Sissy Spacek Jokes with Robert Redford About Working Together for the First Time

Teaming up with Robert Redford for the first time on the silver screen, Academy Award-winning actress Sissy Spacek admits she succumbed to the actor’s legendary movie star charm and good looks during filming.

Speaking about her role as the sweet, grounded love interest of Redford’s character, Forrest Tucker, in the crime-comedy-drama The Old Man & the Gun at The New York Times’ TimesTalks Friday, Spacek revealed that writer-director David Lowery had to nudge her back to reality during filming.

“I thought it was easy from the beginning, but when we were doing the scene in the café, I was apparently so enamored with Mr. Redford over here that David had to come over and whisper in my ear, ‘He’s Forrest Tucker, not Robert Redford,'” said Spacek, 68.

“Enough about us,” joked Redford, 82.

For his part, the Academy Award-winning director, Sundance Institute founder and environmental champion admitted that he had admired Spacek ever since he saw her in the 1973 film Badlands.

Describing the film as an “early Bonnie and Clyde,” he said, “I thought, ‘Wow, that’s quite a performance.'”

Not missing a beat, Spacek quipped, “You sure waited a long time,” as the audience erupted into laughter.

Based on a true story, The Old Man & the Gun centers around a genteel and productive bank robber who captured the public’s attention with his knack for eluding police and successfully escaping from prison 18 times — including from San Quentin State Prison in California at age 70 in a makeshift kayak he fashioned from behind bars.

After Redford said how much he liked working with Spacek, she said, “I enjoyed working with you, too.”

Spacek shared that sentiment at Thursday’s premiere of the Fox Searchlight film at Manhattan’s Paris Theater when she was asked what it was like to kiss the legendary leading man.

“It was over so fast!” Spacek told PEOPLE. “And it was 4 o’clock in the morning. And it was wonderful! It was worth the wait.”

Toward the end of the TimesTalks discussion, New York Times contributor and moderator Logan Hill read a question from an audience member who wanted to know if The Old Man & the Gun would, in fact, be Redford’s last film, which he had told Entertainment Weekly in August.

Echoing what he had said at Thursday’s premiere, Redford called that proclamation “a mistake,” in part because it took attention away from the film.

For that, he said, “I felt bad.”

“I shouldn’t be talking about retiring,” he said. “I should just slip away from acting into some other territory but not talk about it.”

The Old Man & the Gun opens in theaters on Friday, Sept. 28.