FIFTY SHADES OF JANE
THE FEMALE LEADS ARE UNASHAMED TO BE ACTING THEIR AGE
‘Life and love only gets better!’
When the filmmakers behind the new star-studded film Book Club were given the green light to go ahead with production, they were also offered a strong word of warning: make sure you cast younger actresses to play the film’s “older” women.
Thankfully, it’s advice they refused to take on board – instead casting an 80-year-old actress, two 70-somethings and a 65-year-old as the four female leads. And what a sensational foursome they make, with four Oscars and six Emmy awards between them.
The plot centres around a group of women reading the racy book Fifty Shades of Grey, and brings together screen icons Jane Fonda (80), Diane Keaton (72), Candice Bergen
(72) and Mary Steenburgen (65).
Incredibly, it’s the first time the four have ever crossed paths. “Which is bizarre given how many movies and shows we’ve all done,” agrees Mary.
“No combination of us had ever worked together and I remember what I was thinking when we first met up. It was, ‘Please let them all live up to my image of these extraordinary women!’”
And Mary, thankfully, certainly wasn’t left disappointed.
“I immediately realised that they far surpassed it, they were all so magical,” she tells. “Jane Fonda is beyond extraordinary, she is just the most alive human of any age I know. Someone recently asked me to describe her in one word, and the word ‘glittering’ came out of my mouth. Because she just glitters, she’s just so alive.
“Candice is also so real and tells it like it is, and is so deeply hilarious, and then there’s Diane who I can only describe as our magical unicorn!”
The ladies have become fast friends – now constantly in touch with a text message group that pings at all hours of the night – their bond is all the more impressive given that each woman only worked for a total of two weeks on the film. Yes, the fact that the filmmakers dared to make a movie with four women aged 65 and over as the leads meant – rather appallingly – that they were then doing the film on a shoe-string budget, despite its powerhouse cast.
“It was really very, very financially restricted,” laments Candice. “It was independent, very low budget – we wore lots of own clothes.”
Candice – who is currently filming a new rebooted series of Murphy Brown – believes people of her generation will be able to relate to the film, and hopefully love it. But she also thinks it’s one that a younger audience should go and see.
“I think it’s important for younger women to know that it’s not over until it’s over,” she says.
“Your life can be infinitely rich and engaging and sexy and anchored in female friendships, which most of the lives I know are... I also just think it’s a great foundation for women to have long-term friendships where you can just talk about anything and behave any way you like!”
She may be 80 but Jane Fonda is no nearer to giving up on her sex life than she is her showbiz career. The Hollywood icon may not look her age – in fact, she definitely doesn’t – but she’s only all too aware of the kind of stereotype she’s supposed to be living up to at this point.
With that in mind, Jane is making a point of blowing that fuddy-duddy idea of what it means to be old to smithereens the only way she knows how, by talking about it and putting women like her on screen.
Jane plays Vivian in the film − a modern, mature woman but a troublemaker in the sense that she won’t allow her friends to slip into retirement without the thrill of living and loving life to the full first.
Miami Vice star Don Johnson ironically, given his daughter Dakota stars in the Fifty Shades movies, plays the old flame who arrives to challenge the seemingly carefree Vivian to relive old regrets.
Book Club is just the kind of project Jane looks for at this stage of her career. The glam grandmother doesn’t need to work but when she does, it’s for projects she truly believes will make a difference.
While her new movie is sending all the right messages to audiences on the big screen, Jane is also doing the same on TV with her hit series Grace and Frankie, in which she stars with 77-year-old Lily Tomlin. Still an exponent for fitness and healthy eating, Jane certainly has no intention of slowing down and bowing out on a career that has earned her two Oscars among countless other accolades.
Having ended her eight-year romance with record producer Richard Perry in 2017, the three-time divorcée also insists that she hasn’t given up on love.
Here, Jane talks Book Club, teaching the world a thing or two about the older generation, and why love and sex is better than ever when you’re older.
What kind of movie is Book Club?
It’s basically a movie about friendship and sex. It’s a story about women of a certain age and when they feel they are ready to give up all hope of a relationship, sensuality or a love affair. But this isn’t a movie aimed at making people feel bad about not having sex, it’s about people making a decision for themselves rather than regret. It should only be over when you decide it’s over and, being 80, that is something I know from my own personal life, when it comes to everything not just sex and relationships.
