Robert Redford Admitted a Criticism of Himself and Jane Fonda ‘Really Bothered’ Him
Robert Redford and Jane Fonda starred in four different movies together. They were both actors and activists, and they once faced criticism because of this. Redford said that the way one critic wrote about the roles he and Fonda took really bothered him.
Robert Redford once said he didn’t like a critique he and Jane Fonda faced
In 1979, Redford and Fonda starred in The Electric Horseman together. In it, Redford plays a former rodeo star who steals a horse after learning it was mistreated. Fonda plays a reporter following the story. After the movie came out, one critic complained that Redford and Fonda constantly took heroic roles.
“A lot of the characters I’ve played have been perceived as shallow heroes,” he told Rolling Stone in 1980. “Something a critic wrote about Electric Horseman really bothered me. He asked, ‘Why do Redford and Fonda, these big social crusaders, keep giving themselves the roles of the good guys in their films?’”
He insisted that he had taken on less-heroic roles in the past.
“First of all, Electric Horseman wasn’t supposed to be political; it was designed to be good entertainment,” he said. “Second, I have played less than heroic figures. The character in The Downhill Racer was certainly not likable. Fauss, in Little Fauss and Big Halsy, was an outrageous s***. I don’t think people will see Brubaker as a total hero.”
Robert Redford and Jane Fonda starred in multiple films together
The Electric Horseman was Fonda and Redford’s third collaboration. They first worked together in The Chase in 1966, followed by Barefoot in the Park in 1967. They collaborated for the final time in 2017 with the film Our Souls at Night. Redford said he loved getting the chance to work with Fonda.
“Jane and I have had a very special relationship going back to The Chase [1966]. It just clicks,” he told Esquire in 2017. “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. It didn’t require a lot of analysis. It just fell into place.”
He then said he found much to admire about her.
“I knew Jane to be a very strong woman. She’s a force. She takes risks,” he said. “I’ve always admired that.”
She mourned him after his death
Redford died on Sept. 16, 2025. Fonda said his death devastated her.
“It hit me hard this morning when I read that Bob was gone,” she told USA Today. “I can’t stop crying.”
She said she would miss him a great deal.
“He meant a lot to me and was a beautiful person in every way,” she said. “He stood for an America we have to keep fighting for.”
