Andrew Garfield says he was terrified sharing the screen with Robert Redford on “Lions for Lambs”, and the Hollywood legend showed up four hours late.
The two-time Oscar nominee, 43, opened up about the 2007 war drama during an appearance on Amy Poehler’s “Good Hang” podcast this week, recalling nerves, a long wait, and a director-star who ran on his own clock.
Page Six reported Garfield’s account of working opposite Redford, the Oscar-winning star of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “Indecent Proposal,” who also directed the film.
Garfield did not dress it up as a polished Hollywood memory. He said he was pinching himself, and then stuck waiting.
On the podcast, Garfield framed the story with clear affection for the late star.
Before the punch line about the delay, he said:
"I don’t know what I was telling myself. So, first of all, Bob Redford, God rest his beautiful soul of service,"
He added that he meant every word kindly.
"So, I say it with love. So, I’m terrified and nervous and pinching myself,"
The wait changed the mood. Garfield said Redford arrived four hours late, and by then the fear had curdled into something sharper.
"It’s just like by that time I’m just pissed. I’m just angry,"
That anger did not last. Once Redford finally appeared, Garfield said the legend seemed unbothered and unaware of the clock.
"[Redford] was so loose and casual and he was so cool and he still dressed like he was in his 20s with a double denim and he wasn’t aware that he was late,"
Garfield made the point plain: this was not a secret he was spilling.
"He was just on his own Redford time and he was famously late. I’m not like telling tales out of school. He was a famously late person."
“Lions for Lambs” was an American war drama tying together a U.S. platoon in Afghanistan, a senator, a reporter, and a California college professor. Garfield’s scenes put him opposite Redford, who was acting and directing at the same time.
That double job produced an unusual on-set habit. Redford would shoot his own coverage first, then turn to his co-star for a reaction.
"He would shoot his own coverage first. He would shoot himself and then he would look at me after his first take and he’d be like, ‘What do you think?’ ‘Cause he was directing as well,"
Garfield said the pattern held for their work together.
"So all my scenes were with him and he was like, ‘What do you think?’ And I was like, ‘It’s great,'"
For a younger actor already starstruck, the ask itself was part of the surreal day: the man who had rattled him by showing up late was also treating him like a partner once the camera rolled.
Garfield’s “God rest” line landed against a fresh loss. A rep for Redford told Page Six that the actor-director died Sept. 16, 2025, at 89.
The spokesperson said:
"Robert Redford passed away on September 16, 2025, at his home at Sundance in the mountains of Utah, the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved,"
The family asked for privacy and said he would be missed greatly. He died in his sleep. An official cause of death has not been revealed.
Garfield’s podcast story did not revise that record. It simply put a human frame on a giant of the old studio era: late, loose, still in double denim, and still asking the kid across from him what he thought.
Hollywood still chases image and punctual branding. Redford’s “own time” was messier, and the work, and the respect, outlasted the clock.
