Bob Woodward has revealed Robert Redford’s fight for “freedom” in a touching statement about his late friend of over 50 years.
“Robert Redford was genuine, a noble and principled force for good who fought successfully to find and communicate the truth,” Woodward said in the two-page statement, remembering the Oscar-winning actor who passed away on Tuesday morning at his Utah home at the age of 89.
“He will be remembered as one of the great storytellers in our country’s history,” Woodward said about his friend of more than 50 years.
Redford became interested in Woodward’s story after reading a profile on him and Carl Bernstein—the second Washington Post journalist investigating the Watergate scandal—and purchased the film rights to their book All the President’s Men in 1974.
“I’m proud of the story because it showcased the high point of journalism and the low point of politics,” Redford wrote in an email to The Washington Post in 2022.
In an op-ed written by Redford in 2019, the actor openly called President Donald Trump “dictator-like,” writing, “We’re up against a crisis I never thought I’d see in my lifetime.”
Speaking to journalists on Tuesday about the “great” actor’s death, Trump praised Redford, saying, “he had a series of years that there was nobody better.”
In his statement, Woodward recalls telling the actor about reporting that showed Trump was trying to destroy democracy. “He [Trump] doesn’t understand it,” Redford said in response. “It’s easy to destroy something you don’t understand. You can claim it doesn’t exist,” he added.
“We live in a country where we can’t call ourselves the United States of America,” Woodward recalls the actor once said.
“At one time, there was a long road ahead of me, and now that road is a lot shorter, and I don’t have a lot of time to mess around,” Redford told Woodward when he was 85.
“We have to do something that changes the scenario, changes the dialogue. Just like we did many years ago with Watergate,” the late actor added.