Jane Fonda’s mug shot. Fonda, already under surveillance from U.S. intelligence agencies, was returning from her appearance at an anti-Vietnam War fundraiser in Canada when she was arrested by U.S. Customs agents on charges of drug smuggling and assaulting an officer. All charges were dropped, the supposed narcotics in question actually being vitamins and whatnot.
Just a few days before Christmas, Jane Fonda, that icon of youthful protest, passion, power, and fitness, turned 80. Time does have a way of marching on, especially when you least expect it.
Not that Fonda’s slowed down all that much. I just listened this morning to a rebroadcast of her fast-paced BBC World ‘HardTalk” interview (linked here) after the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke and she sounded great --- purposeful, smart, passionate, humorous, revelatory, thoughtful.
We can frankly use more of her experienced voice as activist and politico, both for what she says and for the model, and hard-won experience, she provides to still uncertain younger generations.
Fonda, not incidentally, says that she learned of Weinstein’s behavior relatively recently and wishes she had spoken out much sooner, though the victim was not then ready to be identified.
But, of course, Fonda, perhaps the last true movie queen, took a very long break from Hollywood during her marriage to maverick media mogul Ted Turner (the CNN founder is a key progressive philanthropist) and its aftermath, in which she wrote her memoirs. It was only during the middle of the last decade that she began re-entering the world of acting, and then at an angle rather unique to her. First with a couple of movies, a Tony-nominated return to Broadway in 2009, then a few more movies and key roles on television. She also put out a series of videos following up on her groundbreaking exercise series of the 1980s, this time focused on the needs of folks who are deeper into their prime time.
Speaking of prime time, Fonda has become something of an Emmy-nominated fixture of intriguing TV series, first as a, um, media mogul on Aaron Sorkin’s ‘The Newsroom’ and now with old pal Lily Tomlin on ‘Grace and Frankie.’ That’s a comedic tale of, as Fonda puts it, “two old broads” making their way after their husbands leave them for, er, each other.
It’s all great stuff, tremendously affirming of Fonda’s ongoing vibrance. Yet she is not the biggest movie star in the world.
Which is what she was when I met her.
On a dare from some naval reserve associates, who said he was a traitor, I had rather swiftly befriended the famous anti-Vietnam War/New Left leader Tom Hayden, to whom Fonda was married for nearly two decades.
As anticipated, of course, Hayden was no traitor, just an angry patriot who had occasionally lost his head during extraordinarily tumultuous times. So I was pleased to help secure his very dicey 1982 election to California state office by, as the current phrase goes, “social engineering” his Republican opponent into admitting on tape that his professed moderate stances were in fact quite false.
By that time I’d been acquainted with Fonda for over four years. She really was a formidable figure. Extremely talented and very hard-working, capable of juggling multiple projects, idealistic yet practical. Not to mention, at least in my opinion, the best actress in the world.
Hayden was a good guy and a personal friend, notwithstanding some ups and downs (see my personal reminiscence here), brilliant and visionary and frequently warm, but with what I called a “black Irish” streak that could make him difficult. Whatever tensions may at times have wafted into their marriage, whatever misgivings either had about the other, Fonda was incredibly productive.
After some angry missteps in fighting the monstrously misconceived Vietnam War — America has a heritage, which continues, of producing some of the stupidest imperialists in world history -- she and Hayden had found a sure-footed path with the very effective Indochina Peace Campaign (IPC). With the war’s end and Hayden’s strikingly effective run, as a notorious radical, for a U.S. Senate seat, they formed a very effective multi-issue organization on alternative energy, environmental, health, and economic issues called the Campaign for Economic Democracy (CED).
And Fonda’s film career flourished as never before. One of the biggest stars of the Sixties, with 1971’s brilliant Oscar-winning performance in the paranoid classic ‘Klute’ under her belt, she was much bigger after the war in the midst of a myriad of activity. She won a second Best Actress Oscar for ‘Coming Home’ along with British Academy Awards for ‘Julia’ and ‘The China Syndrome.’
These movies and quite a few more were not just the usual Oscar bait of today, they were real hits. And they were real hits, each of them socially conscious, because Fonda starred in them.
In all her roles, Fonda played women coming into their own, discovering their own power and how to achieve agency in the world. She was glamorous, of course — I will tell you that she was a tremendously attractive woman in person — but her sexual power was more than matched by mental and spiritual power.
Even better, Fonda was a powerful producer, with the aptly titled IPC Films as her vehicle.
On top of all that, she played a major role in sparking a fitness boom with a line of ‘Jane Fonda’s Workout’ books and videos. She promoted, as lead demonstrator, not only aerobic exercise but also ethics of cooperative female empowerment and healthy living. The home video market took off in large part due to Fonda’s program. But it was all really about a cultural approach, about making adjustments in one’s life, with the excitement of exercise the lever as well as the critical tool.
I know from her memoir that Fonda — to borrow Joni Mitchell’s phrase, a woman of heart and mind — was dealing with a number of vulnerabilities throughout. But she generally acted with tremendous confidence and, with certain types of men, competitiveness.
She used to try to goad me into competitive aerobic workout scenarios — “You’re some kinda jock, right?” — not that I would fall for that, and was even a little competitive on casual hikes.
It was all great stuff.
That charge that she “assaulted” a federal cop when the government — which had long had her under heavy and not infrequently ostentatious surveillance — had her busted for smuggling drugs, hey, that just can’t be right. Heh.
By the way, the proceeds from her mug shot mug and such go to the GCAPP teen pregnancy prevention program.
So there she is, Jane Fonda, 80 years old (which I guess means I’m no longer 38), sounding as vibrant as ever, with much vision to impart.
Some of it hard-won wisdom, i.e., make sure you don’t sit on the seat of an anti-aircraft gun in the capital of a nation America is foolishly waging undeclared war on.
Did she make mistakes? Oh, yeah. Some of them doozies.
But was she right on the biggest things? Yes she was.
And is.
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