Robert Redford and Jane Fonda’s screen partnership spanned four films, from The Chase (1966) to Our Souls at Night (2017). Fonda later said she had a crush on Redford and fell in love with him during their first three films; Redford described a special connection that began on The Chase. Their recollections illuminate a long working relationship, but do not establish an off-screen romance.
The films that shaped their friendship
The timeline is also a story of long gaps between projects. Fonda recalled feeling infatuated and unsure how to read Redford’s quietness early on. By their later reunion, she said, she felt comfortable enough to tease him. Redford, looking back, described their rapport as something that clicked. These are the actors’ retrospective accounts of working together, not independent evidence about their private lives.
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| Release year | Film and screen roles | What they later said about the collaboration |
|---|---|---|
| 1966 | The Chase, their first released film together. | Redford recalled that they “got along extremely well” and had a “Wonderful connection.” |
| 1967 | Barefoot in the Park, Neil Simon’s comedy, in which they played newlyweds Paul and Corie Bratter. | Fonda later recalled being infatuated with Redford and wondering whether she had done something wrong when he did not speak to her outside the script. |
| 1979 | The Electric Horseman, their third released collaboration. | Fonda later said she had been in love with Redford during each of their first three films. By this reunion, she was more at ease about calling out what she saw as his grumpiness. |
| 2017 | Our Souls at Night, their fourth collaboration. They played Addie and Louis, older neighbors who seek companionship by sleeping beside one another. | Fonda described the ease of working with someone she knew well. Redford said their special relationship went back to The Chase and that working together “just clicks.” |
1966: A connection begins on The Chase
Redford and Fonda’s first released film together was Arthur Penn’s The Chase in 1966. Redford’s 2016 recollection placed their first film together in 1965, but that was his memory of the year; Vanity Fair’s 2017 account and the Associated Press’s 2025 retrospective identify 1966 as the film’s release year. Redford later summed up their early rapport to Vanity Fair: “We got along extremely well. Wonderful connection.”
1967: Newlyweds in Barefoot in the Park
Their second film put them in a very different kind of story. In the screen adaptation of Neil Simon’s comedy, they played newlyweds Paul and Corie Bratter. Fonda later told Ellen DeGeneres, as Vanity Fair reported in 2017, that she was in love with Redford and found his silence hard to interpret:
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“I fell in love every time, so if a day went by when he wouldn’t speak to me . . . there were days when he wouldn’t speak to me unless it was part of the script.”
Her account describes her feelings and how she experienced his behavior; it does not show that Redford shared those feelings or that they had a private romantic relationship.
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1979: Their third film, after a long gap
The Electric Horseman reunited them 12 years after Barefoot in the Park. In a 2017 interview, Fonda described the earlier three films as a time when she was always in love with Redford. She also recalled feeling more comfortable by this reunion, saying she could call out his grumpiness. That change in tone suggests a familiar working relationship in her telling, not a claim about romance between them.
2017: Reunion and reflections in Our Souls at Night
Nearly four decades after their previous film together, Fonda and Redford reunited as Addie and Louis in Our Souls at Night. Their characters begin sharing a bed for companionship, and the film gave Fonda an opportunity to compare its hotel scene with one in Barefoot in the Park. She said that knowing Redford well made it easier to approach the material with humor:
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Redford described the continuity of their professional rapport to Esquire in 2017: “Jane and I have had a very special relationship going back to The Chase [1966] It just clicks.” The lack of punctuation between the bracketed year and “It” is preserved from the quotation reported in the source.
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2026: Fonda remembers Redford
At the TCM Classic Film Festival in 2026, Fonda spoke publicly about Redford’s wish to support independent film and recalled having a crush on him while they worked together. TheWrap reported the remarks as a later remembrance, not a contemporaneous account of the 1960s. They add to the record of how Fonda remembered their partnership, while leaving its limits clear: the films show them playing romantic partners, but the available accounts do not establish an off-screen affair.
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