Jane Fonda and Robert Redford are promoting their new Netflix film Our Souls at Night, directed by Ritesh Batra (The Lunchbox). It’s a rare film about two elderly people finding love, based on the novel of the same name, and is getting solid reviews. Critics are primarily praising Fonda and Redford’s performances, which is no surprise as they’re both Oscar winners who have worked on screen for over fifty years. They’ve also played lovers three times before, in The Chase (1966), Barefoot in the Park (1967) and The Electric Horseman (1979).
So interviewers should have all sorts of material to draw from on the rare occasion that they get the honor of interviewing these two together. Only on Megyn Kelly’s new Today show segment she made the grave error of singling out Fonda and asking her about her plastic surgery. Fonda has been open about the work she’s had done, but asking such a personal question in front of a costar and live studio audience was a massive faux pas. Jane shut that down quickly, as we reported yesterday, and she made it clear with her facial expressions and deft change of subject that it was not appropriate. In a new interview with ET Canada, Jane was asked about that moment and she said it was not the time or place for that question.
Where you shocked by Megyn’s question?
Fonda: A little bit I mean given the fact that we don’t have a lot of time and Bob was right here and it was a weird thing to bring up, whether I’ve had plastic surgery or not. I have and I’ve talked about it but it just seemed like the wrong time and place to raise that question.Redford (in a separate interview) Of course that didn’t involve me because I haven’t had it [plastic surgery]. So what happened? Jane just pushed it away didn’t she? I think she didn’t want to go there. I think she didn’t want to have the show turn into about her surgery or her look it was about the quality of her performance. I wasn’t paying a lot of attention.
Jane is telling it like it is, and that’s pretty much what I wrote about this too – that’s a question for a magazine interview or a one-on-one tell-all interview that will later be edited, it’s not something you would ask a celebrity in front of a live audience. It’s like Kelly is learning on the job instead of doing necessary prep work. These are really glaring mistakes she’s making and she just insulted a legend. As for Redford claiming he hasn’t had plastic surgery, I have a hard time believing that. His neck looks too good to me and he’s 81. My mom has friends who look like they’ve had work done without actually having had anything (so they claim) so it’s possible I guess.
Also, do you remember how Kelly made terrible gay “jokes” while she was interviewing the cast from Will and Grace? She joked that the show turned a superfan gay. Well Debra Messing made a curt and to-the-point comment on Instagram about that. She wrote, in part “Regret going on. Dismayed by her comments.” According to Page Six, NBC, which runs both The Today Show and Will and Grace, has disciplined Messing for those comments and told her to stop. A source told them “Debra was told to cut it out by someone high up in the NBC Entertainment division run by Bob Greenblatt, via her agent or publicist.”
I hope execs at NBC also told Kelly not to make stupid homophobic jokes and to be more professional, but I doubt they did that. They hired her after all. This is the age when public figures say bigoted things and when the people who call them out get disciplined for it. Kelly isn’t the worst example, but that doesn’t mean she shouldn’t be held accountable for the stupid sh-t she says.
Photos are from the Venice Film Festival earlier this month. Credit: WENN, Backgrid and screenshot from ET Canada
I have seen photos of Redford that certainly appear as if he has plastic surgery. Yes, he does look wrinkly now, but his eyes seem to show some work.
This shows his eye work.
https://www.google.com/search?biw=1164&bih=620&tbm=isch&q=robert+redford+wig&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwiKmtqzjNLWAhUY72MKHb7aBGkQhyYIMg#imgrc=1mxwiudFE09T7M:
They look good together. Wonder if they’ve ever… (or are now…)
Did anyone else notice his shade with the “I wasn’t really paying attention” quote?! She must be a real engaging interviewer 😂
Defensive much, Robert Redford? Does he always shout “I didn’t have any!” whenever plastic surgery is mentioned? And I definitely remember a time when his eyes looked very “refreshed”.
I sure hope someone reprimanded Megyn Kelly for her remarks, and not just Debra Messing for saying those remarks were wrong.
Totally to both comments!
Redford doesn’t look like he’s had anything done and that includes his neck. It looks like he’s spent a lot of time in the sun, living his life, and not worrying about his skin.
It’s possible to have neck work done without actual surgery. There is cool sculpting, fraxel lasering, Peleve, Ulthera, etc. Redford may not consider dermatological treatments “plastic surgery” but his lips look pretty full for an 81 year old.
Yeah, I was going to say, there’s plenty of non-surgical intervention that can be done these days that allows you to skirt the question of surgical enhancement while not being 100% honest about alteration.
