34 ;e Costco Connection JANUARY 2016
cover story
Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting]”
Redford says. “There was an 11-year age differ-
ence between him and me. Paul was physically
in decline. He felt he could not do some of the
stunts required, so he bowed out very early.”
Redford turned to Nick Nolte to play
Stephen Katz, the old friend Bryson
hasn’t seen in 30 years. “Bryson and
Katz were wild in college,” Redford
says. “They were both smart and
often did illegal things. They had a
lot of fun, but eventually they had
a falling out.
“Bryson told me Katz was
very daring but he had an ad-
dictive personality, so I thought
Nick would be great. Katz
stayed pretty much who he
was, wanting to be indepen-
dent of rules, but Bryson got his
act together and went on a differ-
ent journey.”
Redford related strongly to
Bryson: “When I was younger I
was out of control and undisci-
plined, but I was finally able to
pull myself together.”
Even with Redford’s involve-
ment, A Walk in the Woods took almost a
decade to get into production. “Studios don’t
do as many films as they used to,” he explains.
“I think there’s something appealing about
the camaraderie of male friendship, particu-
larly when it’s balanced by bickering. But
people weren’t supporting it.”
Once the go-ahead arrived, Redford asked
Big Miracle director Ken Kwapis to take the
helm. “Bob told me he didn’t want to think
directorially,” Kwapis says. “He wanted to focus
on bringing his character to life, and he felt I’d
allow him to exercise his comedic muscles.”
On the film set
One of the story’s biggest challenges,
apart from physical obstacles the characters
face, is that it’s not a complicated plot. Two
guys decide to walk 2, 100 miles. Will they
make it?
“The film lives and dies on how involved
you are with these two men,” says Kwapis.
“They’re taking stock of their life and thinking about roads they did or didn’t take.
They’re in their autumnal years, and they’re
having an adventure with this other awesome
character—the Appalachian Trail.”
A Walk in the Woods was filmed mostly
in Georgia, in some cases on the trail itself
and at other times in deep woods. Horses and
camels were often used to carry the equipment. “Invariably the most compelling locations were the least accessible,” says Kwapis.
“It was no mean feat to get to the best spots.”
“We didn’t walk 2,000 miles,” Redford
says, “but by the time we did six or seven
M r.
Natural
On the trail of
Robert Redford
In our digital editions
Click here for a scene from
A Walk in the Woods with
Redford and Emma Thompson.
(See page 14 for details.)
By Nancy Mills
“DON’T LOOK BACK,” Robert Redford
says. “Keep moving forward and be willing to
take chances.”
That’s Redford’s motto. It’s also the mes-
sage of one of his recent films, a buddy comedy
called A Walk in the Woods. Based on a 1998
best-selling book of the same name—a personal reminiscence by author
and world traveler Bill
Bryson—the film is nominally
about his experiences hiking
the Appalachian Trail.
It’s also about male friendship, the environment and coming to terms with your choices.
“[In his book] Bryson is
looking for a second act,”
Redford tells The Connection.
“He’s not satisfied with his life,
even though he has a wonderful
family. Something’s missing. He
wants to shake things up, do
something he hasn’t done before
to put himself to the test. He can’t
explain it: ‘I just want to do this
thing.’ He embarks on this jour-
ney without having a clue what’s
going to happen.”
Paul Newman originally planned to join
Redford on this adventure. “Back in 2004,
when I started working on this project, it was
meant to be a third film for us” [after Butch
The Costco
Connection
A Walk in the Woods in
Blu-ray (Item #1027746)
is available at all Costco
warehouses, along with
other Redford films.
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