Robert Redford Hints at Retirement: 'I'm Getting Tired of Acting'

The 80-year-old actor says he is ready to leave his acting career behind in order to explore his initial passion as a painter.

Robert Redford is done with acting. The 80-year-old actor/director wants to retire after finishing his two movies "Our Souls at Night" and "Old Man with a Gun". He tells his grandson Dylan in a new interview, "Once they're done then I'm going to say, 'Okay, that's goodbye to all that,' and then just focus on directing."

"I'm getting tired of acting," he says. "I'm an impatient person, so it's hard for me to sit around and do take after take after take. At this point in my life, age 80, it'd give me more satisfaction because I'm not dependent on anybody. It's just me, just the way it used to be, and so going back to sketching - that's sort of where my head is right now. I'm thinking of moving in that direction and not acting so much."

His passion as a painter began when he was a teen. "I started out as an artist when I was 18 or 19 years old. I wanted to get out of this country and experience different ways of seeing the world. So I went to Europe, but I went as an artist. I was increasing my skill set and exploring storytelling through painting," he remembers.

"Doing that, I realized how much I loved it. Later, when I became an actor, I suffered for four or five years not being sure I wanted to be in that business because I so wanted to be an artist. I just wanted to paint and sketch and tell stories by drawing. Then I realized: why can't I combine the two? - which led me to be a director."

© AceShowbiz.com