In 1960, Jane Fonda marked her film debut with Joshua Logan’s Tall Story, in which she plays June Ryder, a cheerleader with eyes for Anthony Perkins’ Ray Blent.
One of the lesser-known details about the film is that Robert Redford had an uncredited role as a basketball player, marking the start of a lifelong friendship that Jane Fonda would always treasure. After Tall Story, they shared the screen again in 1966’s The Chase and 1967’s Barefoot in the Park. Then came 1979’s The Electric Horseman, and finally, their last project together, 2017’s Our Souls at Night.
The pair worked great together and had natural chemistry on screen. But this was only possible because of their real admiration for each other, which was also something that they never shied away from discussing in interviews whenever each other’s names came up. One of the main parts of working together that Redford always enjoyed was how “easy” it was.
Discussing their relationship with Esquire, Redford also said that whatever they have “just clicks”. He said, “Whatever her life was – which was all over the place – whatever my life was, when we came together, those things were forgotten. We were just she and I working together.”
In fact, because they grew to know each other so well, both personally and professionally, snapping into a scene came easily because they didn’t have to discuss much; they just understood each other enough to switch it on. This came across on screen, too; whether it was the romance between two estranged characters or older partners with a longer history, they always made it believable.
However, it wasn’t just familiarity that made such a palpable spark possible. After all, there seemed to be a genuine connection there that didn’t just come from having worked with someone before. In fact, Fonda once admitted that there was something more there, on her part at least, that made their dynamic so compelling, and it was that she was crushing on him on every project they were involved in.
“He is so handsome and just such a wonderful human being,” she told People. “Every movie I made with him, I developed a crush on him.” Elsewhere, she told The Guardian that she was always “in love” with Redford, but that nothing happened because they were both married at the same time. A couple of years later, Redford said that he never knew about Fonda’s feelings, but that he also felt that they had something special whenever they were on the same set.
What drew Fonda to Redford wasn’t just his charm, more what he stood for. His views on the environment and progressive issues really spoke to her. She’d been on the frontlines of activism for years, so meeting someone equally fired up left its mark. Their bond ran deeper because of it.
So when he died, it hit her hard. She’d lost someone who really understood what it meant to stand up to a system that would rather turn away than face a tough truth. After hearing the news, she didn’t just mourn; she made a point of shining a light on the good he’d done and how it still drives her to keep going.
“It hit me hard this morning when I read that Bob was gone,” she said. “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.”
