Amy Tan jokes she was on “the path to obscurity" when Robert Redford's late son convinced her to do an American Masters documentary

Los Angeles Times

Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir, which PBS released this week, was the last completed work from James Redford, who was in the late stages of cancer while making the documentary. Robert Redford's second son died last October at age 58. "I’ve been very comfortable with the idea that one day I get to be a lot more private and that people are not going to ask to interview me," says The Joy Luck Club author. "But (Jamie and I) were friends to begin with. We had already talked about so many things related to another documentary. I just remember standing on my veranda looking at trees and talking about life and about trauma, pain, survival, resilience. Finally, after he literally courted me for a period of time, bringing me sandwiches for lunch and, you know, 'If you don’t want to do it ... Can I just show you? I’ll never say that again.' Blah, blah, blah. Finally, I decided that we’d talked about this so much, I really trust him. I just had to say to myself, is this going to be worth doing it, having conversations with Jamie and looking at his creative ideas for doing this? I decided yes."