Jane Fonda delivered a masterclass in graceful tribute at the TCM Classic Film Festival, celebrating her late friend and four-time collaborator Robert Redford with humor, warmth, and genuine admiration. Her stories about their professional partnership highlighted his brilliance as both an actor and a filmmaker who changed Hollywood through Sundance Institute—where she noted he funded operations entirely from his own pocket for years.
Fonda admitted she's still got it bad for Redford even after his death, which is kind of wild when you consider they've been apart since 2017's 'Our Souls at Night.' More interesting? She revealed that on their very first film together—the 1966 thriller 'The Chase'—she actually asked him directly about affairs. His response was bizarrely evasive: comparing potential infidelity to sleeping with a hooker. Classic Redford deflection from someone who clearly wasn't interested.
Four films together spanning 51 years: 'The Chase' (1966), 'Barefoot in the Park' (1967), 'Electric Horseman' (1978/79), and their final collaboration 'Our Souls at Night' (2017). Fonda is 88 years old. The TCM festival event took place April 30, 2026, at TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX in Hollywood.
Jane Fonda just proved she's the ultimate Redford scholar—and honestly, watching her light up talking about this man makes you understand exactly why she never got over him across half a century of working together.
HOLLYWOOD — Jane Fonda showed up to honor Robert Redford at the TCM Classic Film Festival opening night on April 30th and immediately made clear she wasn't there to play it safe. The 88-year-old screen legend sat down with host Ben Mankiewicz at the TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX for a wide-ranging conversation that touched on everything from their four collaborative films spanning over five decades to her lingering crush on the late Sundance founder. Fonda's candor about Redford was immediate and unfiltered. "He was meant to be in movies," she told the audience. "He was a brilliant movie star. He also was the most gorgeous human being I had ever been with. He was very smart and he was really funny. He loved practical jokes, and he was reckless." She paused for effect before adding: "Not so reckless that he would have an affair with me…" That last line landed because Fonda then revealed exactly how she knows Redford wasn't willing to cross that line—with her, anyway. During their first film together, 1966's "The Chase," when both were married to other people, Fonda asked him point-blank: "Do you ever have affairs?" His response was vintage Redford weirdness. "He had this weird answer," she explained. "He said, 'Well, if I was gonna have an affair, it would be with somebody that was like a hooker.'" The audience erupted in laughter at the absurdity of dodging intimacy by comparing potential paramours to sex workers. What Fonda got from Redford instead was something else entirely—bonding over rocks. "Not the Rolling Stones," she clarified, laughing. They discovered mutual interests building stone walls on their respective properties: Redford's wife Lola was studying architecture while he wanted to be in Utah constructing barriers, and Fonda had just built a country house doing similar work. "We had such a good time talking about stacking stones." The conversation then pivoted toward Redford's legacy as an independent film champion—specifically Sundance Institute, which launched around 1981 following their collaboration on "Electric Horseman" in 1978. Fonda noted that filmmakers including Alexander Payne and Jason Reitman were seated nearby during her talk. She emphasized what she called the most surprising detail about his vision: "Here's another thing that I bet you didn't know. He didn't ask Hollywood for a penny to pay for it. He wrote a check every year out of his own pocket." The institute, she explained, trained directors who were 60% women and many filmmakers of color—achieving the diversity Redford sought in an industry he found increasingly commercial-minded. Fonda also clarified her controversial comments from Oscars night about Barbra Streisand receiving the tribute slot for Redford. "I thought I was being funny," she said Thursday. "I said, 'Well, why did they ask her? I had four movies with him.' But actually I thought it was fabulous that they had Barbra out there, because that was such an iconic movie, and the song was so incredible." Before the packed theater watched "Barefoot in the Park" together, Fonda admitted she planned to stay for the entire film—a rare move at such events. "I want to look at him some more," she explained simply.
