After a career spanning almost six decades, actor Robert Redford announces he’s retiring from acting.
The 81-year-old actor confirmed the news during an interview for Entertainment Weekly saying he’s making good on announcement to stop working two years ago, saying “Once Our Souls at Night and The Old Man & The Gun wrapped I’m going to say, ‘OK, that’s goodbye to all that,’ and then just focus on directing.”
His last job is the film The Old Man & The Gun which is scheduled to premiere next month.
“Never say never, but I pretty well concluded that this would be it for me in terms of acting, and [I’ll] move towards retirement after this ’cause I’ve been doing it since I was 21. I thought, Well, that’s enough. And why not go out with something that’s very upbeat and positive?” Redford tells the outlet.
Of his last character, Forrest Tucker, a career criminal in love with robbing banks and breaking out of prison, he said, “To me, that was a wonderful character to play at this point in my life. The thing that really got me about him — which I hope the film shows — is he robbed 17 banks and he got caught 17 times and went to prison 17 times. But he also escaped 17 times. So it made me wonder: I wonder if he was not averse to getting caught so he that could enjoy the real thrill of his life, which is to escape?”
The Old Man & The Gun, co-stars Casey Affleck, Danny Glover, Sissy Spacek and Tom Waits and will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
