Jane Fonda: ‘I was very old at 20 and feel quite young at 87’

This story is part of the April 20 edition of Sunday Life.See all 11 stories.

Jane Fonda never thought she’d live past the age of 30. “I’d led a pretty hedonistic and meaningless life and was unhappy in my younger years,” she says, matter-of-factly, on a Zoom call with Sunday Life. “I was very old at 20 and feel quite young at 87.”

Fonda is speaking ahead of her Wanderlust True North tour to Australia in June, which will see her take the stage for intimate conversations with journalist Liz Hayes in which she’ll reflect on the defining moments of her life, the passions that have shaped her, and why she feels younger than ever. “For me, this mindset has a lot to do with a change in my attitude and living a purpose-driven life,” she says. “When I got into protesting, I finally felt connected to something bigger than me.”

Fonda’s initial move towards a “purpose-driven life” came in the 1960s, when she became involved in the civil rights movement and campaigning against the Vietnam War. Then, in 1972, she flew to Hanoi, the capital of North Vietnam, and denounced “US imperialism” on Vietnamese radio, earning herself the nickname Hanoi Jane as well as widespread condemnation in her home country.

More than 50 years later, Fonda shows few signs of slowing down or shying away from controversy – she made headlines as recently as 2019, when she was arrested five times for protesting against fossil fuels. These days, she says, “standing up for climate action is what matters most”.

Fonda has also reached a point in her life where she feels confident enough to share the wisdom she’s gained with the people, mostly women, who come to her talks. But she acknowledges that, despite the purpose activism gave her, it wasn’t until she was in her early 60s that she took an honest look at the life she’d led. By then, she’d been married three times, raised three children, had two grandchildren, and was still working. Despite this, Fonda felt her spiritual flame needed rekindling.

“I knew I was in the third act of life, so to speak, but I didn’t know how to live my third act,” she says. “And then I realised that to know what to do next, and to get to the end of life with no regrets, I had to start studying my life. I had to process all that, and it changed everything for me. Writing my book helped make me a person who had a great sense of wellbeing.”

Fonda began writing her autobiography, My Life So Far, in 1999, but it wasn’t published until 2006, when she was 68. The long gestation reinforces the fact that writing her memoir wasn’t an easy process, but she knew that finding inner peace meant remembering and understanding her past, however painful that might be.

Born in 1937 in New York, Fonda grew up as Hollywood royalty, the daughter of Henry Fonda. But while her life was privileged, it wasn’t easy; her mother, socialite Frances Ford Seymour, died by suicide when Fonda was only 12 years old. That childhood trauma, and her father’s three subsequent marriages, haunted her for decades.

Fonda has pivoted her causes from the Vietnam War to climate change and women’s reproductive rights.Credit: Molly Matalon/AUGUST

“I wasn’t happy in my younger years … I didn’t know who I was, I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with myself and I thought I would kill myself,” says Fonda, staring down the Zoom lens through dark sunglasses. “I am so glad I didn’t.”

Fonda became an actor after being encouraged by famed acting coach Lee Strasberg in 1958 and made her screen debut in the 1960 romantic comedy Tall Story. She worked steadily through the 1960s but it was playing New York prostitute Bree Daniels in Klute (1971) that earned Fonda her first Academy Award for Best Actress (she would pick up another for Coming Home in 1978).

Accepting her Oscar for Klute, Fonda said: “There’s a great deal to say, but I am not going to say it tonight.” Word had it that she’d been warned to keep politics out of her speech by her father. It made for an often uneasy relationship, and it was being able to act alongside her father in the 1981 film On Golden Pond that brought them back together (and earned Henry an Oscar).