I could see it either way with Redford. Of course, plenty of people get plastic surgery for issues like hooded eye or deviated septum repair, and even if the result is facial tweaking, they don’t consider it “plastic surgery.” 😛
Robert Redford doesn’t look younger than 81 to me, so I could probably believe he hasn’t had it. I always think he’s handsome (well, in the way you think legends are handsome), but his wrinkles have been showing for a long time. He doesn’t have that weird waxy look that men who get plastic surgery have. If he did get plastic surgery, I figure he’d look pretty odd like Liza Minelli’s former husband (I don’t think plastic surgery suits men, to be honest. Sometimes I think Nicole Kidman looks a little odd, but not nearly as bad as a man who likes plastic surgery. My controversial opinion is that I think women can get away with plastic surgery but men can’t — the latter generally end up looking like lizards whereas the women might look only a little bit unusual).
His teeth definitely belong to someone else!!! But I’m irish and we are late into the perfect teeth game!!
Redford is red haired and has the skin that comes with it. I don’t believe he’s had anything done.
I’m tired of watching Fonda in F&G as I’ve said before. I keep looking at her “ironed” cheeks and it’s distracting. Much prefer British series where you watch the film because the actors look like people.
However that was journalistically stupid because instead of getting the good stories out of this iconic pair you had the feeling she was interviewing two mummies about the time of the pyramids.
🤔maybe it’s bc of this kind of attitude that people have work done? I mean I had the feeling M Kelly was trying not to to say “my gosh you’re old, you were not even young when I was a teen!!!”.
What do you mean by “the skin that comes with it”? Wrinkles (due to sun exposure)? Freckles?
I don’t have red hair, but do have some irish/scottish background. More prone to wrinkles, freckles. Show age more imo than people of olive or black skin tones.
Got it. Thanks 🙂
Redford had work and then laid low for a few years until the weirdness abated. What I’d like to hear about is why he’s looking like a middle-aged woman these days. Her surgeries are old news.
Maybe. But if you do a close-up and compare their skin there are twenty years in between them in certain areas of the face.
Redford denying he has had cosmetic work done irritates me. What a gent.
He had his eyes done several years ago. It was very obvious for 2 -3 years afterward, until they settled.
Where did the time go? Robert Redford is 81? Yikes I feel old
I’m not sure whether Redford has had plastic surgery or not but that hair can’t be real. I mean, it’s at least partially dyed, right, if not an outright wig?
re Redford’s hair: My grandmother was a strawberry blonde when she was younger, and when she died in her 70s her hair was pretty much identical to Redford’s.
Not necessarily. Many redheads or strawberry blondes have hair that lightens with age going from red to blonde to white. But many others — like my red haired Italian grandmother – just get some gray interspersed with the red and the color fades a bit. As for Redford’s luxurious mane — that is ALL his. I was at his Sundance resort/restaurant in Utah a few years ago and he was there and held the door for myself and my companions as we were leaving. I was within one foot of him and that’s no wig! Some people are just blessed and keep their full head of hair. My Dad was one of them.
I don’t know if it’s died or not, but it sure LOOKS like it, especially with his white sideburns.
Maureen Dowd asked Redford if he had had plastic surgery done and if he colors his hair in a forum he did at the JFK Library a few years ago. He said NO then too, he wants to look the age of the parts he’s playing, make them more real and he has no trouble with aging. He said his kids constantly ask why his hair hasn’t gone gray or white and he says the grays are there but most of his hair just turned darker or more red. That happened with some of my mom’s aunts and uncles too. My 93 year old great uncle has red hair with a white streak & white sideburns.
Can’t wait to see this. Those two have always had great chemistry
It’s the buoyancy of his hair and the ‘youthful’ style he wears it in that makes it look a bit suspect, not the colour. it just seems a little incongruous on top of that craggy face – and I don’t mean that in a disrespectful sense, just in a ‘he looks his age’ sense.
But hey, he’s 81 and has more than earned his stripes so if he chooses to be a bit economical with the actualité re what he has and hasn’t had done, that’s his business and his right.
The lady doth protest too much! Geez Bob defensive much??! Haha just say Who? I don’t know her when they ask thoughts about Kelly.
Slight edit to the piece 🙂 Redford has famously never won an oscar! Fonda has.
Two.
Redford won Best Director for his first directing job-Ordinary People. Which also won Best Picture. And Timothy Hutton won Best Supporting Actor for the same movie. Not bad for first time out.
Redford has an Oscar, just not for acting.
