Jane Fonda in the film Book Club: better grandmother than mother

TOAt the beginning, a decent girl with the long legs and blue eyes of her father, the celebrated one Henry Fonda of Fury And On the golden lake, Jane Fonda attends the most exclusive schools, the Emma Willard School and, for two years, Vassar College. Barely eighteen, in July 1956 she appears on the cover of Vogue, classic and refined with a Grace Kelly look. Then chic debutant of the 60s and young promise of international cinema; later – when the Vietnam War splits America in two – she becomes an ardent political activist, and finally, in the 80s, toned like no other, with his famous aerobics lessons he transformed himself into an impresario of boundless success (the videocassette Workout Challenges it sold 17 million copies). Since then, he has always been at the forefront of civil and ecological struggles, from anti-nuclear protests to those against fossil fuels.

The three husbands

Fonda’s personal life is equally rich, intense and contradictory: three marriages to three husbands who couldn’t have been more different. The first is Roger Vadim, a Russian-French director who in 1968, with Barbarella, turns her into America’s most desired woman. She follows him Tom Hayden, intellectual and radical activist, so Jane instead enters the list of the most hated women in America: after the infamous photo on the anti-aircraft gun with North Vietnamese soldiers she is renamed “Hanoi Jane”. The last one is Ted Turner, the Texan entrepreneur, founder of Cnn, with whom she lived for ten years, far from Hollywood and Washington, transforming into a composed and elegant lady, an impeccable wife who entertains guests and devotes herself to fly fishing alongside her husband, so much so that she leapt back to being among the top ten most admired women in the country.

“Hanoi Jane”

After the divorce from Turner, the soul of “Hanoi Jane” however reasserts itself, overbearing, this time focusing on women’s rights and ecological activism. Fonda also resumes acting, because this is the hard core of her existence. His films marked an era: Barefoot in the park, That’s not how horses are killed, A call for Inspector Klute (first Oscar), Going back home (according to Oscar), From 9 to 5… continued hours (cult comedy with Lily Tomlin). As film critic Pauline Kael wrote: «Jane Fonda was able to personify American tensions and dominate the cinema of the 70s as Bette Davis was able to do in the 30s».

Now 85, she enjoys filming comedies with her lifelong friends: we will see her with Diane Keaton, Mary Steenburgen and Candice Bergen in Book Club-The next chapter. And he demonstrated – mission (almost) impossible, against Hollywood expectations – that there is an audience even for mature actresses: Book Club, in 2018, had grossed more than 100 million dollars. When she speaks to me her voice is loud and clear, her tone imperious: Jane tells herself, as she always has for decades, clearly, without filters or fears.

“I don’t feel like a hero”

In the last five years, after the first Book Club, many things have changed in the female political social panorama, especially in America, thanks also to #Times Up And #Me Too. Are we talking about small or big changes?
No, I haven’t noticed any “big” changes, rather I have noticed many small and important ones. We are talking about transforming a millennia-old patriarchal system, it takes time. No significant change takes shape in a flash, and we must not be impatient or lose heart: little by little more and more women make their voices heard, and come forward, even if perhaps without winning sensational battles. Sometimes, indeed, we are forced to take steps backwards, as sadly happened with the overturning of “Roe v. Wade”, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling on abortion, and we have lost the legal and civil right to determine when to have children, and how many we want. But please, let’s not sit here complaining, feeling defeated, sitting on our hands. We continue to fight: not to go back, and to firmly face new challenges.

His activism dates back to the 70s, we are talking about half a century of commitment and struggles. Three years ago he spent his birthday in prison in Washington for a demonstration against climate change. At 85, do you still feel ready to use the weapon of civil disobedience and violate the rules to change the status quo?
Sometimes you have to break rules to get attention. It happened in our history with the Boston Tea Party (the protest in 1773 in Boston of the North American settlers against the excessive taxes of the United Kingdom, ed), and then there are incontrovertible examples, think of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, the young black students who challenged the segregationist laws in the Southern United States… Those are the movements that changed the world. Today we are short of time and we have to resort to civil disobedience, because with violence we will never be able to win, we will never be able to face that of the state; we have a duty to claim ethical and civil superiority. I certainly don’t feel like a hero, but if I can use my fame for a just cause, I never back down. On the contrary.

“Me and Lily”

You have collected five and a half million signatures in 157 countries to support the International Ocean Treaty which will transform 30 percent of the oceans by 2030 into protected areas. Is saving the oceans the most important step in solving the climate issue?
Let me say that the most important battle to stem the crisis of the planet is to eliminate the use of fossil fuels. They are the cause of pollution, of global warming. We can talk all we want about wind turbines, solar panels and electric cars, but if we don’t stop fossil fuels, we will never get out of this crisis.

He has just made three films, all stories of female friendships: in addition to Book Club-The next chapterwe will see it in Moving On And 80 for Brady with lifelong friend, Lily Tomlin. Years ago she told me that she only discovered the importance of friendship between women in old age.
Friendship between girls is unique, but over the years it becomes even more fundamental. Men die before us, the statistics say five years earlier… Look, I’ve had three husbands and two have already left; my three children (Vanessa, fathered by Vadim; Troy, fathered by Hayden and Mary Luana Williams, adopted with Hayden, ed) have their own life… Friends are the most important thing to me, and this goes for many of us. Most of the people I work with on the fight against global warming are women, and women are the leaders of the movement.

“Better grandma than mom”

“I’ve had many different lives, all quite extraordinary, and experienced all kinds of conflicts,” he told me years ago. If we go back to his youth, do you remember what his dreams and expectations were?
Oh, at the time I thought that, before I reached thirty, I would die of alcohol and drugs, lonely as a dog… I never, ever imagined such a long life, much less a life with meaning, meaning. I’m still here at 85, surprising myself that she won’t become an addict again (laughs).

His life is one adventure after another. How do you change your skin so many times? By the way, she is also a grandmother.
I certainly haven’t been a good mother: that was too difficult a task for me. Now I’m trying to fix my mistakes, but I have to admit it, and my children would confirm it: I haven’t been much. Being a grandmother seemed like a second chance; I learned from my kids what it’s like to be a parent, how to be present in your children’s lives, and my grandchildren have benefited from that, I think. I’m certainly better as a grandmother than a mother.

“Death and Life”

He recently publicly announced that he was undergoing chemotherapy treatments for a malignant tumor of the lymphatic system. How much has this affected your daily life, your prospects, your plans for the future?
Not much, actually. I’ve always thought: would life make sense if I weren’t aware that I’m going to its end? Death makes life precious, and you become more aware of how to use the time we have left. It is not to minimize the drama and suffering, but having a tumor is an experience that millions and millions of people live every day, and I am grateful to have lived it too. Years ago I had already had cancer (and had a mastectomy), but I had decided not to disclose it. It’s different now: I’m in constant contact with the public and, if I get sick and lose my hair, I want people to know what happened. I’ll tell you more: I was hoping to lose all my hair, shave my head, and use it as a blackboard to write “Climate Emergency: Wake up” on it. I later discovered that cancer survivors don’t like to exploit their condition for ulterior causes, so out of respect, I didn’t.

Finally, tell us a secret: where do you find so much inner strength?
I’m a positive person, I always trust that things will take a better turn: that’s why I work for different organizations, and never alone. Everything I believe in and do helps me stay strong. That energy is within me (indeed, it is important to stay healthy, sleep well and sleep a lot), but it is with convictions that one recovers one’s strength and finds the courage to move forward.

iO Woman © REPRODUCTION RESERVED