Jane Fonda Questions Barbra Streisand’s Robert Redford Oscar Tribute: ‘Only Made One Movie With Him’

Jane Fonda didn’t hold back her feelings regarding Barbra Streisand’s tribute to Robert Redford during the 98th Annual Academy Awards.

“I want to know how come Streisand was up there doing that for Redford,” Fonda, 88, said during a chat with Entertainment Tonight after the ceremony on Sunday, March 15. “She only made one movie with him.”

“I made four,” the Barefoot in the Park star continued. “I have more to say.”

When asked what she had to say about Redford — who died at the age of 89 on September 16, 2025 — Fonda admitted that she was “always in love with him.”

“[He was] the most gorgeous human being,” Fonda added. “Such great values, and he did a lot for movies. He really changed movies – lifted up independent movies.”

In 1981, the All the President’s Men actor founded the Sundance Film Festival, which was named after his role as the Sundance Kid in the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The festival has become a major film festival over the years and has continued to put a spotlight on independent films.

During the Oscars, Streisand, 83, took the stage to pay tribute to her The Way We Were costar, and she revealed that Redford initially turned down the role of Hubble Gardiner because he “didn’t stand for anything.”

However, after the script went through several drafts, he finally agreed to do the film.

“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 told the audience.

The Funny Girl actress went on to say that she and Redford had a running joke about how he would sometimes refer to her as “Babs,” a nickname she didn’t think fit because she didn’t believe she looked “like a Babs.”

“Many years later, we were chatting on the phone about the usual politics, art, [artist Amedeo] Modigliani, our favorite. And as we were hanging up, he said, “Babs, I love you dearly, and I always will,’” she continued. “And in the last note I ever wrote to Bob, I ended it with, ‘I love you, too,’ and I signed it Babs.”