Robert Retford is a liar. There I said it. The man had a full face lift a decade ago leading to his face looking so strange and pulled tight for a few years. It’s settled back somewhat. But he still doesn’t look like himself.
I agree
He also had his eyes done and man did they look weird for a long time.
“Our Souls at Night”. Sorry but if you are a Brit that is an extremely unfortunate title…or perhaps not?! I haven’t read the book…
I fully believe Robert Redford had plastic surgery. I remember pictures of him looking like an old leather bag that was left out in the sun for about 4 years. He miraculously stopped looking like that out of nowhere.
Also, I can’t wait for Megyn Kelly to get cancelled.
If the trade papers are correct, Kelly is hitting all sorts of wrong notes, and NBC may have a case of “buyer’s remorse.”
It was an idiot move hiring her.
Wow, Redford really should learn how to support a friend. What kind of answer was ‘It didn’t involve me, I never had ps.’ Or ‘I wasn’t paying a lot of attention’ ??? What a douche. I know Jane Fonda can stand her ground no problem, but a little support wouldn’t have hurt.
He is 81. I could believe he really wasn’t listening.
Old people are also kind of blunt, I’ve noticed.
It’s because they’ve had a lifetime of bullshit to deal with and don’t suffer fools like MK gladly. They’ve earned their stripes.
But I think he was just hurring to defend himself, maybe thinking he would get that question too (‘cuz let’s be real, he had ps) and throwing Jane under the bus in the meantime.
His reaction struck me as super weird too.
a show of hands to anyone who watches the show?
I don’t and am wondering
I liked how Bob said he wasn’t really paying attention. Just two women talking, ya know.😏
Your comment made me laugh. I know right??
I think if Redford had not been there she would not have been offended.
I think if she’d been there on her own it might be okay to make the interview more personal, and more about her. But with them both there it’s rude to not include him because they’re there to talk about their film, not her plastic surgery. It was just awkward.
I’m calling for equality here…. MK asks Fonda aboit plastic surgery, but every time I scroll by a Redford pic I do a double take thinking his hair is a hat it looks so out of place… And that didn’t get brought up because even kelly knows better, but chose to focus on the personal and trivial aspects of an aging woman on the wrong setting poorly disguised as a backhanded compliment.
And what a hypocrite considering it’s obvious she’s had plenty of her own work done. Jane should’ve said, “your work looks great as well.” 🤓
I’d have had more respect (and I’m better Jane would have, too) had Kelly done a 180 and asked her about politics. Still inappropriate for the forum but DAMN that would have been a fine, fine argument between those two.
Leave Redford alone!!!!! He’s my forever dong. I don’t care that he’s 81. His old movies used to play on tv alll the time. I think I fell in love with him when I was 3. Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid is one of my fav all time movies. I cried when Paul Newman died – almost a decade ago? 😢😢😭
Robert Redford forever!!! 😍😍😍😍
I really like him too.I cannot believe he’s the same age as my grandmother,he was so incredibly handsome in his younger years!He seems the type to mind his own business and live his life outside of Hollywood.Love his narrative voice in “A river runs through it”.
Jane in retrospect is probably thinking now she should have replied: “why of course I’ve had plastic surgery! I think a woman should do whatever makes her feel fabulous and it’s totally her own decision whether her definition of fabulous is completely natural or with a little modern surgical help. Now of course, I would would never have made the decision to do it at your age like you obviously did, but a woman has the right to decide what’s best for her!” Touché, you fake bottle blonde bitch. IMHO we won’t recognize or remember the name Meghan Kelly in 12 months. What a buffoon…there are so many more interesting, intelligent, capable women available to be in “media” positions.
Jane’s not afraid to admit to plastic surgery….on Andy’s Playhouse, she attributed her looks to “a boatload of money” (and good genes). But that was voluntary admission and I think it was very tacky for Megan to ask her, and especially to ask her to be specific.
Jane shut her down. It was hysterical. And Megyn is clueless and tone deaf. She still seems to think she’s on Fox News. Her interview “style” is horrible and it shows her weakness as a so called journalist. That show is a trainwreck and I wonder how long it will be until NBC regrets the insane amounts of money they’ve thrown at this show and this woman.
I was just going to say how stupid it was and sexist for Megyn Kelly to single out Jane, when Robert was sitting right there, and he has had plastic surgery. So he didn’t throw Jane under the bus, since she had already been thrown, but he distanced himself quickly: he wasn’t paying much attention. I’ll bet. If Megyn was stupid enough to ask the question, she should have included Mr. Redford. It would have been interesting in his reaction. She was very sexist and unfair to just go for Jane. Maybe she is stupid.