Bob Woodward Says Having Heartthrob Robert Redford Play Him in a Movie Made It Awkward to Go on Dates

Bob Woodward revealed that having Robert Redford play him in a movie didn’t exactly help his dating life.

Woodward, 83, was portrayed by the late actor — who died on September 16, 2025 at age 89 — in the 1976 film All The President’s Men, based on the book he and his partner Carl Bernstein (played by Dustin Hoffman in the film) wrote about their investigation into the infamous Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

Speaking with The Guardian in an interview published on Sunday, April 5, Woodward explained that having an actor known as a sex symbol portray him led to some disappointing first impressions on dates back in the day.

“When the movie came out, I remember, I was unmarried and I would meet women, or somebody would say you ought to take so and so out, and so I’d call on the phone and identify myself and say, how about a date Friday night? ‘Oh yeah, that’d be great.’ ‘I’ll pick you up at seven o’clock, eight o’ clock,’” he explained.

“I go there to the house or apartment and I remember this twice at least: I’d knock at the door and the woman would open the door and look at me and you could realise subconscious levers in the subterranean world of expectation that thought it was Robert Redford but it was me,” Woodward continued. “The door would open with a real smile and then she’d look at me, realise it’s not Redford and it would go from this high expectation to bargain basement low expectation.”

“I’ve seen disappointment a number of times,” he added.

Elsewhere in the interview, Woodward revealed that Redford was excited to tell the Watergate story from the beginning. So much so, that the actor was calling the duo to ask them about making a movie out of the story while they were still investigating it. It wasn’t until after they wrote their book that Redford was able to buy up the rights and make his dream of telling the story through their partnership a reality.