Stories from our elders: how Jane Fonda changed her life, in her 'third act'
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How did Jane Fonda’s Hollywood family background shape her early career?
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All this week on Conversations, we're bringing you stories from our elders. And today, it's my conversation with Jane Fonda. Yes, that Jane Fonda. When I spoke with Jane, she had recently spent her 82nd birthday in handcuffs, getting arrested to raise awareness about climate change. Jane has lived her entire life in the public eye as the daughter of acting aristocracy. Her father, Henry Fonda, was a Hollywood legend by the time that she was born. And Jane grew up studying acting with Lee Strasberg, where Marilyn Monroe was a classmate. She then went to Paris, where she fell in love with the French film director Roger Vadim, who cast her in the camp sci-fi classic Barbarella. But behind the public adoration, Jane was battling some pretty big personal demons, including bulimia and the legacy of a shocking family tragedy.
In her 30s, she began reassessing her life and became a leader of the anti-Vietnam War movement, earning her the nickname of Hanoi Jane from the American press. After the Vietnam War ended, Jane Fonda remained committed to political activism, and so she released a series of workout videos to help fund social and political change in America. After two more marriages, Jane had an epiphany about her third act of life. She decided to devote it to helping change the world, and in her 80s, she now devotes most of her time to raising awareness about climate change. I spoke with Jane Fonda in 2020. Hi, Jane. Hi. Jane, you turned 82 last December. What were you doing the day before your birthday? It
was a Friday and I was having a Fire Drill Friday rally and I engaged in civil disobedience with about 150 other people and was arrested and held in a holding tank and And because I had been arrested four times before, they were supposed to put me in jail. I wanted to turn 82 in jail because I thought it would get media attention. And that was the whole point of this is, first of all, for people to learn about the climate crisis, but also to raise the awareness of the urgency. And so I thought it would be a good way to get people to talk about, what's that old broad doing, getting herself arrested? Well, if she can do it, I can do it. But they didn't arrest me. They arrested friends of mine who were with me, who'd been arrested four times previously, and they took them away to jail, but they didn't take me.
Why
not? Why were they not arresting Jane Fonda?
I think because they were given orders not to arrest me because it would have caused a lot of media stir.
You had the experience of being arrested many times over these climate change protests, fire drill Fridays. What's it feel like, Jane, to be taken away in cuffs in your 80s?
Well, you know, first of all, I'm very, very conscious of the fact that because I am white and because I am privileged and famous and have a hit TV series behind my back, that I was treated differently than I would have been if I had been black. and not a celebrity maybe, or even black and a celebrity. I'm thinking of, you know, right now the images of Martin Luther King in the Birmingham jail. But, you know, I think they were told to not do anything that would get bad press for the police department in D.C.
You look pretty happy when you're getting arrested, though, from the images I've seen. There's a big smile on that face of yours.
And everybody else's who were getting arrested, actually. Because when you put your body on the line, when you align yourself totally with your deepest values, it feels great. You know why you're there. You know why you're risking this. There's a reason for it.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How did Jane Fonda’s Hollywood family background shape her early career?
0:00–5:57
2
What personal demons (bulimia, family tragedy) did Jane battle behind the fame?
5:57–11:49
3
Why did Jane become a leading voice in the anti‑Vietnam‑War movement?
11:49–16:45
4
How did the Jane Fonda workout videos fund her political activism?
16:45–21:59
5
What motivated Jane to get arrested at age 82 for climate‑change protests?
21:59–27:39
6
Why did Jane decide to let her hair go gray and what did it symbolize?
27:39–32:35
7
How did the comedy ‘9 to 5’ become a vehicle for women’s‑rights messages?
32:35–38:25
8
What does ‘wholeness’ mean to Jane in her third act of life?
38:25–44:06
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Conversations
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