OverSixty January 2023 Issue

24 ENTERTAINMENT ISSUE 3 | JANUARY 2023 | OVERSIXTY.COM.AU Jane Fonda’s age of wisdom “When I get depressed, I turn to activism. The minute I become an activist again, my depression goes away” JAMES MOTTRAM PROFILE S he’s 85 now, but iconic actress and ac- tivist Jane Fonda has not let the passing years dim her sense of humour. Nor has age withered her. The one-time fitness guru, who almost single-handedly created an empire from her Jane Fonda Workout videos, still looks utterly fabulous. We’re chatting over a video call, with Fon- da seated in an ornate living area next to a tasteful orange-hued floral display. Dressed in a blouse bedecked with bold yellow, pink, and grey stripes, she’s every bit as immacu- lately groomed as her surroundings. Ostensibly, we’re here to talk about her project Luck , an animated film now appear- ing on Apple TV+, which gave her a rare op- portunity to take on a voice-over role (as a pink-suited dragon, no less). “I was very happy because I want to do more voice over,” Fonda says. “First of all, it interests me. I like animated films. “Also, I’m old! It’s a great way for an old person to stay involved because it doesn’t matter how you look. It doesn’t matter if you can’t walk. It doesn’t matter if your hair is bad, or whatever! Any of that doesn’t matter. It’s just being able to understand an animat- ed character and figure out how to bring her to life. And I like that challenge.” It’s interesting to hear her speak so prag- matically about the business, and so enthusi- astically about a career she once left behind. Put simply, it’s in her bones. Her father was the legendary actor Henry Fonda, famed for such classics as The Grapes of Wrath and 12 Angry Me n. Her younger brother was Peter Fonda, who starred in Easy Rider . Fonda herself starred in a string of classics, from kitsch space romp Barbarella to 1970s dramas Klute and Coming Home , which both won her Best Actress Oscars. I wonder if Luck , one of her first real forays into animation, was a way of making some- thing that her grandchildren could enjoy. “Well, I just spent seven years doing Grace and Frankie , and that’s somethingmy grand- kids could see,” she says, referring to theNetf- lix show about two older women who dis- cover their respective husbands are in love. Spanning seven seasons, and earning Fon- da an Emmy nomination, it paired her up with her old friend Lily Tomlin, co-star of the 1980 workplace comedy 9 to 5 . “Definitely they were on my mind, my grandkids,” she continues. She has two, Malcolm and Viva, through her eldest child Vanessa, whom she shares with late French director Roger Vadim. (With her second husband, Tom Hayden, Fonda gave birth to Troy Garity, who later became an actor. She adopted another daughter, Mary Williams.) Clearly, Fonda cherishes their opinion. When I ask if her previous animation expe- “I used to want to be perfect, and that’ll kill you. Because we’re not meant to be perfect.” rience – voicing a character on The Simpsons – was a career highlight, she pauses, then bluntly says: “No. I mean, it was fun. My grandkids got excited about it!” Luck, love and life lessons In Luck , which has been produced by for- mer Pixar maestro John Lasseter, a young girl named Sam is whisked to the Land of Luck by a black cat (voiced by Simon Pegg) and into the realm of Fonda’s fire-breather. One of the more amusing moments sees the characters pass a place where lucky mo- ments are doled out, like “Jam Side Up” for your toast. Luck is random, the film tells us. What does Fonda think? “I do think it’s something that comes to some people and not to others,” she says. “And it’s complicated.” Warming to the theme, shemuses, “It’s like love. I know people who are surrounded by love, but they can’t metabolise it, they can’t bring it inside their body, and experience it, because they have issues they’ve never really explored and dealt with and worked on. “And in away, luck is the same. I don’t know who said this, but I believe in this sentence: luck is preparationmeeting opportunity.” The way Fonda sees it, you must be pre- pared to grasp those rare opportunities. “It means working on yourself as an in- dividual,” she adds. “How can I be a more stable individual? How can I be a person ca- pable of forgiveness? How can I be a person who knows how to relax and not judge? How do I turn myself into somebody who is more curious and more desiring to learn? “All of these kinds of things you don’t nec- essarily start off with, but you can develop them as you go through life.” A life of activism You could imagine Fonda making an excel- lent life coach. She’s been through it all – illness, divorce, grief – and survived. Born in New York, when she was 12 Fon- da’s mother, Canadian-born socialite Franc- es Ford Seymour, took her own life.* She’d suffered from bulimia, a condition that later affected Fonda in her forties (by which point, she was at the peak of her Hollywood career). Fonda’s own upbringing had seen her fa- ther raise her a certain way. “I was taught by my father that how I looked was all that mat- tered,” she once said. “I’ve spent so much time in my life trying to be better,” she says now. “Not perfect. I used towant to be perfect, and that’ll kill you. Because we’re not meant to be perfect. “But it’s not an issue of being perfect. It’s an issue of being everything you can be. Be the fullest you possibly can be. And that’s what I’ve tried to do in life, and it involves paying at- tention. It involves being intentional. Forme it involves meditation. And staying curious.” As I point out to Fonda, Luck has a strong message about putting good back into the world, something she’s repeatedly tried to do. Famed in the 1970s for protesting the Vi- etnam War, when she was dubbed “Hanoi Jane”, she’s supported causes ranging from LGBTQ+ rights to the plight of Native Ameri- cans to teen pregnancy prevention. Recently, she’s ploughed her energy into environmentalism. Inspired by eco-activist Greta Thunberg, in 2019, she founded Fire Drill Fridays, weekly protests in Washington DC. She was arrested three times in consecu- tive weeks (grandchildren Malcom and Viva joined her for a bout of civil disobedience). A year later she published the book, What Can I Do?: The Truth About Climate Change and How to Fix It , and in March 2022, she founded a political action committee de- signed to pinpoint politicians supporting the fossil fuel industry. Part of this overwhelming desire to do good is, she says, a self-help mechanism. “You’re lucky if at a certain point in your life, you re- alise that if you do something good, and put it out into the world, that it will come back to you andmake you feel better,” she says. “You know, it’s like when I get depressed, I turn to activism. The minute I become an activist again, my depression goes away, be- cause I know that I’mdoing everything I pos- sibly can to make things better.” Coming out of retirement No doubt pulling herself out of retirement also helped. In 1991, after three decades The legendary Hollywood actress talks activism, ageing and the role luck has played in her career BONUS SECTION