Meryl Streep gushes over Robert Redford in ‘Out of Africa’ hair-washing scene
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Meryl Streep hinted at her undeniable spark with Robert Redford as she revisited one of her most iconic on-screen romances.
Even decades after “Out of Africa” captivated audiences, Streep still remembers a scene with Redford as more than just a script.
In the epic romantic drama, Streep played a Danish baroness who falls in love with a big game hunter played by Redford while he runs a coffee plantation in colonial Kenya. In one memorable scene in the film, Redford tenderly washes Streep’s hair by the river while reciting lines from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”
“Was he the most divine man in the world?” Streep was overcome with euphoria during rewatches of some of her most famous films. Vanity Fair.
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Meryl Streep recalled an iconic romantic scene in the movie “Out of Africa” opposite Robert Redford. (Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)
“It’s not a sex scene. It’s a love scene… It was really great,” she recalled. “It was amazing… I didn’t want that scene to end. It felt so good.”
Streep has long loved her movie and this particular scene with Redford. He touched on the iconic moment at the Cannes Film Festival in 2024, a year before Redford’s death. Diversity.
“It’s a sex scene in a way because it’s so intimate,” he said at the time. “We’ve seen a lot of scenes where people fuck, but we don’t see that loving touch, that care.”
The “Devil Wears Prada” star revealed that filming the scene wasn’t very pleasant. He claimed that the duo had been warned by production to be careful of potentially dangerous wild animals nearby.
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Robert Redford and Meryl Streep star in Sydney Pollack’s “Out of Africa.” (Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)
“We had lions, but they were imported from California and they were supposedly good, tame. They were not,” he said in Cannes. Metro.
“And the second thing we’re told is that if you get between the hippo and the water, the animal that kills the most people in Africa is the hippo,” he added. “So we were filming in the river and the hippo was right above it. I don’t know if they show that in the movie, I don’t remember it, but I was aware of it!”
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Robert Redford and Meryl Streep during production of “Out of Africa”. (Hemdale/Getty Images)
Concerned about safety, Redford was having trouble washing Streep’s hair until longtime hairstylist and makeup artist Roy Hellund intervened and showed her how he typically washes the actress’s hair.
“Redford learned his lesson, really put in the work, and was great,” Streep recalled. “By the fifth take, I was so in love! Despite the hippos, I didn’t want it to end that day.”
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Robert Redford and Meryl Streep later starred together in the movie “Lions for Lambs”. (Jason Merritt/FilmMagic)
Redford was already a major Hollywood force when he took on the role of Denys Finch Hatton. He rose to fame in the late 1960s and ’70s with films such as “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and “The Sting.” Meanwhile, Streep had already won acclaim for her film “The Deer Hunter.”“ and “Kramer vs. Kramer,” in which she starred as Karen Blixen.
“Directed by Sydney Pollack, “Out of Africa” follows Blixen’s life running a coffee plantation in Kenya and her complicated romance with Redford’s Finch Hatton. The film won seven Academy Awards, including best picture and best director, and is often cited as one of the standout achievements of both actors.
