Jane Fonda poked fun at not being involved in Barbra Streisand’s tribute to the late Robert Redford tribute at the 2026 Oscars.
“I want to know how come Streisand was up there doing that for Redford,” Fonda, 88, quipped during an interview with Entertainment Tonight on Sunday, March 15. “She only made one movie with him, I made four!”
Fonda pointed out that she has “more to say” about Redford, adding, “I was always in love with him. [He was] the most gorgeous human being and had such great values. He did a lot for movies — he lifted up independent movies.”
Streisand, 83, honored Redford with a speech and performance during the awards show’s In Memoriam segment on Sunday.
“After I read the first script of The Way We Were, I could only imagine one man in the role and that was Robert Redford. But he turned it down because he said the character had no backbone,” she recalled about Redford, who died at age 89 in September 2025. “He doesn’t stand for anything — and he was right. So many drafts later, Bob finally agreed to do it. He was a brilliant, subtle actor, and we had a wonderful time playing off each other because we never quite knew what the other one was going to do in a scene.”
Streisand praised Redford for his advocacy. “He was thoughtful and old,” she shared. “I called him a little intellectual cowboy who blazed his own trail. I miss him now more than ever.”
The actress concluded by singing “The Way We Were” from the pair’s iconic film.
When news broke of Redford’s death last year, Streisand shared an emotional statement via Instagram.
“Every day on the set of The Way We Were was exciting, intense and pure joy,” Streisand wrote in September 2025. “We were such opposites: he was from the world of horses; I was allergic to them! Yet, we kept trying to find out more about each other, just like the characters in the movie.”
She continued: “Bob was charismatic, intelligent, intense, always interesting— and one of the finest actors ever. The last time I saw him, when he came to lunch, we discussed art and decided to send each other our first drawings. He was one of a kind and I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with him. #RobertRedford.”
Fonda, meanwhile, told Us Weekly in a statement: “It hit me hard this morning when I read that Bob was gone. I can’t stop crying. He meant a lot to me and was a beautiful person in every way. He stood for an America we have to keep fighting for.”
Over the years, Fonda and Redford worked on multiple projects together, starting with the 1960 film Tall Story. The duo appeared alongside Marlon Brando in the 1966 film The Chase and in Barefoot in the Park the following year. Fonda and Redford reunited a decade later for The Electric Horseman.
Fonda and Redford also teamed up for the 2017 Netflix movie Our Souls at Night, which marked one of his final leading roles before stepping out of the spotlight.
