He was the real deal

LOWELL — For a little more than 20 years, Middlesex Community College Vice President of Administration Patrick Cook has met with a wide range of celebrities and esteemed guests through MCC’s annual Celebrity Forum.

From famed journalists and actors to world class musicians and bands, Cook is one of the few who get a chance to interact with the celebrity guests behind the scenes ahead of the forum, and among those guests was Hollywood legend Robert Redford, who died last week at the age of 89.

Redford visited Lowell in 2014, when Cook was serving as the college’s executive director of public affairs. In this instance, and for many of the Celebrity Forums since he joined MCC in 2004, Cook himself shared the stage with Redford and interviewed him in front of a packed Lowell Memorial Auditorium.

“For a number of years, Robert Redford was on the list of people [former MCC President Carol Cowan] wanted here because of his work with various charitable organizations and his promotion of independent filmmakers,” said Cook in a phone call with The Sun Tuesday morning.

Redford had been in talks to be the celebrity guest in the years leading up to 2014, but his filming schedule made it difficult to line things up for the April to June window MCC tends to host the forum. Cook recalled that Redford’s forum ended up taking place in July, because Redford was in the middle of filming “A Walk in the Woods.”

Cook remembers Redford arriving early to the Nesmith House, which is owned by MCC, where they had a meal prepared for him as MCC officials greeted him.

“We had a little downtime… And he was just obsessed with learning more about the history of Lowell,” said Cook. “I started with the Nesmith House… The connection with the mill owners in the 19th century. He just had a nonstop barrage of questions about the history of Lowell, the industrial revolution, the mills… He was just enthralled hearing more and more about it.”

What Cook did not realize in the course of his private conversation with Redford was that his phone was in his pocket, and his MCC colleagues had been relentlessly calling and texting him because they were late getting to the LMA. Once he realized, Redford was quickly brought to the venue, where he met sponsors and fans backstage.

“There was a level of giddiness about folks who were getting to meet this Hollywood icon… It was fun to watch because people were so animated and excited about him,” said Cook.

After the two finally sat down together on the stage, Cook said Redford swapped seats with him on the fly, which was fine with Cook, but he also had a hard time seeing the one-hour countdown clock.

“But he wasn’t in a rush,” said Cook of Redford.

In their interview, Cook and Redford covered a number of topics from Redford’s support of independent film-making, his efforts toward ecological conservation, and his thoughts on the state of the world in relation to characters he has played. One question from the audience that night was asked about Redford’s opinion on the state of journalism at the time in comparison to the way things were during the Watergate scandal, noting of course that Redford played the role of legendary investigative journalist Bob Woodward in the film “All the President’s Men.”

“I think that was when journalism reached its height at that point in history. What I was interested in showing was a movie about hard work…,” Redford said in the 2014 interview. “It seemed to me it was at its absolute zenith at the time. Then what shocked me is how quickly it declined after that and it went down the back side. Something changed.”

A few months before the 2014 Celebrity Forum, Redford was featured prominently in Captain America: The Winter Soldier as Alexander Pierce. To put it lightly, Cook was a big fan of that role.

“Anybody who knows me, knows I have been collecting comic books my whole life. It was how I learned to read,” said Cook.

So, during the interview Cook said he made sure to sneak in a “Hail Hydra” to Redford, referencing a scene with Redford’s character in the film, which Cook joked was his “one geek moment” he allowed himself during the interview.

When asked about his own favorite Robert Redford movie, given his extensive filmography, Cook paused for a moment as he thought about it before answering “Jeremiah Johnson,” the 1972 film where Redford plays the titular character, a veteran who chooses to live in isolation in the mountains after serving in the Mexican-American War.

“Because it was my brother Gerald’s favorite movie,” said Cook.

Cook said his late brother took him to the theater to see it when they were both young, and it was both his first memory of a movie theater and the first movie he remembers seeing more than once. Being a former reporter for The Sun himself, Cook said “All the President’s Men” is also a favorite, given its depiction of the behind-the-scenes of a newsroom.

“Having met a number of these celebrities backstage… He was genuine. He was the real deal,” said Cook. “Even though he was a Hollywood A-lister, he would shrug off the celebrity status. I saw it when he wanted to know so much more about Lowell from me.”

Redford’s filmography spans from his rise as a film star in the 1960s to his final film credit in 2020, when he provided the voice for Lokia the Dolphin Monster in “Omniboat: A Fast Boat Fantasia.” Redford’s final on-screen film appearance was in Avengers: Endgame in 2019, where he reprises his role as Alexander Pierce. According to his Internet Movie Database profile, Redford has 82 total acting credits, 10 director credits and 57 credits as a producer.