Jane Fonda Remembers Robert Redford at the 2026 TCM Classic Film Festival
June 22, 2026
The 2026 TCM Classic Film Festival opened in late April with the world premiere restoration of Barefoot in the Park (1967), a film I had never seen before. What made things even more exciting was the conversation beforehand with star Jane Fonda. The screening honored Robert Redford, who “may well have been Hollywood’s quintessential movie star,” Ben Mankiewicz quipped, even though, ironically, he lived most of his life outside of Los Angeles. While he could have leaned on his looks alone, Redford used his talent for good, founding the Sundance Institute in the early 1980s to support and develop indie filmmaking and fighting for a variety of environmental causes throughout his life.
Fonda and Redford “had much in common,” Mankiewicz shared, “especially their abundant talent, their moderate attractiveness, and their commitment to the people, communities, and the world around them.” Below are some of the highlights of Fonda’s conversation with the TCM host!
Jane Fonda and Ben Mankiewicz discuss Robert Redford on opening night. (Photo by Kim Luperi)
Why she was so quick to say yes to come out and honor Redford
“Well, he's the only person I made four movies with, and would have done a lot more if I had the chance, but I loved him, and I deeply respect him, and they didn't ask me to do the Oscars! By the way, Barbra [Streisand] came on this Oscar thing to honor Bob, and I was on the press line, and I thought I was being funny. I said, ‘Well, why did they ask her? I made 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... Bob would have liked it.”
On first meeting and working with Redford on The Chase (1966)
“I met him on The Chase, and we were both married, and I asked him, I said, ‘Do you ever have affairs?’ and he had this weird answer, he said, ‘Well, if I was going to have an affair, it would be with somebody that was like a hooker.’
But we actually bonded over stones… He had just bought some property in Provo, Utah. He was married to Lola Van Wagenen, and she lived in Utah, and they bought this property, and Lola, who was studying to be an architect, designed an A-frame, and Bob was in Hollywood to make this movie with me, but he really wanted to be in Utah building stone walls. And I was married to a Frenchman, and I had just kind of built a house out in the country, and I was building stone walls, and so we had such a good time talking about stacking stones and how you do moss and ferns as mortar. That and horses and climbing. See, we both grew up here in the ‘30s, and it was very different, but you know what was still here in the ‘30s? That movie theater in Westwood that has the tall tower, right?... He climbed it. He loved climbing that tower. I climbed trees; he climbed towers. We had a lot in common.”
Fonda and Redford in a publicity still for Barefoot in the Park.
On knowing Redford was going to be a big star
“He wasn't yet a big star. But, we filmed a little [of The Chase] on the Paramount lot, and I remember walking down the corridor… and I noticed every secretary would open her door [to look at him]. He's gonna be a big star!... He was meant to be in movies. He was a brilliant movie star.”
On the Sundance Film Institute
“He was just getting the idea for it when we did The Electric Horseman (1979)—we did that in ‘78 and he started Sundance in ’81. So I kind of saw the approach to it. He didn't like the way movies in Hollywood, they had to be commercial, you know. They decided on what to do depending on whether it was commercial or not. And I remember when both of us started off at about the same time, it was a time when it was like, ‘Don't make any movie in the snow, because it won't work, don't make any Westerns, because they won't do well.’ You know that kind of thing. He wanted to make a difference. It's called independent films—that had nuance and diversity; I mean, the amount of the people that he trained there were so many, like 60% of them are women, many, many, many directors of color. He wanted diversity, he wanted complexity, he wanted surprises, and you know, he could have built an empire, and he built a nest for artists to feel safe and to grow, and that’s what he loved. And 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. That's how much he cared about it.”
What she remembers most from Barefoot in the Park
“I remember being in the bed, we were supposed to be really cold, which gave me an excuse to rub up against him… He was supposed to be asleep, and he stayed asleep. Anyway! I had such a crush on him. It was painful. I was always trying to kind of—you probably missed it, but I was looking from back there [at the tribute video they played] and the last little scene of us from The Electric Horseman, and we're standing there, and I kept trying to grab his hand. Did anybody notice that? Anything!”
What was it like working with Redford decades later, in their last film together, Our Souls at Night (2017)
“I knew I had grown up, because when he would come two hours late, I would get angry… And also, you know, sometimes he'd come to work looking like he was carrying the woes of the world on him, and of course, in the three movies before, I always thought it was my fault, you know, I've done something, he's mad at me, oh my god. And this time I knew it wasn't me, and I would say to him, ‘Bob, come on! Lighten up! This is fun.’”
Whether she thought Redford felt things more acutely than others
“He had high ideals; he had high goals. And I think he wanted to solve all the problems, and he couldn't, and it got to him.”
Fonda and Redford at the 2017 Venice Film Festival.
Her favorite Redford film aside from the ones they did together
“Well, I love The Way We Were (1973), and I love the baseball movie [1984’s The Natural]… I hated watching him kiss Glenn Close!”
Why it was important pay tribute to Redford that night
“When I look at what's happening in this town, when I look at the pending mergers for example, if that goes through, we're gonna lose what Bob was trying to do. The diversity, the complexity. We have to fight! I want to fight in the spirit of Robert Redford to keep that kind of complexity in our moviemaking.”
On bonding with Redford over using their voice for change and taking a stand for things they believed in
“We have that in common. The way we acted it out was different. I would, like, go there in person and get in trouble. And he would help in other ways. Yeah, he was way more sophisticated than I was about that.”
Fonda mentioned wanting to watch the movie a few minutes before the conversation ended, because she hadn’t seen it on the big screen in years. To close, Mankiewicz said, “Nobody stays to watch the movie! Jane is staying to watch the movie!” To that, she laughed: “I want to look at him some more!”
It was a treat being in the audience for this amusing conversation; what a delightful way to kick off the 2026 TCM Classic Film Festival!
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I See a Dark Theater is a website dedicated to classic movie-going—and loving—in the City of Angels. Whether it's coverage on screenings, special presentations, or Q&As around Los Angeles that you're looking for, or commentary on the wonderful and sometimes wacky world of classic cinema, you've come to the right place for a variety of pieces written with zeal, awe, and (occasionally) wit. Enjoy.
