Robert Redford reportedly sensed enough sexual tension on the set of one of his movies that he felt it necessary to “protect himself.”
The Oscar-winning Hollywood heartthrob, now 86, was filming The Way We Were with Barbra Streisand in 1972 when he put some safety measures in place to try to cool things down.
In his book, The Way They Were: How Epic Battles and Bruised Egos Brought a Classic Hollywood Love Story to the Screen, author Robert Hofler revealed that Redford doubled his underwear for his sex scene with Streisand.
Hofler wrote, “To protect himself in more ways than one, (Redford) wore two athletic supporters for his love scene with Streisand, who chose to don a bikini.”
The author explained that Redford wasn’t too keen on working with the Evergreen singer, saying she wasn’t a “serious actress.”
Streisand, on the other hand, had become “infatuated” with him from their first meeting.
According to the film’s director, Sydney Pollack, Streisand “had a crush on him even before we started.” A cast member was also quoted in the book as saying that she had “affairs with many of her leading men.”
Streisand was reportedly looking forward to her love scene with Redford. But the latter, who was a happily married father of four at the time, didn’t want to get involved and donned double jock straps for safety.
The book also says that they had to do a “lot of takes,” which caused Redford to lose patience. Eventually, Pollack had to tell Streisand, “I think we’ve got it.”
The Way They Were: How Epic Battles and Bruised Egos Brought a Classic Hollywood Love Story to the Screen was released on January 24 and coincides with the 50th anniversary of the movie, which was filmed between August and November 1972 and shown in 1973.
The romantic drama revolves around the love story of Hubbell Gardiner and Katie Morosky, played by Redford and Streisand respectively.
Despite the on-set chaos, the film turned out to be a commercial and critical success, even earning Streisand an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. There were discussions about a sequel, but Redford wasn’t interested.
