Director Barry Levinson shared stories about Redford playing Roy Hobbs in the ‘The Natural’ and what an amazing athlete the Hollywood legend was
The Natural wasn’t acting: Robert Redford’s on-set baseball skills surprised everyone
On the Rich Eisen show the famous director revealed that sometimes it was hard having Redford play badly when asked to represent the fictional characters’ moments while in a slump. “He’d swing, you know, he’d hit a home run,” he said. “Bob, you just gotta strike out, I mean. You know, because we have about 4000 extras there.”
Roy Hobbs tells Pop Fisher the story of his prized bat "Wonderboy" after his amazing first batting practice with the New York Knights in the classic #baseball movie, "The Natural". ~ RIP Robert Redford #Legend pic.twitter.com/ESMn1bbwri
— Baseball by BSmile (@BSmile) September 16, 2025
Eisen agrees with Levinson that Redford was the perfect actor to be cast for the box office hit. “He was a really good athlete so those catches that he was making in the field that was him, there were no doubles,” Levinson said.
The movie was a huge success and one of the best movies ever made about the game. “In baseball and other sports there are these moments that are beyond comprehension. When we talk about sport we sometimes take it a little further,” Levinson remarked about the character played by Redford hitting the cover off of the ball or the lights exploding when hit by the home run ball.
RIP Robert Redford, whose portrayal of Roy Hobbs in "The Natural" remains one of the greatest performances in the history of baseball movies.
— Not Gaetti (@notgaetti) September 16, 2025
Full. Body. Chills. Every. Time. pic.twitter.com/dPNDlaEBFx
“He hits it you know and the whole thing explodes, like fireworks almost,” Levinson explained. “That was really trying to do a fable.” If you haven’t seen the 1984 movie, you need to and soon, you won’t regret it.
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