Robert Redford - Michael Feeney Callan [192]
Redford’s greatest ally in this redesign was an old friend, local artist Mary Whitesides. Recently separated from her husband, she became his partner in the creation of a unified style for the new workshops and cottages. Whitesides had already established the Sundance interiors, working with her design partner, Nancy Maynard. Shortly after, Architectural Digest would commend their perspicacity: “Everything is natural. Nothing is precious, although a sense of fragility comes from the bouquets of dried wildflowers, the antique quilts and wicker and the Indian artifacts.” Redford says, “What we wanted was to express a curatorial sensibility. It was a celebration of tradition. The tables we used were made by craftspeople in Santa Fe. The rawhide-and-iron table lamps were made by local blacksmiths. The plan was to extend this idea so that the resort would become a showcase for western artisanship and tribal folklore.”
“[Mary] was the rock,” says Brent Beck. “She understood Bob’s passion, and she was there to encourage him. They worked very closely. Both Mary’s and Bob’s fingerprints were in every sheltered porch, every fabric, every fireplace, every bar of soap. He was conceptual; she was in the detail. For example, even though he was southwestern, he wanted to be different. He wanted a European style. He claimed the Europeans understood use of space in a way Americans didn’t. She converted that into an un-American spatial design, with wide, pitched ceilings, cozy nook firesides and intimate bedrooms with the biggest, softest beds. What they both produced was totally original, and it helped him pull back together a feeling of Sundance rooted in his heart.”
Jamie sees Whitesides as a savior, no less: “She was among the most sensitive people I’ve ever met, and her protective affection for him changed him. It was as significant as that. Till then, since the marriage breakdown, his female relationships were fickle. She was a solid friend, and her presence at that time boosted Sundance to the next level.”
In the fall of 1987 Redford returned eagerly to Truchas and resumed Milagro. The pressure was renewed. Members of the crew dropped out. He wasn’t getting the performances he’d hoped for. “A couple of loose performances can throw a movie off,” says Redford, “and here I failed. I saw more in characters like Mondragon than I was able to realize on-screen, to my great regret.” He began a romance with Sonia Braga. She was thirty-six, tagged in the tabloids as the queen of Brazilian soaps but, in fact, a distinguished actress with quality roles behind her in Manuel Puig’s arcane Kiss of the Spider Woman and Bruno Barreto’s Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands. “Some magic obviously happened,” says Vennera, for whose child Braga babysat, “and I think it came because of Bob’s isolation. He had very few friends on location. Tom Brokaw joined us for a few days, and he was a jogging companion. Bernie [Pollack] and Gary [Liddiard] took lunches with him. But he was basically a loner, a sensitive soul, and my wife and I saw that he needed a woman’s company.”
The romance hit the headlines in May 1988 when, returning from a film festival trip to the Soviet Union, Redford met with Braga at Cannes, where his movie featured out of competition at the annual festival. By August they were in Newsweek