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Robert Redford Announces Retirement

The Old Man & The Gun will be Robert Redford’s last acting job in Hollywood. During an interview with EW, the 81 year old actor who started acting in 1960 confirmed that he would finally keep his word and retire from acting, with The Old Man & The Gun as the last film in which he’ll act.

“Never say never, but I pretty well concluded that this would be it for me in terms of acting, and [I’ll] move towards retirement after this ’cause I’ve been doing it since I was 21. I thought, Well, that’s enough. And why not go out with something that’s very upbeat and positive?” Redford said, noting that the “framework” and the story in Old Man helped shepherd him to this conclusion.

Redford will be playing the role of Forrest Tucker, a career criminal who loves his chosen career full of bank robberies and prison escapes.

“To me, that was a wonderful character to play at this point in my life. The thing that really got me about him — which I hope the film shows — is he robbed 17 banks and he got caught 17 times and went to prison 17 times. But he also escaped 17 times. So it made me wonder: I wonder if he was not averse to getting caught so he that could enjoy the real thrill of his life, which is to escape?”

In matters of committing to directing other future projects, Redford had this to say; “we’ll see about that.” Redford, a native Californian, won a Best Director Academy Award for 1980’s Ordinary People; he was at the forefront of eight other feature films and is the founder of Sundance Institute and the Sundance Film Festival.

The Old Man & The Gun which is produces by Robert Redford, stars Robert Redford, Sissy Spacek, Danny Glover, Tom Waits, and Casey Affleck. It will be released via Fox Searchlight on Sept. 28 and will be playing at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.