Scarlett Johansson is opening up about the influence the late Robert Redford had on her career.
Redford, who died at age 89 on September 16, directed Johansson in one of her earliest roles in the 1998 film The Horse Whisperer. Johansson was just 12 at the time, but seeing the Oscar winner command the film set inspired her to one day direct her own film. 27 years later, Johansson’s directorial debut, Eleanor the Great, is set to hit theaters on Friday, September 26.
“It was when I was working with Bob,” Johansson shared when she first realized she wanted to become a director during a Monday, September 22, appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. “I remember seeing him on the set. He would have those intimate conversations with me, and then he would be coordinating a huge set scene … it was like, ‘That job seems pretty interesting. I’d like to do that job some day.’”
Johansson described the All the President’s Men star as “a warm, kind, patient, generous, wonderful man.”
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“He would take so much time with me every day,” she said of her experiencing working with him as both her director and costar in The Horse Whisperer. “He was so warm, and we had such a special relationship in the film — the characters do — where he actually therapizes my character. He, in real life, had that persona. Just so calm and kind and patient. He would talk me through the scene. Every scene we’d do, he’d talk me through what my character had been through up until that point, and it was like he had all the time to do that.”
“It was transformative for me,” Johansson continued. “I had a complete understanding of, ‘Oh, this is actually a craft and something you get better at and understand more the more you put into it.’ That was all because of Bob, Mr. Redford.”
Redford’s publicist Cindi Berger confirmed his death in a statement to The New York Times last week. She said he died in his sleep at his home in Provo, Utah. He was in “the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved,” Berger said.
Many of Redford’s former costars paid their respects following his death, Johansson included.
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“Every day before each scene, he would take the time to sit with me and walk me through all of the beats that led my character up until that particular point in the story,” Johansson, 40, told People in a statement last week. “No matter the reality of the day’s rush, I always felt he had all the time in the world for our work. Bob created an environment on set that was calm and precious; a place where actors could make discoveries. He was patient and warm and kind.”
Longtime collaborator Jane Fonda said in a September 16 statement to Us Weekly, “It hit me hard this morning when I read that Bob was gone. I can’t stop crying. He meant a lot to me and was a beautiful person in every way. He stood for an America we have to keep fighting for.”
