by Jane Fonda has been an outspoken feminist for decades, but that wasn’t always the case.
“I saw women as weak. From an early age, I always thought, ‘I have to hitch my wagon to a man,'” said Fonda, 85. The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published on Friday.
She added that, as an adult, after becoming an anti-war activist in the 1960s, she met very different types of women than she had as a student in exclusive schools. And that made her see things differently.
“By opening myself up to feminism and female friendships, I’ve become a much healthier person,” she said 80 for Brady star said. “She taught me not to be afraid of vulnerability, not to be afraid to ask for help, even if it’s hard for me to do so.”
Fonda, whose earliest acting credits date back to the 1960s, has also evaluated the #MeToo movement to expose and end the sexual assault that has brought down Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer, Bill Cosby and other once-mighty men in the film industry. ‘entertainment. She complained that no one listened to black women who had been pointing out abuse for years and that it “took movie stars” to give the movement legs.
“Many people thought at first [#MeToo] it’s gone too far, canceling and all that kind of stuff,” he said. All movements do this at the start. They can’t be perfect out of the box. But he encouraged women to speak up. I honestly don’t know if he’s made men think twice. Really not.”
Fonda, for example, doesn’t give much thought to another topic: the remake of the 1968 cult classic Barbarella, in which she played an astronaut from the future. Multiple publications reported in October that EuphoriaSydney Sweeney will play the part Fonda made famous in a new film in the works.
“I try not to,” Fonda said when asked what she thinks of the new project. “Because I worry about what’s going to happen. I had an idea how to do it [the late producer of the original] Dino De Laurentiis, when he was still alive, did not listen. But it could have been a truly feminist film.”
While Fonda’s performance in the original wasn’t a win with all the critics, she was quickly embraced by the acting world. The daughter of the late decorated actor Henry Fonda earned her first Oscar nomination in 1970, for They shoot horses, don’t they?and won a statuette for her lead role in Klute two years after. Since then she has earned four more nominations and another win, in 1979, for Go back home. (Fonda’s mother was the late Frances Ford Seymour, who died by suicide in 1950.)
While Fonda has nothing more to prove when it comes to her acting pedigree, she understands the current conversation about so-called “nepo kids,” or the offspring of the famous who are often found as instant celebrities as well.
“People give you things when you’re famous,” acknowledged Fonda, whose father appeared in John Ford’s acclaimed 1940 adaptation of The grape of wrath and in the Oscar nominee Young Mr. Lincoln, playing the former president, before his daughter even started school. “I always had a hard time understanding that. I remember when I was 7 they gave us a Studebaker and a television. And I thought, ‘Why? We could buy those.'”
In addition to acting and activism, Fonda has long been known as a fitness enthusiast — even a guru to some — through her Jane Fonda’s Workout franchise.
She confirmed that she (miraculously) kept up that routine last year while undergoing chemotherapy to treat non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma which she had and disclosed in September, but, of course, it took a toll.
“It really hit me hard,” she said. “Sometimes my energy just ran out. Normally, I can hold a pushup for a couple minutes. When the chemo was on me, after 30 seconds, I’d collapse.”
Fonda said last month, however, that her cancer is in remission. She’s been back to protesting herself for a couple of months now.
