Jane Fonda names director who asked to sleep with her to ‘see what my orgasms were like’ for a role

Jane Fonda has alleged that French director René Clément asked to sleep with her while they were filming his 1964 thriller Joy House.

The 85-year-old actor and activist made the revelation during a recent appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.

During the show, Cohen asked Fonda to name “one man in Hollywood that tried to pick you up once that you turned down”. The Oscar-winner replied: “The French director René Clément.”

She explained: “Well, he wanted to go to bed with me because he said the character had to have an orgasm in the movie and he needed to see what my orgasms were like. He said it in French and I pretended I didn’t understand.”

“I have stories for you, kid, [but] we don’t have time,” Fonda added.

Clément died in 1996 aged 82 and is remembered as one of France’s most influential filmmakers, winning five prizes at the Cannes Film Festival.

In Joy House, Fonda plays Melinda, the niece of a wealthy widow (Lola Albright), who falls for a petty criminal (Alain Delon). Clément was 51 and Fonda was 27 at the time of production.

Elsewhere on the episode, Fonda recalled skinny dipping with Michael Jackson.

Fonda currently stars in Book Club: The Next Chapter, which sees her, Candice Bergen, Mary Steenburgen and Diane Keaton take their book club to Italy to make up for a girl’s trip they never had. While there, things swiftly unravel turning their relaxing vacation into a once-in-a-lifetime cross-country adventure.

Book Club: The Next Chapter is out in cinemas now. Read The Independent’s two-star review of the movie here.