redford

Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone who wasn’t expecting to hear this much about “Celebrity Family Feud” in 2025.

The talk around Hollywood on Wednesday — and beyond — has centered on late night after Walt Disney Co.-owned broadcaster ABC said it was suspending “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” indefinitely over the host’s remarks about right-wing activist Charlie Kirk and his accused killer. (Airing in its place so far? You guessed it, “Celebrity Family Feud.”) Let us help you get up to speed on the situation. Media reporters Stephen Battaglio and Meg James have an inside look behind the decision to bench Kimmel. The decision, of course, has rocked the late-night circuit, and Kimmel’s colleagues didn’t shy away from using their own platforms to address the matter — here’s what they had to say. And does Kimmel’s suspension have echoes to ABC’s firing of Roseanne Barr? Culture and representation reporter Greg Braxton explains the parallels and differences here. Our reporters were also at the demonstration that took place outside the El Capitan Entertainment Centre in Hollywood, where Kimmel tapes his show.

That wasn’t the only shocking news to hit Hollywood this week. Robert Redford, a generational movie star and titan of filmmaking, died Tuesday at the age of 89. If you haven’t already, take a moment to read our obituary that captures why he was one of Hollywood’s most influential figures. Film reporter Mark Olsen also dives into the legendary actor’s impact on independent cinema through the Sundance Institute. And members of the film team explain Redford’s legacy through 10 essential films.

Also in this week’s Screen Gab, Judy Reyes stops by Guest Spot to discuss her role as tough but compassionate Lt. Selena Soto in ABC’s hit “High Potential,” which returned for Season 2 this week, and how she’s feeling about reprising one of her most well-known characters, Carla Espinosa, in the upcoming “Scrubs” reboot. Plus, our streaming recommendations include a documentary telling the remarkable true story of four Colombian children who survived a plan crash and 40 days alone in the Amazon rainforest, and a Redford classic.

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(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

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Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times

A scene from “Lost in the Jungle.”

(National Geographic / Anit)

“Lost in the Jungle” (Disney+, Hulu)

If you haven’t canceled your Disney+ and/or Hulu subscriptions yet, I highly recommend this riveting, complex, exquisitely made documentary about the survival of, and search for, four Indigenous children in the Colombian jungle after the crash of a small plane that killed their mother and the pilot — and the fraught family history that brought them there. Proceeding with the force of a fairy tale, including an evil stepfather, incidentally helpful monkeys and confounding forest spirits, it on the one hand focuses on a resourceful 13-year-old who keeps three younger siblings, including a baby, alive in a dangerous world for 40 days, and on the other, the military and Indigenous searchers who learn to cooperate as they navigate weather, illness, “things that can’t be seen, not with human eyes” and a history of distrust marked by narco-guerillas, industrial exploitation and state neglect. Directors E. Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin and Juan Camilo Cruz combine interviews with family members, searchers and soldiers, with footage from the forest and line animations illustrating the children’s experience into something suspenseful, strange and beautiful. — Robert Lloyd

Robert Redford, right, with Dustin Hoffman in a scene from “All The President’s Men.”

(Sunset Boulevard / Corbis via Getty Images)

“All the President’s Men” [VOD]

It’s stands as one of the most discerning and potent films ever made about the crucial and essential role of journalism as a public watchdog in holding political leaders accountable and protecting democracy. Based on the book by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the 1976 film chronicles the unearthing of the Watergate scandal, tracking the duo’s time as Washington Post reporters — with Robert Redford as Woodward and Dustin Hoffman as Bernstein — trying to pin down the connection between Robert Nixon’s reelection campaign and the burglary and wiretapping at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate complex that ultimately brought down Nixon’s presidency. It plays as a deeply engrossing thriller, and every scene between Redford and Hoffman, as dogged journalists whose work became enormously consequential and a turning point in American history, is gripping to watch. It’s a fitting film to screen this week — to reflect alone on one of Redford’s most powerful performances. — Yvonne Villarreal

