“SORRY… FOR THIS TREMBLING” Barbra Streisand Breaks Down at Oscars 2026 as She Reveals the Heart-Wrenching Final Note She Wrote to Robert Redford Six Months After His Death, Leaving the Entire Theater in Stunned Silence

Following Robert’s Sept. 16 death at his home in Sundance, Utah, Barbra—who had presented him with his honorary Oscar in 2002—recounted their time together on The Way We Were, noting that every day on set was “exciting, intense and pure joy.”

“We were such opposites: he was from the world of horses; I was allergic to them!” she wrote on Instagram last year. “Yet, we kept trying to find out more about each other, just like the characters in the movie. Bob was charismatic, intelligent, intense, always interesting—and one of the finest actors ever.”

The Funny Girl actress also recalled the last time the two saw each other, sharing that Robert joined her for lunch as the two “discussed art and decided to send each other our first drawings.”

“He was one of a kind,” she added, “and I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with him.”

But that opportunity almost didn’t come to pass. Despite Barbra and director Sydney Pollack’s insistence that he be cast as Hubbell to her Katie in The Way We Were, Robert turned down the role multiple times.

“I have to give Sydney credit. He was as persistent as I was, because we both felt that only Redford would make the picture work,” she wrote in her 2023 memoir My Name Is Barbra. “It’s like playing tennis…I knew my own game would go up when I was opposite a strong player.”

But Robert wouldn’t budge, telling them he felt the character wasn’t developed enough, which led to Barbra and Sydney bringing in writers to add “more scenes to strengthen his character.”

“The courtship had been tough,” Barbra said, “but Bob’s reluctance had a big influence on the script and ultimately resulted in a richer, more interesting character.”