Why didn’t Jane Fonda and Barbra Streisand make this movie 60 years ago? It could now be a classic 1970s film — a dramatic love triangle with these two formidable female stars playing women fighting for the favor of a handsome man, played by Robert Redford, one of that era’s most handsome heartthrobs.
Now, Fonda seems eager to revive the idea of such a feud but in real life and in 2026, by complaining about Streisand being asked to present Sunday night’s Academy Award In Memoriam tribute to Redford. The legendary director and actor died last year at age 89, and the 88-year-old Fonda insisted to a reporter at the Oscars that her personal and professional relationship with “the Sundance Kid” star was stronger than Streisand’s.
“I want to know how come Streisand was up there doing that for Redford,” 88-year-old Fonda said to a reporter with Entertainment Tonight, according to the Daily Mail. “She only made one movie with him, I made four!”
Fonda and Redford actually were in five movies together from 1960 to 2017: “Tall Story,” “The Chase,” “Barefoot In the Park,” “The Electric Horseman” and “Our Souls at Night.” The latter three films focus on characters played by Fonda and Redford being in love.
Fonda also insisted to Entertainment Tonight that she had “more to say” about Redford than the 83-year-old Streisand because she said she “was always in love with him.”
“(He was) the most gorgeous human being and had such great values,” Fonda said. “He did a lot for movies — he lifted up independent movies.”
Meanwhile, Streisand starred in just one movie with Redford, Fonda pointed out. That film was “The Way We Were” in 1973.
But unlike Redford’s films with Fonda, “The Way We Were” was one of the actor’s best-remembered films, in large part because of its opposites-attract love story. For the soundtrack, Streisand also performed one her best-known songs, also called “The Way We Were.”
During her tribute to Redford Sunday, Streisand performed some of the song in his memory. This was a notable gesture on Streisand’s part since she effectively retired from touring and giving regular live performances in 2000.
In her speech for Redford, Streisand said she knew she wanted to work with Redford when she first read the script for “The Way We Were.”
“I could only imagine one man in the role and that was Robert Redford,” Streisand said. “But he turned it down because he said the character had no backbone.”
“He doesn’t stand for anything — and he was right,” Streisand said about Redford’s role, a handsome, affluent WASP for whom things come easy. Her character, a politically outspoken, working-class Jewish woman, falls in love with Redford’s Hubbell and believes he could be a great writer.
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“So many drafts later, Bob finally agreed to do it,” Streisand said. “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 also praised Redford as “thoughtful and bold. I called him a little intellectual cowboy who blazed his own trail. I miss him now more than ever.”
Redford died in his sleep in September 2025, following a 70-year career that included starring in some of the most acclaimed films of the late 1960s and 1970s, including “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “Three Days of the Condor,” “The Sting” and “All the President’s Men.” He also won an Academy Award for directing his first film, “Ordinary People,” started the Sundance Film Festival and become known for his political and environmental activism.
When news broke of Redford’s death, Streisand shared an emotional statement on Instagram.
“Every day on the set of ‘The Way We Were’ was exciting, intense and pure joy,” Streisand wrote. “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.”
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