A Director Who Aimed for the Stars

By Robert Redford

I've known Sydney Pollack for almost a half-century. We met on a film in 1960. He was an actor; I was an actor. He and I became kindred spirits. Like any novice artists starting out, we decided that we knew everything that was wrong about the production. So that's how it started. We collaborated together [on seven films, including Out of Africa and The Way We Were] because I was always happy to be the actor to his director. I trusted him.

Because of where he was from--South Bend, Ind.--he had a real love of pop culture and celebrity. He used to tell me, "I went to the movies to see people like Natalie Wood and Judy Garland." He was taken with that part of the business. But he was smart enough to know he could cover that with a more offbeat intellectual style. That was his great gift, his ability to connect the more commercial with the abstract. His track record shows that his instinct was always to go with stars and large films. And at one point I said, "Why don't we just get a handheld and go out and do a little black-and-white?" I just don't think he was that interested in that.