Fonda Doing Good

Throughout her nearly seven-decade career that began at the Omaha Community Theater in 1954, Jane Fonda has worn many labels. Growing up, her much-celebrated father, actor Henry Fonda, convinced her he was “fat.” In 1958, legendary acting coach Lee Strasberg concluded she was “talented.” Early critical reviews of her work called her everything from “fragile” to “coltish” and even “translucent.” And in a recording made Sept. 17, 1971, President Richard Nixon opined that, “She’s a great actress. She looks pretty. But boy, she’s often on the wrong track.”

To be a high-profile woman is to be the target of those with an agenda. For many, Fonda was — and still is — something to be weaponized, celebrated, demonized, idolized, mythologized and chastised.

Few have been defined and redefined by the cultural narrative as thoroughly and frequently.

Of course Fonda, with her fearless commitment to authenticity, both in her craft and in her persona, has refused to take a passive role in any part of her public evolution. In fact, she’s been among the rare politically active Hollywood figures who’s managed to remain so consistently on the right side of history.

A rewatch of Fonda’s many speeches from her early days of activism reveals well-articulated points that are as relevant today as they were more than half a century ago. In countless Nixon-era interviews, Fonda’s demeanor is direct, her confidence unwavering, as she exposes the lies of multiple administrations, speaks about the unsustainability of capitalism and encourages her interviewers to question their own beliefs.

“Everyone seems to think that the word revolution means violence,” she observes. “Any healthy country, like any healthy individual, should be in perpetual revolution.”

Revolutionary Performance

Onscreen, many point to Fonda’s Academy Award-winning role as Bree Daniels in Klute (1971) as her first major artistic revelation. Still grappling with the nuances of feminism, Fonda initially hesitated to agree to a role that would have her play a sex worker. Once she understood that true gender equity is about “going deep” and depicting a human being — any human being — with honesty and authenticity, she and director Alan J. Pakula meditated on all the psychological ramifications of sexual abuse on an individual.

Prior to production, Fonda was undergoing a transformation — she’d gone to India, became an advocate and had experienced getting arrested (nearly half a dozen times). Thanks to her newfound personal and political growth, Fonda insisted that Pakula cast a woman, not a man, to be Daniels’ psychiatrist. And in her most emotional scene — where she recalls her visit to the morgue to view photos of female victims — Fonda found herself “crying for women ... for the pain of women who are abused.” She was “changing,” she said in a 2021 American Film Institute discussion about the film.

She was changing, “and that’s what made this scene right.”

Fonda’s much-acclaimed performance in Klute compelled film historian Richard Shickel to note in his Life magazine review, “It seems to me unquestionable that Jane Fonda here emerges as probably the finest screen actress of her generation.”

A Feb. 22, 1960, feature in Life celebrating Fonda’s silver screen debut in Tall Story declares, “Like an ancient goddess who was born full-grown out of her father’s head, Jane Fonda at 22 has sprung up almost magically as a full-fledged and versatile actress.”

While Fonda’s life may have some parallels to the myth of motherless Athena to which the author was alluding — Fonda’s own mother died by suicide when Fonda was just 12 — it could be argued that her journey as an artist and an individual is more akin to the symbolism of Inanna, the Sumerian deity whose mythology, like the true nature of womanhood, contains more contradictions than can be counted. In her life, Fonda has lived communally as a Marxist, and then sumptuously on 2 million acres as a billionaire’s wife. She’s a feminist working to “heal the wounds the patriarchy had dealt,” but whose journey toward authenticity has been heavily influenced by each of the marriages to her wildly diverse husbands. Depending on the audience, she may be known as a subject of the male gaze (Barbarella, 1968), a symbol of feminism (9 to 5, 1980) or a fitness guru (Jane Fonda’s Workout, 1982).

