When he was 44 years old, Newman, who portrayed Butch, admitted that he had been interested in the 33-year-old Redford’s 33-year-old character.
In a BBC Talking Pictures interview, Newman noted, “We have a lot of fun together, and we bounce off each other really well.” However, he also revealed, “I would have wanted to play Sundance. With that cooled-out quality, I feel a little more at ease. It must be the simpler part, I suppose.”
The two celebrities weren’t truly friends at the time, according to Newman’s memoir, “The Extraordinary Life of an Ordinary Man: A Memoir,” the BBC reports. Newman said, “You can’t depend on Redford. You’re never sure he’s going to be there. That’s simply discourteous.”
Their differences in working styles, according to Newman’s youngest daughter Claire Newman Soderlund, may have contributed to their conflicts. She said, “My father was very much a stickler for timeliness and Bob, that was never really his strength.”
Redford was a budding star who won the Golden Globe for New Star of the Year in 1965 for his work with Natalie Wood in the movie Inside Daisy Clover.
After appearing in movies like Cool Hand Luke (1967) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) with Elizabeth Taylor, Newman had already achieved superstardom. Redford was cast opposite Newman, who was winning acting and directing accolades, in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid after Steve McQueen turned down a role in the film.
Newman and Redford looked into possibilities to collaborate on a third movie after portraying renowned outlaws and later thieves in The Sting, but it never materialized.
In 2005, Redford, who both appeared in and produced the movie, chose the script for A Walk in the Woods with his close friend Newman in mind. However, Newman later cast Nick Nolte in the part because he wasn’t sure he could do it physically.
Speaking after his buddy died, Redford said, “We both got to know each other’s flaws pretty well. Of course, I outweighed him on that front. But knowing each other’s flaws, we just played them to the hilt and we’d try to trick each other. We’d try to surprise each other, and it was so damn much fun that it became like–it became like a scenario unto itself.”
He added, “Paul really likes to have fun and he loves to laugh and he really especially loves to laugh at his own jokes, and some of them are just really awful. So the fact that he enjoyed them so much, you forget about the joke and you’d start to laugh with him because you’re so caught up in his enjoyment of them.”
The relationship between Newman and Redford, two highly regarded performers, has significantly deepened since they initially worked together on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Despite their differences in working styles and personalities, the actors developed a deep bond and friendship that lasted for decades, even as they continued to collaborate on projects. Their on-screen chemistry and off-screen camaraderie have solidified their legacies as two of Hollywood’s most iconic and enduring duos.
