Actor about crazy colleague

The 86-year-old Hollywood veteran said that she was unsure whether she would agree to work with Streisand, and that he took extra precautions before sleeping with a colleague for the first time for the purposes of the film.

The book goes into detail on the pre-production, shooting, and post-production of the 1973 romantic film, which earned Streisand an Oscar nomination for best actress.

However, the book claims that Redford first refused to work on the picture with "a woman he did not consider a serious actor" and "wanted to protect himself from her" because he was happily married with four children.

Streisand, on the other hand, was "mesmerized" by Redford's physical perfection and craved his company. According to the author of the book, she even wore a bikini to record their sex scene, but Redford was prepared - he put on two underpants and made sure the sequence was videotaped so that even children could watch it. The picture was made between August and September 1972, when he was 36 years old and the actress was 30.

Redford was initially uninterested in the script and informed director Sidney Pollack that his character Hubbell was like a "Ken doll". Polak didn't want to give up so easily, so he persuaded Redford to take the part for eight months. Still, Redford's dislike of working with Streisand was a major impediment.

There was reportedly "bad blood" between producer Ray Stark and Redford, with the actor saying the film felt like "another Stark ego trip, which he doesn't even want to read". Stark owed him nothing. He referred to him as an "ungrateful milkman," but Pollack pushed to keep him in the picture.

The height of tensions was when Stark issued Polak an ultimatum: bring Redford or he will give the job to someone else. Ryan O'Neill was the name being suggested at the time.

Only after that ultimatum did Redford agree to appear in the film for which he was paid 1.2 million dollars. To "satisfy his ego," he was offered a fee of $200,000 greater than Streisand's. However, the drama did not finish there. He subsequently declined to meet with her, apparently because he believed that if the co-stars didn't know each other, it would help their chemistry in the picture.

When they finally met for dinner, Streisand "fell in love right away" with her co-star and, according to Pollack, "was in love with him even before they started filming." Redford, on the other hand, tried to set strict boundaries and told her: "If we want to work together, you have to remember that everything I tell you about myself will be of my goodwill because I want you to know that. I'm not going to tell you those things because what do you think you have a right to know."

The cameramen were hampered by Streisand and Redford's desire to be filmed from the left side of their faces. Cinematographer Harry Stradling Jr. claimed that they had to prevent the light from hitting Streisand's face during scenes shot in New York since her "nose would look dreadful." Redford also insisted on only showing the left side of his face since he didn't like his three moles on the right side.

Streisand goes to bed with Redford's character, whose character is killed by booze, and they end up having sex. According to Hofler, it was unclear whether Redford was "really in it" because neither character seemed to have an orgasm. The protagonists in the novel on which the picture is based had sex, and Redford's character is portrayed as climaxing, while Streisand's is not.

Although it was a simple scene, it was replayed so many times that Redford became impatient.

They were intended to be eating grapes in another sex scene, and Hubbell was supposed to tell Katie that "it's going to be better this time." He, however, declined. Stark, for his part, insisted on Redford delivering the phrase so Hubbell could "display some humanity, maybe even some guilt for the way he handled Katie in the prior drunken love-making." Stark even sent Pollack a dozen memos in an attempt to convince Redford to say the line, but it never happened.

Following the success of the film, a sequel was proposed, but Redford once again refused to participate. He asserted that he never showed interest in filming the second portion, and on one occasion he stated: "I didn't, but Barbra did".

Post by Bryan C.