Excerpts from the Interview

Edwards:

You have been a trustee of NRDC since 1974. So it's obviously a big part of your life. Was there a particular issue that made you get involved?

Redford:

A lot of things came together about my childhood and my background. Lower working-class neighborhood in Los Angeles, there wasn't a lot to do, so the environment was what you could go and do. For me it was the ocean and then the Sierras and I worked at Yosemite National Park. I got exposed there to some of the most majestic power I had ever experienced. I think that's where it started. Then I became very active in 1969. In those early years there was not a big population of environmental activists, so you were up against tremendous odds. When you went out to speak, you got hammered pretty hard. I realized that we needed all the strength that we could get. I wanted to consolidate my energies behind a group that I felt had the most power, and that was NRDC because they had the power to sue, to go to court against the Goliaths we faced. I just felt that NRDC was a place for me to be. I've felt that way ever since and I feel that way even more so today.

Edwards:

Republicans were happy to sponsor environmental legislation in the 1960s. What happened? Where did this become a left/right issue?

Redford:

There was wonderful bipartisanship and I don't have an answer about how we got to this place. But I've been in it long enough to realize that certain patterns repeat themselves. If you see yourself as a David, there are always Goliaths that will keep coming, so you have to keep fighting. I think the last administration was determined to literally destroy the environment. That's why NRDC's power is so important. You'd better have a strong outfit that'll help you win. In the last eight years, the best you could hope for was to hold the line so that not too much was destroyed. Now, you hope for change. But even with a more sympathetic administration, how much change can you expect when the system moves very slowly and is full of compromise? As time goes on, I become more radical about the fight, because I've seen the loss, and some things cannot be repaired. That's why I prefer to go grass roots. Organizations like NRDC draw in more and more supporters that create more power.

Edwards:

On Election Day 2008 a couple of things happened. One was the Obama victory, but also the Bush Administration formed a plan to auction over 100,000 acres of Utah's Red Rock wilderness to oil and gas companies.

Redford:

It's an area that I have very personal attachment to because I spent a lot of time there with my family and so have strong feelings about its value. Bush, on his way out, delivered this edict about opening up 360,000 acres, right through the national parks and monuments area, for oil and gas leasing. And he tried to slide that in under the radar. I just happened to get wind of it and knew we had to get the word out. I had faith that if people knew what was happening -- even if you'd only seen these places in film -- you would know that this was an incredible American asset that was about to be wasted for short-term gain. NRDC helped expose what was happening. Then a judge put in a restraining order. Now it sits with Salazar to see what he's going to do with it, so we have to work on Salazar to make sure he recognizes that that land is public land. It does not belong to this administration or the last one. It belongs to us.

Edwards:

Is wilderness protection a particularly tough sell to the general American public?

Redford:

Well, overnight you can see something that you took personally as a symbol of this "promised land" disappear. And then your kids will have to look at pictures about how it used to be. So I think we have an obligation to do whatever we can to keep that from happening. I believe in NRDC, and they wouldn't be the group they are without the Membership, without the collective power of people believing that they have an organi­zation that can represent their interests, which is the public interest. More people need to step up and say, hey, we're not gonna let you trash our heritage. It's our land and we're going to protect it.

Edwards:

You have maintained a home in Utah for quite some time and created the Sundance Film Festival there. Why did you decide Utah would be a great place for a film festival?

Redford:

Because I couldn't afford anything else. It would have been very expensive for me personally to try to build it in Los Angeles or New York.

Edwards:

Can you envision a popular dramatic Hollywood feature that would have an environmental theme, that doesn't involve imminent explosions of nuclear power plants?

Redford:

I've had some films that have had subtle environmental themes -- like "A River Runs Through It" or "The Milagro Beanfield War" -- but story and character first. I don't believe in abject propaganda in film. I think documentaries are a good place for that.

Edwards:

The American Film Institute came out with their 100 film heroes and villains and you have two roles on the list: the Sundance Kid and Bob Woodward from "All the President's Men." I bring it up because we're speaking tonight on June 17, the thirty-seventh anniversary of the Watergate break-in, which led to a president resigning and you making a movie. After that film, journalism schools sprang up all over America. I mean, thank you for that.

Redford:

You're welcome.

Edwards:

You bear some responsibility for what's become of us.

Redford:

Oh, I don't think it's as much as you may think. When it came out, I wasn't prepared for its success. I did it because I thought this is a great opportunity. I get to celebrate the power of journalism's role with the First Amendment, and to me that was a civic gesture. What I didn't imagine was that journalism schools would be filled with people who wanted to get into the schools for glamorous reasons. They wanted to be Woodward and Bernstein.

Edwards:

You mean it's not a glamorous thing?

Redford:

You can answer that one.