Less than a month after giving her uncensored opinions about Robert Redford in Cannes, Jane Fonda was at the Tribeca Festival on Saturday speaking her mind about the climate crisis, Joe Biden, and her father Henry Fonda.
The two-time Oscar winner was at the New York-based fest to receive Tribeca’s third annual Harry Belafonte Voices for Social Justice Award. The award, an original drawing entitled Exodus #3 from artist Julie Mehretu, was presented by Grammy-winning artist Alicia Keys.
Following the award presentation, Fonda sat for a Q&A with Robin Roberts of Good Morning America.
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“Let’s hear it for Tribeca Film Festival,” Fonda said. “For giving chances to women and to people of color in the film industry and to young people. I’m so grateful to the Tribeca. I can’t believe that a Murdoch owns it (Tribeca Enterprises).”
For over 50 years Fonda, 85, has been speaking out for causes including Black Lives Matter, women’s rights, Native American rights, and the environment.
Regarding the climate crisis, the actress said, “We are animals, let us not forget. We depend on the ocean and the forests for oxygen, for food. I mean, even dogs don’t shit in their own kennel. And we’re in our kennel and taking a lot down with us in the process. We have to stop it. It’s all connected.”
She added, “Those of us who are alive right now in this decade, it’s up to us (to make a change) because when we go it’ll be too late. We’re the ones who can make the difference. Let’s not, when history is written, be the ones that were staying at home and rearranging the china.”
During the 30-minute conversation at Tribeca’s Spring Studios, Fonda revealed that she will not be acting for the next year and a half due to the 2024 presidential election.
When Roberts asked how she would spend the next 18 months, Fonda said that she would try to get climate champions elected to office.
“Let’s get rid of the Joe Manchin’s,” she said. “We need to try to light a fire under Biden and look, we have to vote for him, ok? We have got to get really mad at him and we have to try to demand that he earn our votes. But I mean, let’s be real because the alternative is the end of everything.”
Despite her political activism, Fonda told Roberts that she has never considered running for office.
“One thing about getting old is that you start to get a little smart about what your strong suits are,” she said. “And that’s not one of them. I’m a cheerleader.”
Fonda then quipped, “I don’t have any original ideas. I’m the one who takes your ideas and then I get credit for it.”
The actress, who continues to lead the charge on Fire Drill Fridays in partnership with Greenpeace USA, recently launched the Jane Fonda Climate PAC. She told the audience that it was 1970, just before she began filming “Klute,” when she discovered what kind of activist she wanted to be.”
“I was living in France and came back to the States to become an activist against the Vietnam War,” she said. “I rented a house, and it was up at the top of a hill and I wanted to be sure it had a big living room where I could have fundraisers. (Then) I was driving across the country, going through the Rocky Mountains, and I had an epiphany. I realized that I didn’t want to be somebody who lives on the top of a mountain and doles out money. I wanted to be at the bottom of the mountain with the people who are needing the money. I want to know why they needed the money.”
The wide-ranging conversation between Fonda and Roberts included thoughts on the actress’ father, Henry Fonda.
“I was writing my memoir (in 2010) and the phone rang and it was one of Mark Luther King’s daughters. I asked her, “Did your dad, when you were little, did he put you on his knees and bounce you on his knees and talk about values and you how you’re supposed to live and things?’ And she said, ‘No. He never did.’ And I said, ‘My dad never did either. But you had his sermons and I had my father’s movies – Grapes of Wrath, Young Mr. Lincoln, 12 Angry Men. These are the movies that I knew that he really cared about. He was always in a bad mood but when he was doing those kind of parts I could see that it did something to him. As a little girl that became the compost in my soul for what came later. Those characters that he played that he loved, I thought, well, if he loved those, I want to be like that so he’ll love me.”
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