Display tales Paul Newman and Robert Redford‘s second and final screen pairing, in 1973’ s The Sting, confirmed a lot more prominent at package workplace than their very first, 1969’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Youngster. The movie– regarding an organization of self-confidence males preparing disadvantages in the Great Anxiety– was a desire shoot on the Universal backlot set, conserve for one consistent inconvenience: Redford was constantly late.
To commemorate the 50th wedding anniversary of its 7 Oscar success, the group behind The Sting– manufacturers Michael Phillips and Tony Costs (the 3rd manufacturer, Julia Phillips, ex-wife of Michael and writer of You’ll Never ever Consume Lunch in This Community Once more, passed away in 2002) and film writer David S. Ward– signed up with The Hollywood Press reporter’s It Took place in Hollywood podcast for a rollicking discussion regarding obtaining the movie made.
“He always felt inadequate, and that he was hired for his blue eyes,” claims Phillips of dealing with his hero, Newman, that was 48 throughout the shoot.“He was just a very humble, very humble man. The first day he showed up on the set. And he was a giant, you know, hero to me. And I was totally starstruck. And he came over and he said, ‘Hi, I’m Paul. Great script you got here. I hope I don’t fuck it up.’”
Phillips proceeded, “He was a happy presence on the set. He would bring popcorn, always make jokes, always professional, on time, mock his own mistakes. So it was a privilege.”
Redford, 37 at the time, was a happiness to deal with on set also– that is, when he obtained to the set. “Redford was chronically late,” Phillips exposes. “That was the thing — and it never ended, either.” The celebrity would normally show up 40 mins late daily. At some point, the continuous delay led to a conflict with his co-star.
“One day, Newman tore him apart for it,” Phillips remembers. “Paul was the bigger star. And he said something like, ‘What are you — a movie star?’ Redford shrunk from it.” The clothing down led to a small enhancement– Redford started turning up simply 20 mins late rather than 40. Costs calls the lateness“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 McQueen. Same thing.”
The lateness did not enhance with age. Ward functioned once again with Redford on 1988’s The Milagro Beanfield Battle, which Redford starred in and routed. “You’re supposed to start shooting at 7:00 a.m.,” claims Ward. “And it obtained to be 9:30. And we still had not seen him– and afterwards suddenly, we see this motorcyclist and equine riding throughout a mesa distant. The advertisement had some field glasses: ‘Yeah, there’ s Redford.’ … After that he came to set and really did not state anything regarding being late. The remainder of it was all typical and expert and he really did not play God. He had not been violent to any person.
“I don’t know what it was,” Ward proceeds.“He had a maybe some kind of superstition about being on time. He had Cheech Marin waiting two days up in Sundance for his audition [for Milagro]. He brought him up to audition him on a Tuesday and he didn’t get to him till Thursday. He put him up at Sundance in a nice cabin and everything — but Cheech was losing his mind.”
Hurting earned $156 million (the matching of $1.1 billion in 2023), while Butch gained $102 million ($ 889 million today). Both movies were smartly routed by George Roy Hillside and confirmed tremendously prominent with the Academy: Butch was chosen for 7 Oscars and won 4 (consisting of finest initial movie script), yet Sting won 7 of its 10 elections, consisting of finest image, initial movie script and supervisor for Hillside.
