The ‘Robert Redford’s Never Bad in Bed’ School of Filmmaking
Much anticipated for Barbra Streisand was her first love scene with Robert Redford in the film The Way We Were. “Streisand was a star who reportedly had had affairs with many of her leading men,” said one member of the production team.
A notable except was Walter Matthau on the set of Hello, Dolly! The two stars famously loathed each other from almost the first day of production on that movie musical. Unlike Elliott Gould in I Can Get It for You Wholesale, or Sydney Chaplin in the Funny Girl stage musical, or Omar Sharif in the movie version, or Ryan O’Neal in What’s Up Doc?, Redford was a happily married family man with four children when he signed to do The Way We Were in June 1972. Initially, he even refused his new leading lady’s request for the customary first meeting before production began. Streisand had asked and she asked, and finally, Streisand asked the film’s director, Sydney Pollack, “Why can’t I sit and talk with Bob Redford? I’m going to act with him in the movie.” Pollack had to tell Streisand that her new costar preferred the spontaneity of not rehearsing, of not meeting her beforehand. The news did not set well with the notoriously punctilious performer.
“Finally, it started to get destructive,” said Pollack, and he had no choice but to tell Redford, a close friend, “You’ve got to go, because she’s starting to take it personally.”