(CNN) — Jane Fonda revealed that a movie director once asked to sleep with her. “He said it was to see what my orgasms were like,” the actress said.
The legendary Hollywood star made the shocking revelation this week when she appeared on the talk show “Watch What Happens Live.”
In a section called “Plead the Fifth,” Fonda was asked to name a man in Hollywood who “tried to seduce you” and whom you “rejected.”
Fonda, 85, responded directly, saying, “French director René Clément,” referring to the award-winning director of films like “La bataille du rail” (“The Battle of the Rails”) and the Oscar nominee “Jeux interdits.” (“Forbidden Games”), who died in 1996.
Although Fonda did not name the film in which this incident occurred, she did star in Clément’s 1964 film “Les Félins” (known in English as “The Love Cage” or “Joy House”), which the director directed and co-wrote.
“Was it a sloppy pass?” asked Andy Cohen, the show’s host.
Fonda, who was sitting on the couch next to Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen, who also star in Fonda’s latest movie, “Book Club: The Next Chapter,” said: “Well, he wanted to sleep with me because he said the character had to orgasm in the movie and I needed to see what my orgasms were like.”
French director René Clément, pictured in 1966 (Georges Hernad/INA/Getty Images)
“Are you kidding me?” Cohen responded.
Fonda said: “He said it in French and I pretended I didn’t understand.”
Fonda’s revelation is the latest in a wave of high-profile allegations of sexual harassment and assault in Hollywood since the #MeToo movement went viral in 2017.
Fonda, who has been married three times, added: “I’ve got stories for you, kid…we don’t have time.”
However, he added that he had seen Michael Jackson and Greta Garbo swimming naked.
Of the former, she said: “He came and visited me when we were shooting ‘On Golden Pond’ and I had a little house on the lake.”
The late pop star decided to go skinny dipping. “It was a beautiful moonlit night,” said Fonda, who described him as “skinny.”
Garbo had been submerged in icy water, Fonda remembered. “He had the most athletic body.”
Fonda’s response to Cohen was in relation to the second of three questions, to one of which he was able to “advocate for the fifth [enmienda]”.
In her long career, Fonda won best actress Oscars twice, for “Klute” and “Coming Home,” and was nominated for five other Academy Awards.
As his first question, Cohen queried which of those nominations he felt was “most deserving” of the title. She chose the 1982 film “On Golden Pond,” which she starred in with her father, Henry Fonda.
Finally, Cohen asked: “After decades working in the entertainment industry, who do you think is the biggest misogynist in Hollywood?”
“Oh my God,” Fonda replied with mock horror. “I accept the fifth [enmienda].”