“This was important because it was the first time I worked with my dad, who died five months later,” she says. “I knew he was going to die, so I knew it was my last chance, and to have been in a movie I had produced and acted in alongside him was pure magic and a gift from God”

In 1982, Fonda swapped political headlines and acting awards for carb-burning workouts that made her even more famous. Her first aerobics video, Jane Fonda’s Workout, not only sold more than a million copies, it brought Lycra and leotards into homes worldwide. Growing up with a father who told her she was overweight led to eating disorders, and it took Fonda decades to stop that noise in her head.

“Like a lot of young women, I was made to believe I was fat and became fixated with that,” she says. “I was told by my father that I didn’t have a good body. Therefore, my weight became an obsession. The only exercise that was available when I was a teenage girl was ballet, so I started studying it. And what I discovered from a young age is that you can change the shape of your body if you work out hard enough.

At the peak of her 1980s fitness influence.

“I did ballet at 15 – the barre and centre floor work were my thing. I didn’t dance professionally, but I stuck with it, and it helped me stay in shape. Then, as I got older, I discovered the workout was another way to stay well and look good.”

The video workouts and accompanying books – by the time she’d finished she’d made some 23 videos that sold more than 17 million copies – were also designed to raise money for the Campaign for Economic Democracy, founded by Fonda and her then-husband, Tom Hayden. The couple were committed to spreading the message that a true democracy could only happen with the redistribution of wealth and power from America’s richest citizens and corporations to the wider public.

The marriage to Hayden was Fonda’s second. From 1965 to 1973 she’d been married to French film director Roger Vadim, with whom she shared a daughter, Vanessa. Her second child, son Troy Garity, was born in 1973 from her marriage to Hayden. She also unofficially adopted Mary Luana Williams, the daughter of two members of the Black Panthers, in the early 1980s. Her third marriage, to media mogul Ted Turner lasted a decade before they divorced in 2001.

Her marriages might have been high-profile, but female friendships have been key to Fonda, and performing alongside her comedian pal Lily Tomlin in the Netflix hit Grace and Frankie is proof of that. Making the series, about two female friends at a crossroads in later life, was a no-brainer for Fonda, though she was less confident about its prospects.

“We did not expect Grace and Frankie to be as successful as it became, or that young people would even like it,” she says. “I thought older women might like it, but it resonated with young audiences, which was a total surprise. Young kids watching it with their grandparents was mind-blowing! That it became popular on college campuses – wow!”

Fonda credits the series’ co-writer, Marta Kauffman, who also co-wrote Friends, for backing the idea. “It wasn’t her first rodeo – but I was astounded. It was a lot of fun to make, and I love Lily Tomlin to pieces.”

With her great friend Lily Tomlin (right) in a scene from their hit show Grace and Frankie.

Fonda and Tomlin had previously appeared together in the 1980 film 9 to 5, which also starred Dolly Parton, and their more recent projects include Moving On (2022) – “great, but didn’t get much attention” – and 80 for Brady (2023). “I have worked with Lily more than I have with anybody else, and we both make each other laugh so much,” says Fonda. “It’s a privilege, and she’s a genius.”

Fonda shows no signs of slowing down. She still works with a personal trainer to focus on strength and core exercises. She’s also just become the face of sneaker brand Golden Goose and joined her friend Julia Louis-Dreyfus in a campaign to protect the California coast from disastrous oil spills like the one that occurred near Santa Barbara in 2015.

Fonda has never been shy when it comes to sharing her opinion and she remains as gutsy, charismatic and defiant as ever. When our conversation turns to women’s reproductive rights, for instance, she’s happy to engage.

“The reason we lost Roe v Wade [a decision which overturned American women’s constitutional right to abortion and handed decision-making powers back to individual US states] is that women are making such headway, and it terrifies the patriarchy,” she says. “We should not be surprised when these issues get attacked by the right. But the more they attack us, the more it proves we are making a difference and that we’re succeeding. Women will never be satisfied with the rollback of Roe v Wade. It should encourage us to fight even harder.”

See Jane Fonda at Wanderlust True North in Melbourne on June 12 and Sydney on June 15. Lifeline 13 11 14

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