Guest spot

Judy Reyes in a scene from Season 2 of “High Potential”

(Jessica Perez / Disney)

A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching

Every genius needs a little structure and guidance to keep them on course. In “High Potential,” Morgan Gillory (Kaitlin Olson) is a single mom with an exceptional mind who works as a cleaner at the police department and finds her way into detective work after successfully examining some evidence during her shift. But putting her unique talent to effective use couldn’t have happened if Lt. Selena Soto, the head of the major crimes division played by Judy Reyes, didn’t see Morgan’s potential and nurture it.

The quirky crime procedural has been a breakout hit for ABC since its launch last year and it returned this week for its second season; new episodes air Tuesdays, and are available to stream on Hulu and Disney+ the next day. Here, Reyes discusses how Soto’s approach as a boss came into focus this season and how she’s feeling about revisiting “Scrubs” 15 years after the comedy ended its run. — Yvonne Villarreal

How has Selena Soto come into focus for you this season? And can you share an anecdote of a boss looking out for you — however small or big — that has stood out to you during your time in the industry?

I think Soto saw herself in Morgan: someone for whom truly being themselves takes a lot of risks. She can’t be anything else, and the expectations from the world create a lot of problems with others who can’t handle the burden of those being completely unique.

My first manager took a huge chance on me at the restaurant I worked in as a hostess for years in NYC. She and her husband were regulars, and her husband chatted me up one night, and when I confessed that I was an actor, he convinced his wife to take a meeting with me, and she convinced her associates to give me a chance, and the rest is history.

Morgan is a cleaner with an exceptional mind who found her way into detective work after examining some evidence during her shift at the police department. What’s a career you’d love to pivot to if given the chance?

I always wanted to be a gymnast. Or some kind of athlete … tennis! You asked …

You’ll be reprising your role as Carla in the new “Scrubs” series. What does this moment bring up for you? What intrigues you about revisiting this character 15 years later?

I’m filled with gratitude and appreciation. I recognize how in my youth I took for granted the adventure and opportunity. I’m moved by how much people love the show and Carla, and how much all of it mattered to fans in different stages of their lives. I’m overwhelmed with the gift of being part of a magical moment in TV, and to get to revisit it as adults with the same folks is exciting because Bill and the writers are so daring with their humor and drama. I just know Turk and Carla keep going strong in their marriage and continue in their friendship. I’m honored by what this character continues to mean to Latinos, especially in this time.

What have you watched recently that you are recommending to everyone you know?

I’ve watched “Hacks” [HBO Max] because I’m obsessed with Jean Smart. I’ve watched “The Summer I Turned Pretty” [Prime Video] because I need to connect to my teenager and it’s a fun love/hate watch. I watch “Abbott Elementary” [Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max] because it’s f— funny and you can’t go wrong with it; it reminds me of “Scrubs” [Peacock, Hulu, Disney+] in a lot of ways. I just started watching “Severance” and “Shrinking” [both Apple TV+]. “Severance” because it’s so original and “Shrinking” for the same reason; it also feels so familiar … and Harrison Ford and Jessica Williams.

What’s your go-to “comfort watch,” the movie or TV show you go back to again and again?

“The Devil Wears Prada” [Hulu, Disney+], “Girls Trip” [Tubi, Prime Video], “Bridesmaids” [Netflix], “Love & Basketball” [VOD] [and] any of “The Matrix” movies [VOD].

It all started with a purchase of land in the 1960s. Then, from that small slice of Utah and the founding of the Sundance Institute in 1981 and, later, its expansion into the Sundance Film Festival, Robert Redford developed a vision that would reshape on-screen storytelling as we know it. Sundance opened doors for multiple generations of filmmakers who might not otherwise have gained entry to the movie business.

