Jane Fonda during the talk Rendez-Vous With Jane Fonda, within the framework of the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival. Photo: Samantha Dubois.

The Cannes Film Festival is usually one of the favorite platforms for stars to show their great galas and celebrate themselves. But one of the great ladies of the big screen, Jane Fonda, showed this Friday that it is always good to fill with content the spaces that fame allows them to access: over an hour and a half, the protagonist of Barbarella lent herself to a talk in which she did not dodge any topic and had no qualms about shooting at one of the gallants with whom I work the most. "Robert Redford has problems with women," he told a stunned audience.

The interview took place on Friday afternoon and from the beginning the actress understood that she did not intend to avoid any subject, no matter how private it seemed: at the beginning of the talk she explained that she could understand the moderator without the need for a translator because French is a language that is not foreign to her. "One of my husbands, I've had three, was French," she said, referring to Roger Vadim, the director who directed her in Barbarella.

On that iconic and sweetened futuristic film of 1968 he said, openly: "I did not like it at all when I was making it." He explained, "At the beginning of the film, I did a striptease in space. I was very shy, believe it or not, so I had to drink a lot of vodka to lose my shame and I filmed that scene drunk."

Jane Fonda in Barbarella

However, when that sensual dance seemed to be behind her, an unexpected "element" forced her to move again in front of the cameras. "The next day, while we were reviewing the filmed footage, we noticed a bat that appeared all the time flying between me and the lens. And we had to do everything again, only by then I had a hangover," he recalled.

Another blow to his shyness, even stronger, hit him squarely when he saw the film for the first time, on the day of the premiere. "I saw myself there, naked... Vadim promised me that my body would be covered by titles, and it didn't," she recalled. Then he paused and recalled, mischievously, "We're not married anymore!" However, beyond her first impression and her reaction on the day of the premiere, Fonda revealed that over the years she learned to love the film: "Now, when I see it, I find it funny," she said.

Consciousness

The actress, who is also a renowned activist, went back to 1965 to point out precisely the moment in which she began to understand that belonging to the firmament of Hollywood brings millions of benefits, but also a great responsibility. That year, she and Lee Marvin were hired "at very low cost" to film The Tigress of the West.

Jane Fonda and Lee Marvin in The Tigress of the West. Photo: @IMDB.com

Working conditions were stark: the entire team was forced to work 14 hours a day. "I loved filming it, because I rode horses and I'm a tomboy... And Lee Marvin was fabulous. He was a lot of fun and was always drunk. We stayed in the same motel and they had to carry it upstairs," he revealed.

And then, he said: "But, in addition, he was a very conscientious man and taught me something very important. At one point, they broke my tooth, but they didn't stop filming, only that they filmed me from behind. So, he took me aside and said, 'Fonda, we're the stars of this movie. If we allow them to make us work so many hours, it's not us who get hurt, it's the whole team. We have to defend the workers.' That was a great lesson from Lee Marvin, who was not a revolutionary. He was a fabulous drunk and a wonderful human being."

Two very different gallants

And then, came one of the most shocking moments of the conference. When reminded of the films she had filmed with Redford – The Human Pack (1966), Barefoot in the Park (1967), The Electric Rider (1979) and Us in the Night (2017) – the actress surprised with her answer: "Well, I was in love with him."

"I did four movies with him, and for three I was in love with him. Which means I had a great time," he said. But, at the same time, he indicated that there was a big problem: "He didn't like to kiss."

"Besides, I was always in a bad mood, and I always thought it was my fault. When we shot the last movie together, I felt like I had grown up because when he came to the set three hours later and in a bad mood, I no longer felt like it was my fault. We always have a good time. He is a very good person... He just has a problem with women," he said, without elaborating.

His experience with Alain Delon, he said, was totally different. Together they filmed The Cage of Love in 1964. "Oh my God! How beautiful it was! Not so much now... He's had a hard life. But then, he was the most beautiful human being on the planet," she said. She said: "He did like to kiss. We had nice love scenes."

To the blows

Fonda also highlighted the importance of My Past Condemns Me, the film she starred in 1971 and revealed how she prepared to play a sex worker. "I settled with a group of prostitutes for a week in France, but no man winked at me. No one even hinted at me! So, I said to Alan [J. Pakula, the director], 'Let me terminate the contract. Hire Faye Dunaway. She'll be good: everyone wants to sleep with her.' He just laughed," the actress recalled.

In addition to her "fieldwork," Fonda decided she should go to the morgue to delve deeper into her character. "There they showed me hundreds of photographs of women who had been beaten to death by men. When I shot the final scene, those women went through my head and I burst into tears. I cried not out of fear, but out of sadness and horror. One half of me was there at the scene and the other was like, 'Shit. I'm becoming a feminist.' It was so powerful," he recalled.

Being a woman in Hollywood

Midway through the talk, Fonda reflected on female friendship and highlighted the relationship she knew how to build with Lily Tomlin – with whom she starred in the films How to Eliminate Her Boss (1980) and 80 for Brady (2022), and the series Grace & Frankie – whom she graciously defined as the "favorite man she has worked with." Then he added, "She's my sister and I love her more than anything."

With Lily Tomlin, his co-star in the Netflix series, Grace and Frankie.

The actress explained that she doesn't really feel like she's "part of Hollywood," as many might think just because of her lineage. "I don't go to parties. I wish I had gone further, but they don't always invite me," he admitted. "I always worried about other things besides my career. If I really cared about my career, I would never have done what I did, which was to leave the United States, move to France and live in a penthouse in Le Marais with Vadim... It was a terrible step from my career standpoint." However, that step was the one that opened the doors to activism, which really gave meaning to her life.

While answering a woman's question about getting into the industry, Fonda was very direct: "Don't let motherfuckers get you! You have to be strong and stand up to them, but do it diplomatically. You don't want to make enemies. It's about relating. That's the big mistake I made: I never built relationships. Michael Douglas [with whom he starred in The China Syndrome] is great at building relationships. I don't think he likes me, but he's very diplomatic."

The memory of Katharine Hepburn

Fonda concluded the talk with an anecdote about her father, Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn, with whom she made In the Golden Lagoon, in 1981. "My dad was very sick, he had heart disease and I didn't want him to die without us working together," she said. "So I bought the rights and turned it into a movie with him. We hadn't even started thinking about who should play Ethel, and one day in my office the phone rings. 'Hello? I heard you're making a movie of In the Golden Lagoon...' It was Katharine Hepburn. She called us! "You can't shoot it in May, the trees will turn red." She was telling us how to make the movie," he said with a laugh. "Of course, we hired her. It was one of the most glorious experiences of my life. I made the film for my father, but the person I learned the most from in the film was Katharine Hepburn."

The reason Hepburn was "so interesting" was because "I wanted them to keep talking about her after she died, and I talk about her all the time." However, the actress is convinced that the legendary actress did not want her: "The three of us were nominated for Oscars, and I didn't win, and they did. And I called Hepburn to congratulate her and she said, 'You'll never catch up with me now!'"

(Taken from Yahoo News)