Q: How was the bear?

RR: The bear was tame, is what they said.

Q: Did you interact with the bear before shooting began?

RR: Not very much. I don't subscribe to the idea of wild animals being tamed. I don't think they're ever REALLY tame. They can be tamed for periods of time, but I would never take for granted a wild animal.

Q: I read that you had a bad previous experience with a grizzly… what was it like working with that big bear?

RR: Years ago, I was making a film called "Jeremiah Johnson," and the scene called for me to be chased by a bear and the scene got out of hand and the camera had a malfunction and I had to keep running around a tree. The bear got all excited and started really chasing me and I had to jump in the tree to save my neck. I made it, but I said, "I'm never going to do this again." So, now I'm doing it again and why am I doing it again? Because I got paid to do it.

 {sstreamtalk}/joomla_ts103/audio/redford/redford-bear.mp3|300|Robert Redford|#102210{/sstreamtalk}

Q: You said you did this because you got paid--do you do certain films now because you get paid?

RR: I've never done anything for the pay. I was kidding. [I did this] because I liked the script. I did think a lot about the bear. I said, "Gee, I wonder what they're going to do with this." But I did it because I liked the script and I liked the character and I liked what the script was trying to say.

Q: Did you have to wrestle with a beast of another kind--Jennifer Lopez's following.

RR: I didn't think about it because I didn't have to; we were in Canada in a very remote place and were working there as actors. She was just Jennifer. We were playing parts in a movie and she didn't bring with her any of the business stuff. It didn't enter the picture, so I never thought about it. I never dealt with it. She's a talented actor, so I just enjoyed her, but I never thought about her audience or anything like that.

Q: The film is basically about forgiveness; what transgression have you had to forgive?

RR: There's a long list.

Q: Name one.

RR: This is just one small example, there are others, but I don't want to waste time here thinking [about it]—there was a critic that I became friendly with early in life and I always wondered if that was dangerous--to have a friendship with a critic because what would happen if that critic were to review your films? I thought about it and worried about it, but didn't do anything about it and then later on, the critic began to review my films and I thought that would not be a good idea and I told him: "Don't you think it's not such a good idea? That it would be a conflict?" And he said, "No, no problem at all." And then he and I had a falling out as friends, and from that time I got savaged in reviews. The abuse was so great, I mean, it was so extreme, his punishing me in print. I had no defense so I had to forgive it and I eventually did.

 {sstreamtalk}/joomla_ts103/audio/redford/redford-forgive.mp3|300|Robert Redford|#102210{/sstreamtalk}

Q: Are you friends now?

RR: No, I just forgave. That was as far as I could go.