford - Michael Feeney Callan [120]
Streisand and Redford became close from the outset. “I think we’d both have preferred a more political Dalton Trumbo–type script,” says Redford. “But finally Sydney came down on the side of the love story. He said, ‘This is first and foremost a love affair,’ and we conceded that. We trusted his instincts, and he was right. The Way We Were became a success because Sydney controlled the project with his point of view, which was not easy given Ray’s behavior and interference.”
Word from the set was that Streisand and Redford were igniting extraordinary personal chemistry. An observer on the set saw this as “useful, because it was obvious that Barbra was just too, too crazy about Bob. She had a hard time controlling her emotions, and when she played scenes with him, like the fireside courtship scene at Malibu, she was drooling. But Bob was very tactful.”
Streisand looks back on the experience as a high-water mark. “I just loved working with him,” she says. “Every day was an exciting adventure. We played well together—in the moment, slightly different, slightly unknowing, always interesting. He’s a man of depth who has what it takes to be a great movie star: mystery behind the eyes. You wonder, What is he really thinking?” Redford in turn found her very attractive. “When we started on The Way We Were, she wanted me to be Hubbell. That was how she conceived me. And then, as the shoot went on, she saw I was not that man, not in any way. So she reoriented herself, and the professional took over. But afterward I wondered, Did she return to that banal concept of me? Was I—am I—a Hubbell figure in her mind? I never fully sorted that out, and some of that tension made our chemistry on-screen.”
Pollack dealt with other tensions: “Each of them was a pain in the ass from time to time because they both knew how they liked to be presented; Barbra knew about camera positions and editors’ options and all that. So I directed, but they would challenge it. At Malibu, we went on for hours because she had a favorite profile, and I had to play around it to satisfy both.”
Redford bit the bullet: “Yes, it was troublesome. I was dancing with her, and I was in my place, doing just fine. But she wasn’t dancing; it was awkward. Then Sydney pulled me aside and whispered, ‘Come on, man, she’s uncomfortable.’ Apparently she had a side she favored, right or left. A discomfort about her nose from one or the other angle. Fine by me. I acknowledge that kind of thing, when it affects that actor’s confidence. I said, ‘Okay, whatever works.’ ”
Of no dispute was Redford’s utter inability to do the same take twice, a given, Redford admits, with most good actors. “He could not do it,” said Pollack. “It made hell for me and it made hell for the editor to match continuity. Over the years with Bob, I learned to make adjustments. Like running five angles on a scene to cover my ass so that it will cut in the editing. Like not showing my anger when he showed up late, which is normal for him, dishing some bullshit excuse. I kept my anger in check until the scene was in the can, till the weekend, when I could say outright, ‘You son of a bitch’ without messing up his mind for the scenes he needed to play.”
But The Way We Were helped engender a deeper mutual respect. Redford had started resentfully. By the end he was laughing. Pollack slapped his back at the finish and said, “Man, that was some hot stuff. You know what this is going to do to your box office?”
All summer Redford was absorbed with the slow-burning Watergate story. In June 1972 there was the break-in at the Democratic National Committee offices, followed by the launch of a lawsuit by the Democrats against the Republican Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP). On a promotional junket for The Candidate in August he was aware of “a buzz” among the many journalists traveling with him. “There was obviously some big story brewing,” he says, “because I kept hearing the words ‘Nixon