Redford, who died Tuesday at age 89, was already a hugely successful actor, producer and director, having just won an Oscar for his directorial debut “Ordinary People,” when he founded the Sundance Institute as a support system for independent filmmakers. His Utah property, named after his role in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” would become a haven for creativity in an idyllic setting.

Evincing a rugged, hands-on attitude marked by curiosity and enthusiasm about the work, Redford embodied a philosophy for Sundance that was clear from its earliest days.

“When I started the Institute, the major studios dominated the game, which I was a part of,” Redford said to The Times via email in 2021. “I wanted to focus on the word ‘independence’ and those sidelined by the majors — supporting those sidelined by the dominant voices. To give them a voice. The intent was not to cancel or go against the studios. It wasn’t about going against the mainstream. It was about providing another avenue and more opportunity.”

The first of the Sundance Lab programs, which continue today, also launched in 1981, bringing emerging filmmakers together in the mountains to develop projects with the support of more established advisers.

The Institute would take over a small film festival in Utah, the U.S. Film Festival, for its 1985 edition and eventually rename it the Sundance Film Festival, a showcase that would go on to introduce directors such as Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Nia DaCosta, Taika Waititi, Gregg Araki, Damien Chazelle and countless others while refashioning independent filmmaking into a viable career path.

Before directing “Black Panther” and “Sinners,” Ryan Coogler went through the Sundance Lab at the beginning of his career and saw his debut feature “Fruitvale Station” premiere at Sundance in 2013 where it won both the grand jury and audience awards.

“Mr. Redford was a shining example of how to leverage success into community building, discovery, and empowerment,” Coogler said in a statement to The Times on Tuesday. “I’ll be forever grateful for what he did when he empowered and supported Michelle Satter in developing the Sundance Labs. In these trying times it hurts to lose an elder like Mr. Redford — someone who through their words, their actions and their commitment left their industry in a better place than they found it.”

Chloé Zhao’s debut feature “Songs My Brothers Taught Me” premiered at the festival in 2015 after she took the project through the labs. With her later effort “Nomadland,” Zhao would go on to become the second woman — and still the only woman of color — to win the Academy Award for directing.

“Sundance changed my life,” Zhao said in a statement on Tuesday. “I didn’t know anyone in the industry or how to get my first film made. Being accepted into the Sundance Labs was like entering a lush and nurturing garden holding my tiny fragile seedling and watching it take root and grow. It was there I found my voice, became a part of a community I still treasure deeply today.”

Satter, Sundance Institute‘s founding senior director of artist programs, was involved since the organization’s earliest days. Even from relatively humble origins, Satter could already feel there was something powerful and unique happening under Redford’s guidance.

“He made us all feel like we were part of the conversation, part of building Sundance, right from the beginning,” Satter said of Redford in a 2021 interview. “He was really interested in others’ point of view, all perspectives. At the same time, he had a real clarity of vision and what he wanted this to be.”

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For many years Redford was indeed the face of the film festival, making frequent appearances and regularly speaking at the opening press conference. Starting in 2019 he reduced his public role at the festival, in tandem with the moment he stepped back from acting.

The festival has gone through many different eras over the years, with festival directors handing off leadership from Geoffrey Gilmore to John Cooper to Tabitha Jackson and current fest director Eugene Hernandez.

The festival has also weathered changes in the industry, as streaming platforms have upended distribution models. Steven Soderbergh’s 1989 drama “sex, lies and videotape” is often cited as a key title in the industry’s discovery of the Utah event as a must-attend spot on their calendars, a place where buyers could acquire movies for distribution and scout new talent.

“Before Sundance, there wasn’t really a marketplace for new voices and independent film in the way that we know it today,” said Kent Sanderson, chief executive of Bleecker Street, which has premiered multiple films at the festival over the years. “The way Sundance supports filmmakers by giving their early works a real platform is key to the health of our business.”

Over time, Sundance became a place not only to acquire films but also to launch them, with distributors bringing films to put in front of the high number of media and industry attendees. Investors come to scope out films and filmmakers look to raise money.

