As an an entertainment journalist I interviewed and photographed Jane Fonda several times and wrote about her work.
In 1980 I interviewed her with Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton about Nine to Five, in 1981 with Kris Kristofferson about Rollover, in 1984 about The Dollmaker, in 1985 about Agnes of God, in 1986 about The Morning After. My interview was published in La Domenica del Corriere January 15, 1987.
When Fonda returned to acting, after retiring in 1991 during her marriage to Ted Turner, I interviewed her about Monster in Law (2005), Georgia Rule (2007), Peace, Love and Understanding (2012).
I read her memoirs: My Life So Far (2005) and Prime Time (2011).
In 2014 I wrote a classic profile of Jane Fonda among the 15 that I chose to feature on the Golden Globes website. Read it here. And I quoted his daughter in the classic profile I wrote about her father Henry Fonda.
In 2015 I wrote Fonda’s nominee profile when she was nominated as Best Supporting actress for Youth by Paolo Sorrentino.
In 2018 I interviewed Jane Fonda for Book Club as well as her costars Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen, Mary Steenburgen.
I was a devoted viewer of every single season of the TV series Grace and Frankie (2015-2022) that paired Fonda with Lily Tomlin.
In 2021 the Hollywood Foreign Press awarded Fonda with the Cecil B. deMille for “outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment.”
What I most admire about Jane Fonda is how outspoken she has always been, and in particular this year, after Donald Trump became President.
On February 23, when she received the SAG Lifetime Achievement award, she said: “Make no mistake, empathy is not weak or woke. And ‘woke’ just means you give a damn about other people. A whole lot of people are going to be really hurt by what is happening. And even if they’re of a different political persuasion, we need to listen from our hearts and welcome them into our tent, because we are going to need a big tent to resist, successfully, what’s coming our way. This is big-time serious, so let’s be brave. We must not isolate. We must stay in community. We must help the vulnerable. We must find ways to project an inspiring vision of the future.”
On May 18, when Jane Fonda was honored at the Hammer Museum gala, she said: “Two critical things are needed in today’s dysfunctional, anti-democratic world: Art and activism. I’m an actor, and that’s an art form. So I consider myself an artist, but I’m also an activist. There’s a reason why dictators have always hated artists. Since the Greeks and Romans, artists have found a way to give the finger to tyrants and inspire change. Michelangelo. Dante. Diego Rivera, who worked for the Rockefellers and painted Lenin on the walls of Radio City. Barbara Kruger. Judy Chicago.”
On October 1, Jane Fonda and hundreds of other celebrities relaunched the Committee for the First Amendment, that was originally founded in 1947 to support the Hollywood Ten during the hearings of the Un-American Activities Committee. Their intent is to stand up in “defense of our constitutional rights” to free speech. “The federal government is once again engaged in a coordinated campaign to silence critics in the government, the media, the judiciary, academia, and the entertainment industry.” Fonda stated: “I’m 87 years old. I’ve seen war, repression, protest, and backlash. I’ve been celebrated, and I’ve been branded an enemy of the state. But this is the most frightening moment of my life. When I feel scared, I look to history. The only thing that has ever worked, time and time again, is solidarity: binding together, finding bravery in numbers too big to ignore, and standing up for one another.”
On December 4, this Committee and Jane Fonda received the Impact Entertainment Visionaries Award from the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) and the SIE (Social Impact Entertainment) Society at the Skirball Cultural Center. Watch Fonda on Instagram saying: “We have to constantly talk about what the future that we are fighting for is. We want to feel safe, we to be who we are, we want to breath clean air, drink clean water. This is a revolution and you don’t win it by going back but by going forward.”