Bob Woodward Remembers Robert Redford

One of Robert Redford’s most indelible screen roles was Bob Woodward, the hungry young Washington Post reporter in pursuit of one of the biggest stories of his generation: the Watergate scandal that consumed the administration of President Richard M. Nixon.

In Mr. Redford’s hands, Mr. Woodward became known to generations of movie fans in the 1976 film “All the President’s Men” as a swashbuckling truth teller, immortalizing an era when the public had a greater affinity for the news business.

Mr. Redford, 89, died Tuesday morning at his home in Utah. In a statement to The New York Times, Mr. Woodward remembered Mr. Redford as “genuine, a noble and principled force for good who fought successfully to find and communicate the truth.”

“I loved him, and admired him — for his friendship, his fiery independence, and the way he used any platform he had to help make the world better, fairer, brighter for others,” Mr. Woodward wrote.

Mr. Redford’s friendship with Mr. Woodward lasted a half-century, when the actor urged Mr. Woodward and his Watergate reporting partner, Carl Bernstein, to tell the story of the investigation through the prism of their relationship. That effort became their book, published in 1974, which was the basis for the film.

Over past decade, Mr. Woodward and Mr. Redford had stayed in touch, comparing notes on the state of the country and the film that entwined their professional lives.

During some of their recent interactions, Mr. Redford drew comparisons between President Trump and Mr. Nixon, saying that “All the President’s Men” was newly relevant. Mr. Redford lamented the disunion in America, calling it the “divided states of America.” The next year, when Mr. Woodward showed Mr. Redford reporting that indicated that Mr. Trump was trying to “destroy democracy,” Mr. Redford offered an explanation.

“He doesn’t understand it,” Mr. Redford said, according to Mr. Woodward. “So it’s easy for him to destroy it. It is easy to destroy something you don’t understand. You can claim it doesn’t exist.”

Mr. Redford’s portrayal of Mr. Woodward in “All the President’s Men” was the product of intense collaboration between the two. On one occasion, Mr. Woodward let his displeasure show while reading a draft of the script, including during a scene in which his character suggests turning in a story even though a search for new information came up short.

“To hell with this, let’s write it anyway,” the script originally said. Mr. Woodward told The Washington Post in 2023 that he was disgusted by the line, and left a note in the margins. “Wrong.”

“The whole concept is, stick to what you’ve got, what’s factual,” Mr. Woodward said. “And Redford agreed with that completely.” The script changed: The reporters instead began searching anew for information.

In his last decade, Mr. Redford reflected on his mortality, telling Mr. Woodward on New Year’s Eve 2021 that he was aware his time was growing shorter. In light of that, he wanted to “do something that changes the scenario,” just as he and Mr. Woodward did decades ago with Watergate.

“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,” Mr. Redford said. “So you do the best you can with what you’ve got left.”