By Sharon Waxman

They say don’t meet your heroes but we can make an exception, apparently, for Robert Redford. 

He came by TheWrap’s studio at Sundance for an interview years ago. We were still really small and scrappy but you’d never have known it by his attitude – engaged and respectful, we might as well have been one of the legacy heavy-hitters. Craggy of face, tousled of hair and twinkly of eye – my God, the guy never lost it. And he then spoke across a range of topics: his new film, diversity in filmmaking, the state of indie film, before sailing along to the next recipient of his fairy dust.