Jane Fonda attended the Cannes Film Festival last week to take part in a “Rendezvous” chat on Friday and present the Palme d’Or on Saturday (which went to the thriller Anatomy of a Fall). Jane’s part in the award ceremony got a lot of attention over the weekend when the director, Justine Triet (only the third woman to win the top prize in the festival’s 76 years) walked off the stage with her prize, but forgot the accompanying scroll. Jane tapped Justine on the back to give it to her, but when that garnered no response she did what any sensible person would do in her shoes–she flung the scroll at Justine. Personally, I feel like the only thing that could top winning an award would be to then have Jane Fonda hurl it at me, so I’m of the opinion that this director owes Jane a thank you card (to be delivered in whatever way she sees fit)! But Jane was launching shots well before scroll-gate, at the “Rendezvous” chat the night before where she dished on several former costars including these choice words on Robert Redford:
Jane Fonda opened up about working with Robert Redford during a sit-down conversation at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival on Friday, saying Redford “did not like to kiss,” Deadline reported.
Fonda, 85, and Redford, 86, have starred opposite each other in four films–the first of which, “The Chase,” premiered in 1966.
More recently, Fonda and Redford costarred in Netflix’s 2017 romantic drama “Our Souls at Night,” which saw the pair play a widow and widower who spark a deep connection, according to IMDB.
However loved-up the actors may have appeared onscreen in the past, Fonda said things weren’t quite the same behind the scenes.
“He did not like to kiss,” Fonda said. “I never said anything to him about it. And he’s always in a bad mood, and I always thought it was my fault. He’s a very good person. He just has an issue with women.”
Despite not exactly mincing her words about Redford, Fonda did share some love for her former costar in the same conversation at Cannes, Vulture reported.
According to the outlet, Fonda said she was “in love with him” during three of the four films they made together.
“I had a really good time,” she said, despite believing his bad mood was her fault. However, that all changed when they filmed “Our Souls at Night.”
“What was I, about 80 years old, or something like that,” she said, “I know I was finally grown up, because when he’d come on to the set three hours late in a bad mood, I knew it wasn’t my fault. We always had a good time. He’s a very good person.”
See Jane bite! I love how she throws off his faults and then qualifies them with “He’s a very good person.” He held up production for three hours, but he’s a very good person! The only time it doesn’t work for me is, “He’s a very good person. He just has an issue with women.” Doesn’t the second sentence negate the first? It does for me. Jane seems to have no problem with these kinds of distinctions, though. Also in this chat she describes Jean-Luc Godard as “A great filmmaker. But as a man? I’m sorry. No, no.” Not that Jane owes us anything more, but I’d love for her to share more insight into how she separates these parts of her former colleagues, so that she can still appreciate the art and artists. But she says her next focus will be on ramping up her climate change activism, a crisis that she puts, like with the Dobbs decision, squarely at the feet of the patriarchy. I doubt she would call them very good people.
Photos credit: Kerry Brown/Netflix, Aurore Marechal/ABACA/INSTARimages.com, Zenon Stefaniak/Avalon
For whatever reason, Ernest Hemmingway popped into my mind: politically, he chose the right side during wars, but he was a crap human being when it came to women. My mom loved Robert Redford—I’ll need to ask her about how she feels about Jane’s comments. And that video of her hitting the director is really funny!
People are multifaceted, and nobody’s perfect. If the bad negates the good, there’s not much left for many of us. My favorite part about what Jane said is her comment about maturity: finally realizing that other people’s behavior is not always her fault, nor a reflection of her. Beautiful insight.
Absolutely!! We should all take this into our own relationships as well. It’s not our fault when someone is a shit human, especially those closest to us.
I don’t know. Jane’s lived a colorful life that hasn’t always been consistent. I’m sure she’s had to compartmentalize about a lot of people in her life, as they have had to compartmentalize about her.
💯agree – I think it’s human nature to compartmentalize people in our lives and ourselves. We have to or we’d have no relationships. Of course their are dealbreakers for each of us but on balance I think we weigh the good against the bad in people and if the scales tip more toward the negative we opt out. I also think women, and particularly those of Jane’s generation were exposed to terrible behaviour from men which was completely normalized (e.g. as depicted in Mad Men) and had very little power to change it. I think it’s a bit naive to look back on older generations of women and judge them when we didn’t live in their times or face the pervasiveness of the societal norms then.