One could even make a case for Fonda’s prophetic abilities following her prescient role in The China Syndrome (1979), in which she portrays reporter Kimberly Wells discovering a cover-up at a nuclear power plant. Twelve days following the film’s premiere, the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania experienced a partial meltdown — the most devastating accident of its kind in U.S. history. And then, mirroring 2023’s TV/Theatrical/Streaming strike strategy, the film that enabled her to heal some of the emotional wounds inflicted by her father, On Golden Pond (1981), was produced thanks to a SAG interim agreement during the 1980 strike — a labor action that achieved the first-ever residuals for pay-per-view, video cassette and disk sales. Fonda, of course, donated $5,000 to the strike fund.

Following a decade of established success in the ’80s as a star, producer and workout authority, Fonda — like the ancient goddess descending into the underworld — took a 15-year retreat from acting.

It was a time in the heroine’s journey for reassessment.

Fonda’s conclusion following her hiatus? She needed to stop putting another person’s needs first.

“There was this angel on my shoulder,” she said in a 2018 interview with People about her divorce from media mogul Ted Turner. “If you stay, you will die without ever becoming who you can be. You will not really be authentic.”

The Third Act

Fonda has said it took her 30 years to understand feminism. Her frequently quoted epigram, “We are not meant to be perfect; we are meant to be whole,” is the crystallization of decades of lessons from acting, relationships, activism and living.

It’s the type of wisdom that leads to performances that resonate with multitudes. In Fonda’s self-labelled “third act,” she has portrayed Grace & Frankie’s Grace Hanson, a character who validates the vulnerabilities and complexities of older women. And, 50 years after their first onscreen pairing in Barefoot in the Park (1967), Fonda and Robert Redford reunited for Our Souls at Night (2017), a drama that allowed Fonda to deliver an intimate, subtle and exquisitely realized performance — an achievement crafted from a lifetime of devotion to understanding humanity and herself.

And all that understanding can make a woman extremely funny. It’s no wonder comedy has also been a defining feature of this onscreen chapter. Book Club (2018), Book Club: The Next Chapter (2023), 80 for Brady (2023), and Fonda and Lily Tomlin’s women-in-comedy celebration Ladies’ Night Live (2022) are all projects that showcase the unique humor and sexuality that comes from a life well-lived.

With the rare ability to question her role in the world, reflect on her own motivations and examine her interior life, Fonda is the embodiment of what it means to be an artist truly dedicated to the spiritual nature of performance. It’s the secret sauce that makes her work so stunningly, captivating. 

Climate and Beyond
 
Now 87, nearly all of Fonda’s focus is centered on the most crucial issue of our time: climate change. Her Jane Fonda Climate PAC is a political action committee with a mission to “do what it takes to defeat fossil fuel supporters and elect climate champions at all levels of government.”

Supporters are encouraged to sign up for updates at janepac.com. Fonda’s lifetime of accolades include two Oscars, two BAFTA Awards, an Emmy, seven Golden Globes, the 2015 AFI Life Achievement Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, Elle’s Women in Hollywood Icon award and the Women in Film Jane Fonda Humanitarian Award, named after Fonda for her lifelong activism and philanthropic commitments.

She accepted the Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival. Most recently, in April of 2024, Fonda accepted the Time Magazine Earth Award.

On Sunday, Feb. 23, Fonda will receive the 60th SAG Life Achievement Award at the 31st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards.

“Jane Fonda is a trailblazer and an extraordinary talent, a dynamic force who has shaped the landscape of entertainment, advocacy and culture with unwavering passion,” said SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher. “We honor Jane not only for her artistic brilliance, but for the profound legacy of activism and empowerment she has created. Her fearless honesty has been an inspiration to me and many others in our industry.”

“I am deeply honored and humbled to be this year’s recipient of the SAG Life Achievement Award.” Fonda told SAG-AFTRA. “I have been working in this industry for almost the entirety of my life and there’s no honor like the one bestowed on you by your peers. SAG-AFTRA works tirelessly to protect the working actor and to ensure that union members are being treated equitably in all areas, and I am proud to be a member as we continue to work to protect generations of performers to come.”

This item was originally featured in the SAG-AFTRA magazine Digital Special Issue 2025.