Civil disobedience: Fonda fighting for the future
Jane Fonda was all riled up.
The American actress and activist was on the phone last week to discuss her participation in this year’s online edition of the C2 Montreal conference on Oct. 22, but she spent most of the conversation talking passionately about matters close to her heart.
“Humanity is facing an existential crisis right now: the climate crisis,” said Fonda, 82, when asked about her long-standing involvement in causes ranging from social justice to the environment.
Fonda was arrested five times last fall — often with famous friends including Gloria Steinem, Catherine Keener, Joaquin Phoenix and Martin Sheen — while protesting in Washington, D.C. as part of her Fire Drill Fridays initiative.
She writes about those experiences in her new book, What Can I Do? My Path From Climate Despair to Action.
“We have never been confronted with anything like this before,” she said.
Yet, she has not lost hope. “Scientists are telling us we can turn it around, but to do so we have to cut fossil fuel emissions in half in less than 10 years. When I hear that, all I know is I have to put everything I’ve got on the line — my body, my voice, everything. This is critical. I have grandchildren. I have to fight for the future and do everything I can.”
Fonda took her civil disobedience seriously, operating out of a Washington hotel from September through December of last year and getting intentionally arrested to bring attention to the cause.
She spent one night behind bars following a protest on Nov. 1, which she writes about in her book. The experience was not enough to deter her from getting back out there and fighting as hard as the generation that will be most affected by climate change.
“The young people,” Fonda said, “including Greta (Thunberg) — I know she led a huge march last year — these young people inspired me. And they’re saying, ‘Where are the grown-ups? How come it’s all on us? We can’t even vote.’
“I’m saying us old folks have to do our part, and I’m going to give this everything I have.”
FROM FILMS TO ACTIVISM
Activism didn’t come naturally to Fonda. As the daughter of Hollywood actor Henry Fonda and Brockville, Ont.born socialite Frances Ford Seymour — who committed suicide when Fonda was 12 — she starred in mostly light film fare through the ’60s.
Fonda became a sex symbol with the 1968 sci-fi spoof Barbarella, directed by her first husband, Roger Vadim, and showed her acting chops the following year in the drama They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? But she felt unfulfilled.
“I spent 30 years of my life not understanding much about anything,” she said. “My life was empty and had no meaning. I wondered why I was even born; I was not a happy person. It’s very hard to be happy when life has no meaning. The Vietnam War opened my eyes to many things. Around age 30, when I became active around the Vietnam War, everything in my life changed. I felt there was meaning in my life. I met people who were different than any people I had met before. I liked them, and wanted to be like them and know I was making a difference.”
Fonda became known as Hanoi Jane after a muchpublicized trip to Vietnam in 1972. She married her second husband, activist Tom Hayden, in 1973. Her involvement in the world outside brought changes in her film career.
“I began making movies that had more to say, things that reflected my own interests and values,” she explained. “Suddenly, acting was more important to me; it meant more to me.”
Fonda cites as “a career turning point” the Oscar she won for her role as a prostitute in the 1971 noir thriller Klute. She won another (as did her co-star Jon Voight) for the 1978 Vietnam War drama Coming Home, which she co-produced; Fonda calls it “my first movie that was sort of my idea.”
And of course, On Golden Pond (1981), “which I produced for my father,” will always have a place in her heart.
“That was a very important movie,” she said.
In the ’70s and early ’80s, Fonda’s activism branched out into other areas of life.
“When the war ended, the problem was the corporate takeover of the American economy,” she said. “Then I became involved in the women’s movement — because I’m a woman.”
She donned leotards in 1982 for the Jane Fonda Workout video, one of the biggest-selling VHS tapes of all time. While it may not have seemed in line with her activism, Fonda explains it was part of a master plan: she did the video to raise money for her and Hayden’s political organization, the Campaign for Economic Democracy.
Decades later, she had another unlikely hit with the Netflix series Grace and Frankie, opposite Lily Tomlin, which resumes filming for its seventh and final season in January.
“It brings hope to women,” she said of the show’s enduring appeal. “It’s amusing to see old women living such interesting lives. Being old doesn’t mean decrepitude.”
Currently, Fonda’s eyes are set on the Nov. 3 U.S. election. She recently dusted off her old workout-leading skills with a star-studded Exercise That Vote video. Unsurprisingly, she sees her civic responsibility as more than just casting a ballot.
“I think it’s important for us to not get cynical, to remain hopeful, and to gird our loins to elect a new president,” she said, “then to fight like hell to get him to do the right things once he’s there.
“Democracy is at stake, equality is at stake, the climate is at stake. In other words, the future of humanity is at stake. So, this is all hands on deck … and we’re going to do it. We’re going to win this.”