1973’s The Sting starred iconic duo Paul Newman and Robert Redford in their second and final on-screen pairing (their first being 1969’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid). While the film was a dream shoot, there was one thing that held the crew back: Redford’s chronic tardiness!
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the seven Oscar-winning film (including the Oscar for Best Picture), producers Tony Bill and Michael Phillips along with screenwriter David S. Ward discussed the film’s production on The Hollywood Reporter’s podcast, It Happened in Hollywood.
On Redford’s tardiness, Phillips revealed the following: “Redford was chronically late…That was the thing — and it never ended, either.”
The star’s tardiness often led to him arriving about 40 minutes late each day, eventually resulting in a confrontation with Newman. Phillip further reveals, “One day, Newman tore him apart for it…Paul was the bigger star. And he said something like, ‘What are you — a movie star?’ Redford shrunk from it.
After the confrontation, Redford cut his time in half, appearing 20 minutes late instead of the typical 40, to which Bill offered a possible reason, calling it “a psychological flaw…a compulsion to not be on time. It comes with the mantle of being a star. I did a film with Steve McQueeen. Same thing.”
Ward, who worked with Redford again for 1988’s The Milagro Beanfield War (directed and starring Redford himself), said the star’s tardiness did not go away with age, stating the following about the experience: “You’re supposed to start shooting at 7:00 a.m. … And it got to be 9:30. And we still hadn’t seen him…Then he came to set and didn’t say anything about being late. The rest of it was all normal and professional.”
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