NEW YORK, Nov. 5, 2000 — Robert Redford truly is a Renaissance man. Aside from his drop-dead-gorgeous looks, he’s also a talented actor and champion of independent filmmakers, creating the now world-renowned Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. He has garnered as much acclaims for his directing as he has for his acting, collecting an Academy Award, a Golden Globe, a Directors Guild of America Award among others.
Now he’s taking that skill to the golf course, directing and producing a star-studded young cast (Matt Damon, Will Smith and Charlize Theron) in the mythological drama “The Legend of Bagger Vance.” From the steamy set in Savannah, Ga., he guided the stars, busloads of local extras and a huge crew in the story of Rannulph Junuh (Damon), a young golfer and discouraged World War II veteran who’s lost his “authentic swing” and enlists the help of a wise black caddy (Smith) to bring it back.
What was it about this film that appealed to you?
Robert Redford: When I first heard it, there was no script. The story was told to me by a friend, and the guy who was telling the story wasn’t telling it very well, so I wasn’t very interested. Until I heard something: the phrase “the authentic swing.” I heard that and something became alert. Then I went down that road about the authentic swing and a character whose lost his swing. And I thought it was interesting, the metaphor of losing your connection to your soul, losing your rhythm, losing your stride in life like we all do. That’s common.
So all that began to add up as I was just hearing that one phrase. Then I read the book [by Steven Pressfield]. I felt that the book would be treated as raw material. I wouldn’t follow the book directly, but go in a different direction with it but still keep the essence of what it was saying.
How do you think audiences will react to the film, and how much do you keep the audience in mind when looking for a story to tell?
Redford: Looking for accessible things for an audience, something the audience can identify with and say “That’s happened to me or is happening to me” is a big thing for me. When I go for a project, I wonder what underpinning a project will have that’s going to give the audience some emotional access to it. I do believe in using sport as a metaphor. I like that. I think it works really well.
Do you worry about doing another “sports” movie, or is this film different?
Redford: I’m not much interested in sport just as sport. I wouldn’t be interested in making a golf film or baseball or fishing film. But if it’s going to be getting to the deeper part of it, using that sport as the metaphor for life’s rhythms and life’s ways, that gets interesting to me. Of all the metaphorical crossovers, golf is the most interesting and appropriate because it’s about a fight against yourself — a struggle against yourself. And it’s one other element. You’ve got a club and a ball, but it’s really just you against nature. The greens, the fairways, the wind, light. And the precision and competence and centeredness it takes. You have to have your swing.
How was it working with the likes of Matt Damon, Charlize Theron and Will Smith?
Redford: Obviously, I like Matt intensely. You can’t help but not, he’s got such a good disposition. And he’s also a good, solid, intelligent actor. He looks unmarked and all-American and these were extremely important requisites for that character. In addition, whatever we were going to do for the part, I just had faith he would do it. He’s not a golfer, and he had to learn how to be a golfer in a really short amount of time. I had faith Matt would do it because of the kind of guy he is and the pride he has in himself. Then he was athletic. He’s a baseball player. Working with him was extremely comfortable because he’s very cooperative and he goes with you, but he’s not stupid. He’ll ask the right questions.
Will, for me, that was very exciting because his talent is obvious. He’s got a large, very outgoing public persona. Because he’s got a lot of diversity in his talent, he’s got a lot of humor, he can do things, he’s talented. That was like the foundation — I’d seen that. What I hadn’t seen were some things I thought we might do in the film. Some new things, some things I thought might take him into a new territory that would make it exciting for him. And I would get the satisfaction of developing something in a character that hadn’t been seen on film but was very right for that particular character. When I decided not to play Bagger Vance so much as God, but more as a coyote trickster, that made Will even more of a candidate.
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And with Charlize, that was also wonderful because that part was not in the book. That was completely nonexistent in the book. That was developed completely on the screen, and I thought she did a great job.
What about the rumors that you and Morgan Freeman were going to take on the roles played by Damon and Smith?
Redford: Very early on that was a consideration and not a very long consideration. That was when I was very roughly thinking about being in it but I wasn’t that focused on the piece. Once I got focused on it and started to develop it, we got off that because it bore too many resemblances to “The Natural.” I felt that was terrain I had already touched on. Then I got far more interested in going another way with it, making it a very young cast. I thought it might be more affecting as a story told if all this happened to very young people. You would expect Bagger Vance to be this wise, old sage, and I decided to go this other way with it making him this completely unpredictable, mysterious character.
This is the same general time period as “A River Runs Through It.” What is it about the ’30s and ’40s that appeals to you so much?
Redford: Obviously the main appeal of this was fundamentally you’re always looking for a story. Films don’t always tell a story, some films can achieve affect just by being razzle-dazzle or rock ‘n’ roll. That’s part of the fare that’s out there. And that’s okay. For me, I place more value on a story. Storytelling is important. Part of human continuity.
I happened to have been raised like that; I come from a big family of storytellers, a Celtic, Irish, Scottish immigrant family who relies on storytelling to import some knowledge, but you never talk about how you felt. Feelings weren’t much, but you could tell a story. And you were supposed to decode what was in the story and figure it out for yourself. I guess that had influence on me because I place value on especially on mythological storylines because they’re the most solid and they usually have moral and rich characters and a simply told story. And this had that, this had a wonderful, simple, mythological story. A classic hero’s journey.
“The Legend of Bagger Vance” opens Nov. 3.
