Hollywood icon and climate activist: Jane Fondas most important role

Jane Fonda stands in the domed hall of the Capitol and caresses a stranger.

The man is named Ray Kemble and comes from Dimock, a village in Pennsylvania known as the "Ground Zero" of the fracking. He wears a biker jacket full of badges, with his Nicholas beard he looks barely younger than Fonda, who turns 82 in December. In his hand he holds a glass bottle, in it spills a dirty brown brew.

"Fracking tap water," growls Kemble. The bottle stinks like a cesspool.

Concern for the environment has brought the Hollywood icon and the ex-trucker together: in the rotunda of the US Congress, amidst gigantic oil paintings of revolutionary scenes, they plan a sit-down strike with two dozen comrades in protest for more climate protection. A classic sit-in, as in the past.

Marc Pitzke / THE MIRROR

Jane Fonda and anti-fracking activist Ray Kemble in the US Capitol

But Fonda, thanks to surgical art hardly aged ex-sex symbol, strokes Kemble, his face, his neck and, yes, his badges for another reason.

"Combat Engineer," stands on a badge. On another: "POW-MIA," the abbreviation for America's POWs and missing persons. The sticker, which Fonda loves to caress, can be found at the height of his stomach.

"Vietnam Veteran."

The Vietnam War was once Fonda's biggest concern - and her biggest misfortune. In 1972 she was photographed in North Vietnam on an anti-aircraft gun. Many Americans exploded with rage and hate, Hollywood cut them, the name "Hanoi Jane" they will not get rid of until today. Recently, someone yelled at someone, wearing one of Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" caps.

But here she lovingly hugs a veteran of the war she once refused. What Fonda whispers in his ear now fades away in the chants of the others: "Stop using fossil fuels!"

CPA Media / picture alliance

The notorious 1972 photo in North Vietnam, which almost ended Fonda's career

A circle closes for Jane Fonda, heir to the legendary Acting Dynasty and life-long activist. From the Vietnam War to the climate crisis: In between are half a century, a second Oscar, three divorces, 17 million fitness videos and many ups and downs.

In October, Fonda launched "Fire Drill Fridays," Washington's weekly climate protests, inspired by Greta Thunberg's "Fridays for Future."

Already at the first demo she was arrested for civil disobedience. Then at the second. And the third. And the fourth, after spending a night in prison: "I was with you with the cockroaches."

Also other, only slightly younger stars were plastic handcuffs create: Ted Danson, Sam Waterston, Rosanna Arquette. During her last arrest, Fonda shouted her acceptance speech for a movie award she was due to get in the evening on the sidewalk in the TV cameras.

Folks, @Janefonda accepted the Stanley Kubrick's Britannia Award WHILE BEING ARRESTED. #Britannia's pic.twitter.com/LDbZKTZWrs

Fonda announced that she wanted to be arrested every Friday. Anyhow, until January, when shooting for the next season of her Netflix hit series "Grace and Frankie" begins, in which she and Lili Tomlin play indestructible senior women.

But her most personal role was always the political uprising. Early on, her popularity from films such as "Barefoot in the Park", "Barbarella" and "Klute" was not enough. Fonda wanted more, spent her time, her energy and her intellect on the upheavals of those years.

photo gallery

17 pictures

The US secret service NSA spied on her, the PR disaster in North Vietnam almost ended her career. She will regret the mistake "until my death," she wrote in 2011.

Her films became more socially aware: "Coming Home" about war trauma, "The China Syndrome" about nuclear power risks. Just as much commotion made her marriages and her aerobics videos, which came out in 2015 as DVDs and became buyers again, three decades later.

Meanwhile, Fonda is not quite as fast. She has artificial knees and hips, is a bit stiff, but tireless. "I'm the seven-million-dollar woman," she exclaims as her "bionic limbs" cause the US Senate security gate to beep.

ddp images / interTOPICS / mptv

Fonda as a prostitute in "Klute" (1971), her first Oscar-winning role

The long day begins with a rally in front of the Capitol. Unlike the "Fridays for Future" masses, the audience is much thinner - and older. Around one hundred people stand in front of a stage, many women, some from Fonda's generation. "I have demonstrated all my life," says one to her companion, who is attached to an oxygen device.

Most Americans today are tired of demonstrations. The antipathy against Trump mobilized hundreds of thousands initially, the Women's March 2017 even five million people nationwide, more than ever before in the US. Since then, people prefer to demonstrate on Facebook and Twitter.

Marc Pitzke / THE MIRROR

Jane Fonda with environmental protesters in front of the US Capitol

Fonda wears glamor glasses and a red coat: "The last new garment of my life, we do not need more stuff." She has some costars from "Grace and Frankie" and the producer Marta Kauffman, who once became a multi-millionaire with "Friends".

The fans greet Fonda as if on a red carpet: "We love you, Jane!" She gives a short speech on "the right to live in a clean environment", then she hands the microphone to her guests, including Robert F. Kennedy Junior, the nephew of JFK.

"She is my heroine," says actress Marg Helgenberger, known from the TV series "CSI". "As an activist and as a friend." A man in a polar bear costume hops up and down.

Fonda, so you hear, drives an electric car and flies as little as possible. For the duration of the "Fire Drill Fridays", she moved temporarily to Washington.

Almond NGAN / AFP

Four times, Fonda was already arrested during her climate protests

The group marches to the Capitol. After two attempts Fonda finally finds an open entrance, shortly thereafter she climbs inside the staircases, past the empty offices of the senators, the weekend has begun.

In the dome hall she stands around helplessly, watching tourists. After her tete-a-tete with Ray Kemble, who has followed her from the rally, she takes off her coat, puts it on the morbid floor and struggles to settle on it. The sit-in has begun.

The companions join her, one after the other: "We demand a New Green Deal!" Fonda raises her clenched fist, a gesture perfected in decades.

A ritual is also the deployment of the Capitol Police, who politely surrounds the squatting and then one after another. Only Fonda is suddenly gone, later she waves high up from the dome balustrade.

Around 70 protesters are behind bars, Fonda is not there. "If I'm arrested again," she apologizes, "I risk 90 days in prison."

And that would collide with the shooting.