Jane Fonda on Her New Film and Joining Aaron Sorkin's New Series

By her own admission, Jane Fonda has never played by the rules. At the height of her fame in the 1970s, she put more energy into her activism than into worrying about her acting career. In the '80s, she launched a fitness empire with her workout tapes and books. In 1991, she did the unthinkable: She left the business entirely, moving to Atlanta with her third husband, media mogul Ted Turner.

Today Fonda is once again going against the grain -- she's running early. When she strides into the room at the Four Seasons Hotel where we are meeting, she proves that even after 50 years in the business, she still knows how to make an entrance. Decked out in a cropped black leather jacket, her skin giving off that movie star glow, the two-time Oscar winner looks amazing. When complimented on her terrific appearance, she disarms her company by quipping, "Thank you! It just takes good genes and a lot of money!"

Fonda is finally having fun. She's here to promote "Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding" (in theaters June 8), her fourth film since returning to acting in 2005. In it, Fonda stars as Grace, a free-loving, pot-smoking hippie who lives in the countryside on a farm full of chickens. Catherine Keener plays her estranged daughter, an uptight lawyer who shows up on Grace's doorstep after her husband asks for a divorce, her two teenage children (Elizabeth Olsen and Nat Wolff) in tow. Fonda says the script "just fell out of the heavens," and she jumped at the opportunity. "It's about the things I consider really important in life: love and forgiveness."



Fonda had a blast playing the outspoken Grace and is aware that many will assume she's winking at her own activist history. "People think, 'Well, she's just playing herself,' " she says. "No way. I was never a hippie; I've never played a hippie. This film marks the first time I've ever worn tie-dye!" Fonda didn't even live in America for most of the '60s; she was in France with her first husband, filmmaker Roger Vadim. "It was Keener who was the real hippie," Fonda says. "She gave me music and documentaries about Woodstock. She really helped me find this character."



In her six decades of performing, Fonda has seen the business go through many changes, and she says she's still figuring it all out. The release of "Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding" marks something new for her: The film hits theaters in a limited release before premiering on demand June 15. "This is going to be an interesting experience for me," she says. "I hear this is happening more and more. All these changes, they aren't for the better or for the worse -- they're just different."

Also new for Fonda: TV. Though she's an Emmy winner for the 1984 television movie "The Dollmaker," the actor has never appeared on a TV series. But she will be seen this summer in several episodes of Aaron Sorkin's new HBO series "The Newsroom" as the Rupert Murdoch-esque head of a media empire. Having recently viewed the pilot, Fonda is enthusiastic about the show. "It's some of the greatest television I've ever seen," she says. "I'm just so proud to be a part of it. It's gorgeous and beautifully written, and it's going to be important and controversial and amazing." As for playing a media mogul, is Fonda again toying with our perception of her? Fonda laughs at the suggestion. "That's funny -- I didn't think of that," she says. "But it certainly helped to have spent 10 years with Ted Turner."

Destiny Calling

With Fonda's legendary career in film, theater, and television and famously talented family ties, it's shocking to hear her declare, "I never wanted to be an actor." As the daughter of Henry Fonda, she wasn't raised to see acting as a pleasurable profession. "Watching my father all my life, he would come home from work, and he never brought joy with him," she says. "Years later, when I was researching him for my memoirs, I learned that he was suffering from depression. So I think acting actually made him very happy, but all I saw was problems. He didn't get along with the director, or the script wasn't right, or something. So I really resisted it."

Fonda tried her hand at other jobs -- she was fired from a secretarial position -- and it was only when she was 21 and living with her father that she started thinking seriously about being an actor. "My stepmother, who was not a very nice person, wanted me out, and I didn't know what to do," Fonda says. "We were living on the beach while my dad made a movie, and Paula Strasberg, wife of Lee Strasberg, was in town coaching Marilyn Monroe on 'Some Like it Hot.' " Fonda struck up a friendship with the Strasbergs' daughter, Susan, who suggested she attend one of Lee's classes. "He accepted me into his private classes, and I sat in the back of the room for a month, next to Marilyn," Fonda says. "Eventually I did a thing for him and he said, 'A lot of people come through here. You have talent.' And it was like the top of my head came off. My life changed."

From that moment on, Fonda knew she wanted to be an actor and didn't look back. She took modeling gigs, which she hated, to afford classes and rent on an apartment. And she quickly began working, first on stage, then in film. "I was a great auditioner," she says. "In fact, my impression is that I would peak in auditions. I was sometimes never as good again!" Her movie debut came in 1960's romantic comedy "Tall Story," and Fonda's roles segued effortlessly from sexpot ("Barbarella") to dramatic (she won Oscars for "Klute" and "Coming Home") to wildly comedic ("Fun With Dick and Jane," "9 to 5").

As her career progressed, Fonda found herself enjoying it less and less. "A lot of actors act whether they're happy or not," Fonda says. "And maybe a lot of them get their juices because they're not happy. But my second marriage was falling apart, and I was really unhappy as a woman, and I saw a bleak future. I just wanted to flee Hollywood." She was preparing to move to New Mexico when "Ted showed up and whisked me away." Though an occasional offer would come along, Fonda believed she was through with acting. "I didn't miss it," she says. "I wouldn't go to movies and think, 'God, I wish I'd done that.' I was glad I didn't have to. I was done."

A Third Act

Fonda spent 10 years married to Turner, followed by five years of writing her memoir, "My Life So Far." While writing her book, she realized she was a different person. "I thought to myself, 'I can now make movies again and find joy in it,' " she recalls. She says doing films again was remarkably easy; CAA, which had let her know it was interested if she ever chose to return to acting, began to send her scripts.

The first script she responded to was James L. Brooks' "Spanglish," and the filmmaker wanted Fonda to play the mother of Téa Leoni's character. "He had me audition," Fonda says. "I did a screen test. Two Oscars and an Emmy and I did a screen test. And he didn't cast me." The role went to Cloris Leachman, but Fonda is good-natured about the rejection, noting she's in good company. "He didn't cast Penélope Cruz in the film either, and I think she did three screen tests for him."

Fonda's first movie back was the 2005 comedy "Monster-in-Law," in which she plays the disapproving mother of a man engaged to Jennifer Lopez. Fonda is terrifying and hilarious as a type A career woman who terrorizes Lopez's character, displaying verbal wit and physical comedy; in one of her favorite sequences, she shares a bed with her future daughter-in-law and keeps rolling over on top of her. In another scene, Fonda frightens a sleeping Lopez by waking her up while wearing a costume that includes ridiculously long fingernails. Shooting that scene marked a moment of clarity for Fonda. "My grandkids were there that day, and it scared them!" she says. "One of Ted's grandchildren was there too. He was only 11, and as we were walking back to the trailer, he said to me, 'Grandma, what a great job you have! You get paid for using your imagination.' It was the greatest way of describing what acting is -- you get paid for feeling. It was wonderful."

Fonda says returning to acting came naturally. "For me, the biggest shock was probably the size of the motor homes," she says. "When they showed me mine, I said, 'Who am I sharing this with?' " And she believes she's better at it than she ever has been. "I'm lighter than I was," she says. "And I think you can feel that in 'Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding.' There's a lightness to me."

As for future projects, Fonda says she's open but choosy. "When your future is smaller and your past is huge, how you spend your time becomes very precious," she says. "I don't want to make movies that no one's going to see. And the scripts that I get sent, half the time I'm thinking, 'Why would anyone make this?' " Ultimately, Fonda wants to do work that speaks to her. "They don't have to be huge movies -- in fact, they probably won't be," she says. "I don't want to make any more 'why?' movies."