“It all started with Redford having this vision of wanting to create an environment where alternative approaches to filmmaking could be supported and thrive,” said Joe Pichirallo, an arts professor at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and one of the original executives at Searchlight Pictures. “And he succeeded and it’s continuing. Even though the business is going through various changes, Sundance’s significance as a mecca for independent film is still pretty high.”

At the 2006 festival, “Little Miss Sunshine,” directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, sold to Searchlight for what was then a record-setting $10.5 million. In 2021, Apple TV+ purchased Siân Heder’s “CODA” for a record-breaking $25 million. The film would go on to be the first to have premiered at Sundance to win the Oscar for best picture.

Yet the festival, the labs and the institute have remained a constant through it all, continuing to incubate fresh talent to launch to the industry.

“Redford put together basically a factory of how to do independent films,” said Tom Bernard, co-president and co-founder of Sony Pictures Classics. Over the years the company has distributed many titles that premiered at Sundance, including “Call Me by Your Name” and “Whiplash.”

“He adapted as the landscape changed,” Bernard added of the longevity of Sundance’s influence. “And as you watched the evolution to where it is today, it’s an amazing journey and an amazing feat that he did for the world of independent film. It wouldn’t be the same without him.”

Through it all, Redford balanced his roles between his own career making and starring in movies and leading Sundance. Filmmaker Allison Anders, whose 1992 film “Gas Food Lodging” was among the earliest breakout titles from the Sundance Film Festival, remembered Redford on Instagram.

“You could easily have just been the best looking guy to walk into any room and stopped there and lived off of that your whole life,” Anders wrote. “You wanted to help writers and filmmakers like me who were shut out to create characters not seen before, and you did. You could have just been handsome. But you nurtured us.”

The upcoming 2026 Sundance Film Festival in January will be the last one in its longtime home of Park City, Utah. The festival had previously announced that a tribute to Redford and his vision of the festival would be a part of that final bow, which will now carry an added emotional resonance.

Starting in 2027, the Sundance Film Festival will unspool in in Boulder, Colo. Regardless of where the event takes place, the legacy of what Robert Redford first conceived will remain.

As Redford himself said in 2021 about the founding of the Institute, “I believed in the concept and because it was just that, a concept, I expected and hoped that it would evolve over time. And happily, it has.”

Samantha Masunaga contributed to this report.

Robert Redford looked like he walked out of the sea to become a Hollywood god. He was physically flawless. Pacific blue eyes, salt-bleached hair, a friendly surfer-boy squint. Born in Santa Monica to a milkman and a housewife, his first memory was of sliding off his mother’s lap at the Aero Theatre as a toddler and running toward the light, causing such a ruckus that the projectionist had to stop the film.

He definitely grew up to grab the movies’ attention. He wasn’t just telegenic but talented, although that wasn’t a requirement for stardom when he emerged in the late ’50s when the industry was scooping up hunks like him by the bucket for television and B-movies. All a male ingenue needed to do was smile and kiss the girl. It would have been so easy to do that a couple times and wind up doing it forever. You can understand why so many forgotten actors made that deal, without realizing that forever can lead to a fast retirement.

But if Redford had sensed at 2 years old that he was meant to be onscreen, by his 20s, he insisted he’d only do it on his own terms. At 27, with nearly zero name recognition, he horrified his then-agent by turning down a $10,000-a-week TV gig as a strait-laced psychiatrist to do a Mike Nichols theater production for just $110. His rejection of the easy money was an unusual choice, particularly for a cash-strapped father of two.

To appreciate Redford fully, we have to applaud not only the work he did but the simple, feel-good roles he rejected. He could have become a celebrity without breaking a sweat as the war hero, the jock, the husband, the cowboy, the American ideal made incarnate. Yet, he had the rare ability to sidestep what audiences thought we wanted from him to instead give us something we didn’t know we needed: selfish victors (“Downhill Racer”), self-destructive veterans (“The Great Waldo Pepper”) and tragic men who did everything right and still failed (2013’s “All Is Lost”).

