Barbra Streisand Opens Up About The Intense “Courtship” Involved In Recruiting Robert Redford To Play Her Leading Man In ‘The Way We Were’: “Only Redford Would Make The Picture Work”

Barbra Streisand‘s leading man in The Way We Were, Robert Redford, almost didn’t star as “fair-haired, taciturn WASP” Hubbell Gardiner alongside the honorary EGOT winner’s Katie Morosky in the 1973 drama.

In an exclusive excerpt from her upcoming memoir My Name Is Barbra published in Vanity Fair, Streisand revealed that she “had a particular actor in mind for Hubbell…Robert Redford…who happened to be good friends with [director] Sydney [Pollack].”

She claimed she took notice of Redford in another one of Pollack’s films, This Property Is Condemned, and “saw there was a lot going on behind those crystal-blue eyes.”

“I was drawn to him not because of his appearance…guys with blond hair and blue eyes were never my type. I did think he was very handsome…a wonderful jawline…great teeth,” she wrote. “But what intrigued me most about Bob was his complexity. You never quite know what he’s thinking, and that makes him fascinating to watch onscreen.”

After Redford turned down the role, Streisand noted that her “best hope was that Sydney could somehow persuade him.”

“I have to give Sydney credit,” she continued. “He was as persistent as I was, because we both felt that only Redford would make the picture work. It’s like playing tennis…I knew my own game would go up when I was opposite a strong player.”

Streisand explained how Redford was “concerned that the script was so focused on Katie that Hubbell’s character was underdeveloped,” which she admitted he was “right” for thinking.

“Bob asked Sydney, ‘Who is this guy? He’s just an object…. He doesn’t want anything. What does this guy want?'” she recalled in the excerpt. “In Bob’s opinion, he was ‘shallow and one-dimensional. Not very real.'”

She continued, “I wanted Bob to be happy, so I told Sydney, ‘Give him anything he wants. Write more scenes to strengthen his character. Make it equal.'”

Pollack hired two writers “to beef up Bob’s part and go deeper, beneath that golden-boy exterior,” and Streisand “told [producer] Ray [Stark] to pay [Redford] whatever he wanted.”

When that didn’t work, Streisand was “heartbroken,” but Stark was telling her “to move on and hire someone else” for the role, and he had Ryan O’Neal “next on his list.” However, she and Pollack hadn’t given up just yet.

“Sydney kept begging for another week to work on Redford,” she wrote. “I told Ray to give it to him and kept praying. The negotiations went down to the wire.”

Eventually, Streisand received a telegram for talent agent Sue Mengers while filming Up the Sandbo, which “simply said: ‘Barbra Redford!'”

“That’s when I knew he’d finally said yes…and I was so thrilled!” she remembered. “The courtship had been tough, but Bob’s reluctance had a big influence on the script and ultimately resulted in a richer, more interesting character.”

The Way We Were is available to rent or buy on Prime Video. My Name Is Barbra drops Nov. 7.