She was married to Ted Turner. Compartmentalize is a polite word for it.
And she had a mean dad, but she still loved him. Like I said up above, people are complicated. It’s childish to believe/wish otherwise. (It would be nice, though!)
Well, there’s also the part where she would change her persona depending on the man she was with. Barbarella Jane with Vadim, Hanoi Jane with Hayden and she gave up Fitness Guru Jane to become Tomahawk Chop Jane when she married Turner. It’s taken her a lifetime to evolve to where she is now and I think part of having peace in your life is to extend some compassion to yourself and those who made the journey with you.
If this was a male speaking of a female film icon- the tone would be so different!!!! SHE said it about HIM so it must be true. If HE said it about HER he’s an asshole. I’m sure they’ve both been assholes throughout their long careers!
Not every woman is a victim to toxic masculinity.
Yes, actually, they are. Not to be confused with being a general good or bad person.
That’s fair
Maybe he felt uncomfortable around her because she was “in love with him” and he was/is a married man? Imagine the reaction if a male actor complained about how his female costar didn’t like to kiss? She has decided that he has a problem with women but it could just be that he’s not that into her…
Sure but being 3 hours late to set is a dick move to an entire crew of people.
It’s absolutely a dick move but why not just focus on how he’s an unprofessional jerk instead of the other weird stuff about how he has a “problem with women” because he’s not excited about kissing strangers on a movie set?
She’s kissed plenty of costars, often married, so I’d say she has something to compare Redford to in terms of whether or not he liked to kiss.
I know people who worked on this film. A lot of time was spent getting Jane to change her style from Grace and Frankie to something more appropriate for an intimate film. I heard nothing about him being late or uncooperative.
That is such a dick move…..
As for Janes other comments, I think that she was trying to make a statement that included two views she has for Redford which resulted in an intermingled statement.
@Tiffany sorry, Why would she make up a story about him being three hours late? I could tell you stories of stars who were late every single day to the set, and no one has ever whispered a peep about it, including me, even though I no longer work in film. It’s not something you do if you want to work again.
As for time spent getting her to change her acting style from Grace and Frankie, do you know how many films she’s done with different styles? Even recently? That’s just not plausible.
Jane isn’t perfect, but she has no reason to make up stories about Sundance’s king.
Withtheamericann, no need for apologies, I think you misread my comment. I never accused her of lying.
She did have difficulty with the style. Robert was solid on first takes, Jane was too big and needed to tone it down. After multiple tries, she’d get there. It’s more than plausible, it’s fact. I’m very confident in my sources, but you can choose to believe it or not. 🤷🏻♀️
That’s what I was thinking too.
The women he has seemed the most uncomfortable with are the ones that seem to have had feelings for him.
Maybe women constantly hit on him because of how he looks (or looked), and maybe he doesn’t reciprocate (obviously if he’s in a relationship).
As a Brit, “Our Souls at Night” will never cease to be hilarious to me (it’s pronounced the same as “a**holes at night”)
Not surprised she was in love with Redford back in the day, despite his grumpiness. Join the queue!
Enjoyed this article. More old-school Hollywood gossip please!
Barefoot In The Park is a gem. Love both of them and everyone in that movie.
That is one of my favorite movies!! I watched a lot of old movies with my mother so I have an endearing love for them all! I still watch them in fact. But that one is my favorite of the two of them, including Electric Horseman too.
They were both so gorgeous in that movie! With Charles Boyer and Mildred Natwick as supporting players: magic.
When I was in college at the height of the Vietnam War, Jane Fonda then at the height of her anti-war fame, came to my small Midwestern campus to speak. Even though I can’t remember a single thing she said, she was the first famous person I ever saw in person.