In spirit, Redford never strayed far from the teen rebel he’d been — a truant who’d skipped school, stole booze and crashed race cars — and the radical artist he hurled himself into becoming by quitting everything traditional (the football team, his fraternity, college altogether) to move to Paris where he took up oil painting and marched against the Soviets. He might have excelled at the sleazy roles that made Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino famous. On the outside, he knew they didn’t fit, either.

Sometimes Redford said no even when I wish he’d have said yes. Imagine if he’d agreed to face off against Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Instead, he told Nichols he’d rather tangle with Anne Bancroft in “The Graduate,” only to be rejected as too handsome for the role. “Can you honestly imagine a guy like you having difficulty seducing a woman?” Nichols told him.

Instead, Redford used his all-American good looks to make us question our flattering image of ourselves. In the 1974 adaptation of “The Great Gatsby,” he was the first person you’d think of to play the title role because he fully understood the point of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book — how it felt to represent our country’s whole image of success while knowing it’s a phony put-on. I imagine him making a devil’s bargain with his face, vowing that he won’t hide behind goofy accents and stunt wigs the way other too-handsome oddballs do, if he’s allowed to use his appeal like a Trojan horse.

If there’s one thing that unites his roles, from 1966’s “The Chase” to “Lions for Lambs,” it’s his willingness to give the screen his full charisma — to let audiences stare at him for the whole running time of a movie — as long as we’ll agree to ask what’s lurking in his underbelly. Most often, we’ll find frustrated idealism just at the moment it starts to sour.

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The films of the 1960s and ’70s that made Redford an icon mostly cleave into two categories: scamps and truth-seekers. (The latter can overlap with suckers and stooges.) His antihero crooks in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “The Sting” captured something in our national id, our not-so-secret belief that it’s OK to break a few rules to get ahead — that we can forgive a sin if we like the sinner. I like how those movies give you a guilty little tingle about rooting for Redford even when it means scratching off a couple of the Ten Commandments. (Thou shalt not steal unless you’re Robert Redford, who got away with it all the way through 2018’s “The Old Man and the Gun.”)

Lately, the Redford roles I’ve been thinking about are the ones where his all-American appeal makes us examine all of America, good and bad. The two that instantly jump to mind are his pair of political thrillers: “Three Days of the Condor,” in which he plays a CIA agent on the run from his own co-workers, and “All the President’s Men,” in which he doggedly uncovers the Watergate scandal. Both films believe in the power of getting the truth out to the press; neither is so naive as to think the truth alone will save the day.

But let’s not overlook “The Candidate,” a movie that has Redford as underqualified political scion Bill McKay, pressed to run for governor of California. “He’s not going to get his ass kicked — he’s cute,” his father (Melvyn Douglas) says. Meanwhile, his own campaign team cares more about the length of his sideburns than ideas in his head. Released in 1972, five years into former actor Ronald Reagan’s own governorship, the movie hammers home that superficiality might be democracy’s downfall — and the stakes are bigger than who is Hollywood‘s latest heartthrob.

Vice President Dan Quayle once said “The Candidate” inspired him, triggering its screenwriter Jeremy Larner to dash this off in an op-ed: “Mr. Quayle, this was not a how-to movie, it was a watch-out movie. And you are what we should be watching out for!”

In his later years, Redford became a filmmaker himself and I can picture him pulling Brad Pitt aside on the set of “A River Runs Through It” to whisper: You don’t have to stay in that pretty–boy box. Feel free to get weird. As an actor and director, Redford continued to create characters who uncovered our our hidden rot, whether in our purported national pastime, baseball (“The Natural”), or in our actual one, watching television (“Quiz Show”). His turn in “Indecent Proposal” as the wealthy man who offers to rent his employee’s wife lives on as shorthand for tycoons who assume they can buy whatever, and whoever, they want. When he eventually signed on for a superhero film, it was, fittingly, alongside Captain America, that upright paragon of virtue — and Redford played the villain.

