Jane Fonda is a never-ending testament to the strength, courage, and discipline of women, in front and away from the cameras.
The trailblazing feminist, activist, trendsetter, writer, and actress, has made waves by fiercely protecting women’s rights to abortion and raising awareness on climate change. She is showing the world that being 85 years old doesn’t mean slowing down.
She has a film in post-production, Book Club: The Next Chapter, and is doing the obligatory press rounds with her longtime friend Lily Tomlin to promote their new movie, Moving On, coming out March 17.

She won seven Golden Globes (got nominated for eight more), the Cecil B. deMille Lifetime Achievement Award, two Oscars, a BAFTA, a Prime Time Emmy, and four People’s Choice Awards. She has been nominated for a Tony, got an Honorary Palme d’Or in Cannes, the David Di Donatello in Rome, the Honorary Golden Lion in Venice, and the American Film Institute Lifetime Achievement Award. Additionally, she’s been honored for Showmanship by the Publicists Guild. She got the Stanley Kramer Award, given by the Producers’ Guild.  There’s no overstatement here: Jane Fonda is the most prolific uncrowned queen of Hollywood.
True, she’s heir to a dynasty. But that is just as much a curse as a blessing. She’s been carrying her father’s bitter shadow for many decades. As she said in a TV interview for the film Youth (November 17, 2015, at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills), she felt “very old at 20, almost senile at 30, and saw no future” for herself.  At 78 she “never felt younger, happier.” She worked hard to make that happen.
She got married three times and left the business at the peak of her career. In an interview about the movie Book Club (May 6, 2018, at the W Hotel, in Hollywood) she stated: “I retired when I was 49 until I was 65… I fell in love with Ted Turner. You can’t be working when you’re with him. And I was very, very happy. I didn’t mind leaving the business at all. I came back at age 65, and have a new career. I never worked this much. I’m just so surprised. I never expected this at all.” Her very successful TV series with Lily Tomlin, Grace and Frankie, ran six seasons (2015-2022) and has been nominated for the Prime Time Emmys and SAG Awards.
Her movies, from Barbarella to Barefoot in the Park, Julia, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, Coming Home, Klute, The China Syndrome, On Golden Pond, are all classics. The same goes for the 22 aerobic exercise videos and several books that revolutionized womanhood and established her as a girl power pioneer.
Some female stars who are two or three decades younger run for plastic surgery to keep their body looking fit. Jane Fonda comes across as perennially young. “I’ve written books about this because I wanted to give a new face to the concept of aging to free up women”, she said in the Youth interview. “It’s very hard to be young. You don’t know what’s ahead. We always think we have to try to be like we’re supposed to be. When you’re older, been there, done that. It didn’t kill me. I’ve learned from it. I grew from it. It’s easier to be older in a way. As long as you have your health.” She adds that you have to fight getting cynical, or overly worried about what happens to your face and body as time goes by. “You can worry… a little.”, she winked at the Youth interview. “I’ve had plastic surgery. I just didn’t have much. You can still see my wrinkles.” What can give you a “youthful aura is becoming compassionate, staying curious, staying involved with bigger things than yourself. God knows we need to be involved with bigger things than ourselves.” Her hunger for social, political, and environmental issues hasn’t ceased. She keeps campaigning, and sometimes getting arrested, to this day.
When Jane Fonda talks about herself, she’s clear and to the point. She doesn’t have regrets because she’s the kind of person who doesn’t spend too much time regretting, which is different from learning from your mistakes. “I guess if there’s one thing I regret is that I wasn’t a more present parent. Especially with my first child. I was very old then. And not very altogether.”
You would expect the most memorable time she remembers to be one of the many awards ceremonies where she got a standing ovation. But at the This Is Where I Leave You TV interview (September 7, 2014, Fairmont Royal York Hotel, Toronto) she said: “It was the moment when I realized that I don’t need a man to validate me. That I’m okay on my own. I know who I am. But it took me 62 years.” Looking back, she wouldn’t change anything. When mistakes and traumas and crises happen to a person who’s as resilient as she is, they make you stronger, more compassionate.
Friends and family are her Number One comfort zone these days. They become more important as one gets older. “I just have the most wonderful women in my life. And they’re all younger than me. They keep me young and keep me feeling safe. They also keep me an activist. They push me to be an activist.”, she said in the This Is When I Leave You interview. Her vast charitable work encompasses youth and education, all kinds of women’s issues – from violence to adolescent power  – as well as political and environmental concerns. She donates plenty of her money and time. Always fascinated with political matters, she founded the Women’s Media Center, which has given voice to women in the media. She’s also a strong supporter of V-Day, a movement to stop violence against women, the LGBTQ community, and Native Americans. Recently, she launched the Jane Fonda Climate PAC, a political platform pushing for the ousting of politicians who support the fossil fuel industry.
The fact that she’s been hit by serious health problems doesn’t seem to stop her or discourage her. She stays very active on social media, keeping her 2.1 million fans informed on new ways of fighting street violence and sexual harassment. In addition, Fonda promotes #HotEnoughForYou, a game show where she quizzes contestants on pop culture. With a life so full and so honest, she sure has some advice for young women out there who might be dreaming of becoming the next Jane Fonda. “I have been married three times, I’ve screwed up in every possible way, so I’m flawed. I’ve made a lot of mistakes. Learn from your mistakes! The most terrible mistake is you don’t own your mistakes. It’s always someone else’s fault. But that’s not how you grow and how you learn. You learn by knowing you made a mistake. When you’ve done something wrong you learn from it. I’m proud to say that I’ve been able to do that. I’ve made a lot of mistakes and I’ve learned from them. I tend not to do the same mistake twice. Or… three times.”
Beauty inhabits your genes. You’re born with it. Wisdom, you earn. What’s the greatest nugget of wisdom she has ever earned? At the This Is Where I Leave You interview, she took a deep breath and said: “That you don’t have to be perfect to deserve love. That good enough is good enough. I’ve learned how important it is to stay interested. It’s more important to be interested than to be interesting. That’s what keeps you young: interested.”