Robert Redford: ‘Pete’s Dragon’ Took Me Back to My Childhood

Filming Disney’s Pete’s Dragon provided Robert Redford the opportunity to feel like a child again. In the movie, Redford portrays a woodcarver named Mr. Meacham who tells children stories of a dragon that lives deep in the forest. His daughter Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard), who is a forest ranger, ends up meeting a young boy who claims to have lived in the forest with a dragon, who seems very similar to the one her father spoke of.

“What drew me to [the film] was a chance to return to my own childhood and you know, that’s a time that we cherish when we’re…older, and we look back and we realize we’re no longer there,” Redford told BackstageOL’s Dave Morales. “And that’s when we appreciate being a child. When you’re a child, when you’re little, you’re not aware of anything other than being a child. So you’re aware that you don’t have any power, things are bigger than you are, and so forth. Once you leave childhood and you come into adulthood, you realize there was a wonderful time where there was magic in the air, and magic was a word that you could live on.”

“But you take it for granted when you’re a kid, “ Redford added. “And all you’re aware of as a kid is ‘I want to be older. I want to be an adult. I want to get out of this.’ Then you become an adult and say, ‘God, I wish I was a kid again.’ So for me, it was a chance to kind of go back to…my own childhood.”

In addition to Redford and Howard, Pete’s Dragon also stars Oakes Fegley, Wes Bentley, Karl Urban, and Oona Laurence. It soars into theaters August 12.

Watch the full interview with Redford below: