Robert Redford insisted on doing his own stunts for 'All Is Lost'.

The 77-year-old actor ended up black and blue after shooting J.C. Chandor's new movie, which sees him play a sailor stranded at sea during a solo mission in the Indian Ocean, because his ''ego'' told him he didn't need a body double.

He joked: ''They beat me up pretty badly. I met J.C. and told him, 'What's in this script is pretty rough and tumble', and he said, 'I don't plan to have you do all that. I have stunt doubles.' So I said, 'I'd rather not have doubles if I can help it.'

''My ego kicked in and I thought, 'OK, maybe I can. Let's see.' Next thing you know, I was being washed overboard and underwater and bounced around. But that was a challenge: could I physically do it? It was difficult, painfully difficult sometimes. But it was worth it. ''

Redford - whose performance has already been hotly-tipped for an Oscar - was initially sceptical about the innovative project, which has no dialogue and featured in a script of just 31 pages.

He was soon converted, however, and said: ''I loved doing it. It's bold, experimental and it was difficult to make. There's no dialogue, none at all. And I'm the only actor on screen in the whole movie.''

The actor has made a conscious decision to shy away from mainstream movies during his 54-year film career and set up the Sundance Film Festival to help celebrate independent movies, but he insists he isn't anti-Hollywood.

He explained in an interview with The Telegraph magazine: ''People say I've gone against Hollywood, but I've tried to be independent within Hollywood, tried to be my own person. Once my career got going and I was able to act, I tried to take parts that were offbeat. At the same time I got frustrated: there were stories that I wanted to tell.''