Jane Fonda has revealed that Marilyn Monroe was “too scared” to perform in acting class when they met at the start of their careers.

Fonda, who was born into Hollywood royalty as the daughter of actor Henry Fonda, said that Monroe sat next to her in class and rarely got up to perform in front of their fellow students.

“She and I worked in the back of the room and she’d have no makeup on, dark sunglasses, and a scarf around her head. She was too scared to get up and do anything,” Fonda said in an interview on Oprah’s Master Class.

Monroe, who rose to fame in the 1950s with movies like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Some Like It Hot, was famously insecure and struggled with her mental health. She died in 1962 at the age of 36.

Fonda and Monroe met in the acting class of renowned teacher Lee Strasberg. Fonda, who is still acting today in shows like Grace & Frankie, said that Monroe was very reserved in class and didn’t want to perform in front of the other students.

She also said that Monroe was more insecure than she was, and didn’t have her resilience.

“She was extremely insecure—way more than me—and she didn’t have my resilience, unfortunately,” Fonda said on The Howard Stern Show.

Despite her insecurities, Monroe remains one of the most iconic figures in Hollywood history, with her face becoming the subject of artwork worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Impersonators also pay large amounts of money to live in her former home.

Fonda and Monroe bonded over their shared experiences as young women trying to make it in the entertainment industry. They both also had complicated relationships with their parents.

In a New York Times profile, Fonda reminisced on a party where she saw the effect that Monroe had on men. “I’ll never forget a party that Lee Strasberg gave and she came late, and she walked in and men there started to shake. I mean, they were physically excited and agitated by the fact that she was there. And she walked straight to me and wanted to talk,” she said.

Despite their friendship, Fonda and Monroe’s careers took very different paths. Fonda became famous in the 1960s for movies like Barbarella and won an Academy Award, while Monroe became known as a sex symbol and a charismatic performer.

Fonda is also known for her political activism and workout tapes, while Monroe’s legacy continues to be celebrated in pop culture.

Fonda’s comments about Monroe offer a glimpse into the private life of a woman who was always in the public eye.

Despite the many accounts of Monroe’s life and personality, Fonda’s personal memories provide insight into the real woman behind the icon.

Her description of Monroe as insecure and scared in acting class humanizes the star and shows the challenges that she faced in her personal and professional life.