Barbra Streisand Remembers Late Friend Robert Redford

Barbra Streisand is paying tribute to Robert Redford, her longtime friend and The Way We Were costar, who died at 89 on Sept. 16.

“Every day on the set of The Way We Were was exciting, intense and pure joy,” Streisand recalled in an Instagram post. 

“We were such opposites: he was from the world of horses; I was allergic to them! Yes, we kept trying to find out more about each other, just like the characters in the movie,” she continued.

“Bob was charismatic, intelligent, intense, always interesting — and one of the finest actors ever.”

“The last time I saw him, when he came to lunch, we discussed art and decided to send each other our first drawings,” wrote Streisand.

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

That opportunity nearly passed them by. As Streisand recalled in her 2023 memoir My Name Is Barbra, Redford initially turned down the role of the handsome and reserved Hubbell Gardiner, who falls for his opposite, the vocal political activist Katie Morosky (Streisand).

Streisand wanted Redford for the male lead after seeing him the 1966 drama This Property Is Condemned, she wrote: “I was drawn to him not because of his appearance… guys with blond hair and blue eyes were never my type. I did think he was very handsome…. But what intrigued me most about Bob was his complexity.”

Alas, Redford initially said no because he “was concerned that the script was so focused on Katie that Hubbell’s character was underdeveloped.”

Streisand and director Sydney Pollack worked to get Redford to a yes. “I wanted Bob to be happy, so I told Sydney, ‘Give him anything he wants. Write more scenes to strengthen his character. Make it equal,’” she recalled. 

After some more back and forth, Redford eventually signed on to the film.

“It was great fun to work with Bob,” she remembered. “He and I had a real rapport and the audience could sense it. It’s hard to explain why a certain combination of two actors works, but in one interview, Bob tried: ‘Barbra . . . her femininity brings out the masculinity in a man, and her masculinity brings out a man’s femininity, vulnerability, romanticism, whatever you want to call it.’”

Through the years, the pair remained in touch and made several public appearances together, including the 2002 Oscars, when Streisand presented him with an honorary Oscar. They also sat down with Oprah Winfrey in 2010 for an interview on her eponymous talk show.

A rep for Redford confirmed to PEOPLE he died on Sept. 16 “at his home at Sundance in the mountains of Utah — the place he loved, surrounded by those he loved.”