Jane Fonda is wishing she could have paid tribute to her dear, departed friend Robert Redford.

At the 98th annual Academy Awards on Sunday, Barbra Streisand took the stage as part of the ceremony’s In Memoriam segment to honor Redford, who died on Sept. 16, 2025 at age 89.

“I want to know how come Streisand was up there doing that for Redford?” Fonda, 88, quipped to Entertainment Tonight at an Oscar night party.

Jane Fonda attends the 2026 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Mark Guiducci at Los Angeles County Museum of Art on March 15, 2026 in Los Angeles, California; Hosted by Conan O'Brien, the 98th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 15, at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood and will be televised live on ABC, streamed live on Hulu and airs live in more than 200 territories worldwide

Amy Sussman/Getty; Frank Micelotta/Disney via Getty 

She playfully added that Streisand, 83, “only made one movie with him, I made four! I have more to say.”

US singer Barbra Streisand speaks during an in memoriam segment onstage during the 98th Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California on March 15, 2026.

Barbra Streisand at the 98th Academy Awards on March 15.Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty 

With a laugh, Fonda said she “was always in love with him. The most gorgeous human being and such great values. And he did a lot for movies, he really changed movies, lifted up independent movies.”

Streisand starred with Redford in the Sydney Pollack-directed 1973 romance drama The Way We Were. Onstage at the Conan O’Brien-hosted ceremony, she delivered a moving tribute to the actor-filmmaker, followed briefly by a rare live rendition of the hit song of the same name — over a decade since she last performed it at the Oscars for composer Marvin Hamlisch.

“He was a brilliant, subtle actor,” the Funny Girl Oscar winner said onstage of Redford. “And we had a wonderful time playing off each other because we never quite knew what the other one was going to do in the scene.”

Fonda, on the other hand, starred with the late Redford in 1960’s The Tall Story, 1966’s The Chase, 1967’s Barefoot in the Park and 2017’s Our Souls at Night. In a statement shared on the day her friend died, the two-time Oscar-winning actress said, “It hit me hard this morning when I read that Bob was gone. I can’t stop crying. He meant a lot to me and was a beautiful person in every way. He stood for an America we have to keep fighting for.”

Robert Redford and Jane Fonda attend the 'Our Souls At Night' photocall during the 74th Venice Film Festival at Sala Casino on September 1, 2017 in Venice, Italy.

Robert Redford and Jane Fonda in 2017.Alessandra Benedetti – Corbis/Corbis via Getty 

Speaking to ET, Fonda acknowledged that “we lost a lot of really talented people” in the last year. Asked about the ceremony’s Rachel McAdams-led tribute to Book Club costar Diane Keaton, Fonda said she hadn’t caught that moment, “but her passing hit me really hard.”

This year’s Oscars In Memoriam segment included such Hollywood heavyweights as Rob Reiner, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Catherine O’Hara, Val Kilmer, Robert Duvall and more.