Robert Redford's publicist has said the star's stated intention to retire from acting when he has completed work on his two upcoming movies is somewhat premature.
"He is certainly not retiring now from acting because he has several projects coming down the pike," Cindi Berger told film industry website Deadline, adding that Redford would not be retiring after his next two films either, but giving no further details.
In an interview with his grandson Dylan Redford for the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the iconic actor-director was asked if he had considered returning to his early love, painting.
"Yeah, a lot - and a lot lately because I'm getting tired of acting," the screen legend replied. "I'm an impatient person, so it's hard for me to sit around and do take after take after take. At this point in my life, age 80, it'd give me more satisfaction because I'm not dependent on anybody. It's just me, just the way it used to be, and so going back to sketching - that's sort of where my head is right now."
"So, I'm thinking of moving in that direction and not acting so much," Redford continued. "I've got two acting projects in the works: Our Souls at Night, with Jane Fonda, a love story for older people who get a second chance in life; and Old Man with a Gun, a lighter piece with Casey Affleck and Sissy Spacek. Once they're done then I'm going to say, 'Okay, that's goodbye to all that,' and then just focus on directing."
Redford won the Best Director Oscar for his 1980 film Ordinary People and also received an honorary Oscar in 2002. His acting career began in the 1960s and he was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar in 1974 for his performance opposite Paul Newman in the classic The Sting.
Other celebrated performances include Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men, Three Days of the Condor, The Natural, Out of Africa and All is Lost.
Redford was most recently seen on screens in the Disney adventure Pete's Dragon.