How was it working with such a group of powerful women on set?
It was great. We all got along so well. I’m the oldest so I felt like Mummy Bear, but we are all experienced, professional and, most of all, aware of the importance of friendship.
Years ago, when I was younger, I would make a movie with someone and move on, but with Book Club I find we are all being very intentional about staying in touch and cherishing the friendships we have made.
Did you do anything to form that friendship as a cast before filming or did you all know each other from before?
I had known Candi superficially from when she was 17 and Don Johnson had come to some of my events years ago. Diane I had really only admired from afar. She’s an amazing person. Mary I also didn’t know but
I’m so glad I do now because she’s just the most perfect and generous human being. We all got along so well from the start and, yes, we did make a point of spending some time together as friends off set. We went to Candi’s house for dinner one night, we went to Mary’s house, everyone came to my house. It was fun.
Are there any similarities between this character you play and yourself?
Only a little, I’m happy to say. Vivian is terrified of not being in control because her early life was filled with experiences that made her fear that if you love someone, they will leave you. It seems she has everything she wants but she’s actually very damaged and vulnerable, which you see when Don Johnson’s character turns up and brings her past flooding back. I wouldn’t say I’m like her, but
I do like to stir things up and cause trouble like her. I think there is a little bit of the real me in all the characters I’ve played.
How do you feel about movies made to appeal to an older audience?
I am just happy that we are giving a cultural face to older women. I am also in a Netflix series called Grace and Frankie. I have had three lovers in that series already. It’s fun and a hugely popular series. Before, there was Golden Girls and movies with older people, and television stories. Now, we have fun with the fact that we are older and it is that, I think, people of all ages are really enjoying. The fact that we have a good time. It’s like in Grace and Frankie, we go into the business of making vibrators for older women. Because of arthritis, you have to have something that you don’t have to move your wrist around a lot. The numbers of the speed have to be big enough so you can see it and with a light. That’s funny to anyone.
Can Book Club be enjoyed by a younger audience?
Oh, sure. This is a movie for young people too because I think it’s important for them to see something that makes them feel less afraid of getting old. I hope this movie helps tackle the negative attitude towards ageing, and help them to feel hopeful and inspired about the future.
Would you say there is still ageism in Hollywood?
I think it is changing, although very slowly. Older women are the fastest growing demographic in the world so they would do well to begin to countenance us when they decide what to make and so forth. I think that the growth in television has been helpful. It’s a much more forgiving medium. It’s a smaller screen for older faces.
How does relationships and love change as you get older?
Speaking as a woman, I think it gets better because first of all we are braver. It’s like, ‘What the heck do we have to lose? So my skin sags, so does his!’ I know what my body needs. You know your body better when you are older and you are not afraid to ask for what you need. I think on a love and sexual level, it gets better.
Do you have any relationship advice that might help couples stay together longer no matter what?
My advice, especially for younger couples, would be to schedule time to spend and enjoy together. Even if you have children to care for, you need to try and find time to be alone. You need date nights and sexy time no matter how old or how busy you are.
And what about tips for people who may be of an older age wanting to get back into dating?
I think you need to take your time, stock up on candles – because lighting is important when you reach a certain point in your life – and just enjoy it.
What is your view on the level of sexism that exists in Hollywood and the recent scandals that have emerged?
This goes on all of the time, this male entitlement, in Hollywood is everywhere. It’s in offices and businesses all over the world. In bars, restaurants, in stores, women are assaulted, abused, harassed and seen for just being sexual objects that are there for a man’s desire, instead of whole human beings.
What advice would you give to young women in Hollywood?
You have to say ‘No!’ You need to understand that you have control over your body. You have to talk and tell when something like that happens. If we all talked and told then they would be too afraid to do it, I think. I hope.
Finally, having recently celebrated a milestone birthday, do you have a life lesson you’d like to share?
Yes. I co-produced a movie called On Golden Pond. Of course it co-starred, besides my father, Katharine Hepburn. I was standing by a mirror on the set one day and she came up, took my cheek and said, ‘This is your box. This is your container. What do you want this to say to the world?’ What I realised that Katharine was saying to me was, ‘Honey, you have got to get a little more self-aware about how you present yourself to the world.’ When you walk into a room erect, you say, ‘Here I am, deal with it!’ You own yourself. It took me a while to realise what it was that Katharine was trying to teach me there.