SALT LAKE CITY — Robert Redford said on Monday he feels out of place.
The legendary actor published a statement called “A Brief Statement About Big Things” to the Sundance Institute’s website on Monday in which he explained how he feels “out of place in the country I was born into.”
He wrote that for the first time in his life he has “watched with sadness as our civil servants have failed us.”
Redford said he understands why young people accuse older generations of being so partisan and not working together.
“It’s hard to blame young people for calling us out, and pointing to our conflicts between the values we declare, and those we stand behind only when it’s convenient to partisanship. Many people are rightly calling it a … mess,” he wrote. “But I want to encourage you to dig deep for hope and civility right now — to try to make connections with people you disagree with, to be better than our politicians.”
Redford called for all sides to come together to help build better communities.
“We don’t have to share the same motivations to want the same outcomes. Let’s focus on each other, and strengthening our communities, and reflecting on what’s happening. Let’s live in justice and respect and let others fight it out now to the bitter ends,” he wrote. “This is our country too. Every woman, man and child in it, our American future. We’ve got work to do.”
Read the entire statement at the Sundance Institute.
Back in August, Redford announced he would retire from acting following his most recent film “The Old Man & The Gun,” which opens in Utah Oct. 12. Redford hinted at retirement back in 2016 when he voiced his love for art.
The Deseret News recently looked back at Redford’s five career-defining movies, which include “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969) and “Jeremiah Johnson” (1972).