Dreyfuss Down but Not Out

Richard Dreyfuss admits that the bombshell he dropped a while back on Charlie Rose ? in which he announced he was retiring from acting ? was blown way out of proportion.

"I said I wanted to retire and all hell broke loose," the 52-year-old screen vet tells TV Guide Online. "People actually got upset with me for saying that. Charlie Rose was quite puzzled as to what I meant."

So, what did the Oscar winner (The Goodbye Girl) mean? "[I] wasn't going to a retirement village, but I meant I didn't necessarily have to act anymore," he clarifies. "The thing that drove me for most of my life is over. It kind of went away. In a sense, I am in retirement. I do what I want to do. Limited only by the need of money."

Dreyfuss came out of early retirement to play an aging mobster in The Crew, which opened last weekend to a disappointing $4.05 million gross. Although he's proud of the finished product, filming on location in Miami last summer was more arduous than he anticipated. "It was a hard film to make," he sighs. "It felt like there wasn't enough money or time to make the film properly. There was always a sense of go, go, go. That doesn't make it easier. The weather was rough ? hot, sticky, rashy, crispy, icky, dead-air rough. There's no song about August in Miami!"

As one of the few actors to have three of his movies make the American Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest films of the century, Dreyfuss has mellowed about the critical and box office success of his work. "You have to worry, but there's nothing you can do," he points out. "It's sort of like worrying about the weather."