Although at my age I should be a Redford fan, I never got his appeal. I didn’t even find him particularly good looking. And as an actor he’s quite wooden I think. And now I learn he’s NOT a very good person! Thanks for the heads up, Jane!
i didn’t do a deep analysis of Redfords work but i did notice in a couple of his movies he was always leaving the women.
upclose and personal- died
the way we were – married someone else
out of africa
He was incredibly beautiful as a younger man but I always found him lacking in sex appeal. Now it’s starting to make sense. Chemistry is chemistry. (Paul Newman on the other hand…)
IIRC, Redford was married for many years to a someone who stayed out of the spotlight. Perhaps he thought love scenes offended her? I have no idea, really. He has done a lot of good with the platform he’s been given. I love Jane, but she’s no angel and her judgement isnt great. Ted Turner is awful and so was her first husband. She can gossip about Redford being unprofessional, which is shocking to me. I doubt he cares. I think Hollywood became his side career very early on.
Love scenes were a part of his profession, as is getting to work on time. If his kissing other women was a problem for his wife, maybe he should have been looking for another line of work. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
He didn’t refuse to do the love scenes. He just probably didn’t like doing them, which sounds fair. You don’t have to like all aspects of your job. For married people, love scenes probably aren’t fun.
Who knows what he thinks though. Someone else is claiming to know his thoughts.
“I love Jane, but she’s no angel and her judgement isnt great.”
+1
If you’re just catching up on Fonda, I really recommend the Jane and Jean season of the You Must Remember This podcast. It looks at the careers and activism of Jane Fonda and Jean Seberg, who were the same age. It goes into how Fonda, despite her leftist views, was always a protected member of the Hollywood system, while Jean was not.
That’s interesting. Hadn’t heard that. I suspect that Jane was protected because her dad was Henry Fonda. She’s so elderly now it’s easy to forget that she was an original nepo baby.
“I know I was finally grown up [at 80!!], because…I knew it wasn’t my fault.”
Wow. I sincerely hope it doesn’t take other women that long to place blame where it belongs, and not on themselves.
OMG, is there any footage of her flinging the Palme d’Or scroll? I wan to see it!
+1 to Jane having a “colorful life”. I’m glad to see that she is still a progressive activist, something she has always been passionate about. Now she is wise as well-nobody’s fool after the Hanoi fiasco-so she is even more effective in advocating for her causes.
Women especially need her strong voice!!!
Oh yeah click the link. She really bonked the lady in the head. Very stupid and childish too. Is that what I can look forward too if I get to be 80? Throwing things at people without consequences? Hmm?
This reminds me of the senior moment Oscar gaffe with Best Picture, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway presenting (“Moonlight” the actual winner). Warren actually paused looking at the card because he noticed something was off, but Dunaway just plowed on through. Such a diva!
I was at the 1993 Phillies-Braves NL clinching game (the Phils won) when the Phillie Phanatic (the best sports mascot ever) dressed in a leotard and did Jane’s workout routine on the field. She looked a little miffed on the Jumbotron (she was with the despicable Turner then).
But she was great in movies and in “Frankie and Grace,” and I admire her climate activism.
Barefoot in the Park, forever! A classic film.
Redford during his peak years was an international sex symbol.
He was married with several children for decades. Yes, part of his acting was to kiss his costars during filming.
Maybe he was trying to keep some distance between them, as Jane has been saying she was in love with him for years and years. While each were married to others.
Why keep talking about Redford? He is retired from public life.
Jane Fonda has been saying some really outrageous (to me) things in the past year or so.
Also her tossing an award at the director, was not funny or appropriate.
If a male presenter had done this to a female director folks would be “Cancel”
I know at 85, free speech, etc.
But I just see her behavior as attention seeking, self-promoting these days.
Stunt interviews and PR.
Btw, she married Ted Turner, a man who is very problematic.
I would encourage everyone to see her documentary Jane in Five Parts. Basically
part 1–Henry’s daughter
Part 2–Vadim’s wife
Part 3–Tom Hayden’s wife
Part 4–Ted turner’s wife
Part 5–her own person.
It was pretty fascinating how so much of her own personality and interests were subsumed by the men in her life. She did barbarella with vadim, was a political activist with Hayden, a corporate wife with Ted. It’s only been in her last couple decades she’s discovered who she is on her own.
This sounds like his attitude on The Way Were.He didn’t want Barbra Streisand and was aloof.He only did 1 movie with everyone but,Jane Fonda and Paul Newman. I think he liked Jane to do 4 movies.They had great chemistry.