In this edition, the Cannes festival has surrendered to the veteran status of Hollywood classics: if it opened its meetings with Michael Douglas, today Jane Fonda (New York, 85 years) has closed them. what united The China Syndrome It has been underlined by the French contest. On stage, Fonda has been as brilliant as she is funny. She assures that there is no secret to her current good condition: “I am not proud of having gone through the operating room. Last night I slept 13 hours, I eat well and I’m curious. And above all, now I try not to look like anyone.
The actress began by talking about a phrase she said decades ago, about the world being in perpetual revolution. “Of course, she also should have said that art is in perpetual revolution. The same actors give life to characters of all kinds, which in itself is a constant revolution. My second husband, the formidable activist Tom Hayden, used to say that before I started a movie I looked like a pitcher player preparing to pitch. A person as incomplete as vulnerable [y se pone de pie para imitar el gesto de balanceo del pitcher]. And then comes the revolution.
In 1965 he shot The naive explosive with Lee Marvin. “How I drank. Every night she had to drag him to his hotel room. I remember that there was very little budget, that we were shooting many hours, until Marvin stood up and told me: ‘We are the stars, we couldn’t allow this because it means that the team was still working harder.’ It was a great teaching.” Of two leading men he has worked with, he has had very different words: “Robert Redford? He’s three hours late and angry, but he’s a nice guy, huh? Anyway, I will add that he has a problem with women ”. Instead, Alain Delon told. “One of the most wonderful people I have ever met.” He also did not speak well of Godard or Michael Douglas: “Michael has always cultivated public relations, not friendships. And that’s why he has lasted so long in the business.” What is your partner favorite? “Without a doubt, Lily Tomlin”, who is the actor or actress with whom she has worked the most in her life.
His first big hit was Barbarella, with her first husband, Roger Vadim: “I moved to France to escape the shadow of my father [Henry Fonda]…and when I say this no one ever laughs, uh-huh. Barbarella I didn’t like it either during the shooting or at its premiere; now I find it wonderful, funny”. She confessed how complicated it was to shoot the flying sequences with harnesses (“Let’s say I risked my fertility”) and that she did her nudes drunk, out of sheer shyness, “and surrounded by a multitude of men”.
She recalled that at the beginning she was dyed blonde: “I was blonde because it made me feel feminine and protected. By cutting my hair I felt liberated. In 1970 my social activism began when I began to know things about the Vietnam War, stories that I couldn’t believe. I lived in Paris with Roger Vadim and I went back to the US because that was the only way I could protest”. That knowledge served to fuel the creation of her character in The return.
Then came other hits like dance dance cursed (“That I did it because my mother committed suicide, something that my character was also trying to do”) and Klute. Fonda recalled the prostitutes she met to compose her character, “they all suffered abuse as girls”, which pushed her to open up to social and feminist activism. And she marveled that the last two movies of hers, 80 for Brady and Book Club: now Italy, have had a female quartet as protagonists. “I still can not believe it”.
No film projects
Regarding her professional future, she clarified: “I currently don’t have film projects because I am completely focused on the fight against climate change.” And she stressed that many problems are linked: “There would be no global warming without racism or patriarchy. Activism gave me life. In recent years, every time they yelled ‘cut’, she would pick up the phone and raise funds. Because I’ve never felt part of Hollywood or cared much about my career.” It has been curious how Fonda has spoken about her own feminism, which she defined as “cerebral” for decades. “I have always been married until recently. That says something about me. one day i saw The Vagina Monologues, and only then did I feel that my body and not just my brain was feminist.”
![Jane Fonda, during her talk in Cannes.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/mpoBzf7CjQFSbaAn0IuVvHDqkTQ=/414x0/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/M4XKIO2TWPQQFHA7JXDKTCRAQE.jpg)
Regarding this feminism, she pointed out a second possible reading of The Chinese syndrome. “We all stay with the fact that he talks about nuclear energy, and actually delves into gender differences, because in those days the journalists were dedicated only to entertainment, and my character wants to jump into the investigation, with all the men against it. James Bridges, the director, understood it the first time and helped me in that facet of my reporter”. All in all, the big change has only come with the MeToo movement: “Beyond not allowing more sexual abuse, MeToo has made it possible for any woman to tell her case and to be believed. Trust me, it’s a big leap.”
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