What Quayle missed about “The Candidate” is that when it comes to a Robert Redford movie, truth is never as plain as what your eyes can see. There’s always a deeper level and there’s no guarantee that justice would win. In fact, I’d argue in Redford’s films, it rarely does.

Robert Redford, right, and Dustin Hoffman in the movie “All The President’s Men.”

(Sunset Boulevard / Corbis / Getty Images)

Alan J. Pakula’s Watergate drama is remembered as one of the great political thrillers, but for Redford it was a gamble of conviction and clout. He optioned the Woodward-Bernstein book himself, pushing through doubts that a film built on phone calls, door knocks and note-taking could grip audiences. As Bob Woodward he strips away glamour, playing a reporter who is awkward, halting and dogged, yet unshakable once the trail begins to unfold. Opposite Dustin Hoffman’s Carl Bernstein — fast-talking, improvisational, always pushing — Redford is methodical and contained, and together they embody the tension and rhythm of investigative reporting, turning the grind into suspense. With this role, Redford showed that persistence, not bravado, could carry a movie, and that a star could trade charm for credibility without losing magnetism. It cemented his reputation not just as a leading man but as a cultural force who could will serious stories onto the screen. — Josh Rottenberg

Redford was a liberal activist and godfather for independent cinema under the name of one of his best-loved characters, the Sundance Kid.

Robert Redford, the Oscar-winning actor, director and godfather for independent cinema as Sundance founder, has died at the age of 89.

Redford died “at his home at Sundance in the mountains of Utah – the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved,” publicist Cindi Berger said in a statement Tuesday.

No cause of death was provided.

The iconic actor and director is best known for his acclaimed performances in All the President’s Men and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

The tousled-haired and freckled heartthrob made his breakthrough alongside Paul Newman as the affable outlaw in the hippy Western “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” in 1969.

Redford made hearts beat faster in romantic roles such as “Out of Africa,” got political in “The Candidate” and “All the President’s Men” and skewered his golden-boy image in roles like the alcoholic ex-rodeo champ in “The Electric Horseman” and middle-aged millionaire who offers to buy sex in “Indecent Proposal.”

He never won the best actor Oscar, but his first outing as a director – the 1980 family drama “Ordinary People” – won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director.

Despite their chemistry and long personal friendship, Redford was never to team up again with Newman, who died in 2008.

“Butch Cassidy” made blue-eyed Redford an overnight star but he never felt comfortable with celebrity or the male starlet image that persisted late into his 60s.

“People have been so busy relating to how I look, it’s a miracle I didn’t become a self-conscious blob of protoplasm. It’s not easy being Robert Redford,” he once told New York magazine.

His wavy blond hair and boyish grin made him the most desired of leading men, but he worked hard to transcend his looks – whether through his political advocacy, his willingness to take on unglamorous roles or his dedication to providing a platform for low-budget movies.

Intensely private, he bought land in remote Utah in the early 1970s for his family retreat and enjoyed a level of privacy unknown to most superstars. He was married for more than 25 years to his first wife, before their divorce in 1985. In 2009, he married for a second time, to German artist and longtime partner Sibylle Szaggars.

He used the millions he made to launch the Sundance Institute and Festival in the 1970s, promoting independent filmmaking long before small and quirky were fashionable. The festival has become one of the most influential independent film showcases in the world.

Redford used his star status to also quietly champion environmental causes such as the Natural Resources Defense Council and the National Wildlife Federation.

“Some people have analysis. I have Utah,” he once remarked.

Although he never showed an interest in entering politics, he often espoused a liberal viewpoint. In a 2017 interview, during the presidency of Donald Trump, he told Esquire magazine that “politics is in a very dark place right now” and that Trump should “quit for our benefit”.

In 2001, Redford won an honorary, or lifetime achievement, Oscar.