The Sala Buñuel, in the Palais des Festivals, where the Cannes Film Festival takes place, had not been as crowded as in the Rendez vous avec Jane Fonda meeting. At 85 years old, she looks, as always, splendid. Other octogenarians have already passed through here – Harrison Ford, Martin Scorsese or Michael Douglas, who is 78 – but none dazzled as much as the star of Inglorious Return.
And he forgot the hearing aids... "I forgot them, so speak up," he told the Festival accredited audience.
Fonda went through her film career, which gave her two Oscars, for the aforementioned Return without glory, and before, for The past condemns me (Klute), both in the '70s, alternating with her private life and her left-wing political activism, in a country like hers, which does not usually receive that thought well.
Splendid. Fonda also went to L'Oreal Paris' "Lights on Women" event. AFP Photo
And of course he talked about the heartthrobs with whom he acted, such as Robert Redford and Alain Delon.
The actress said that there are no secrets to being seen so well. "It's not that I'm proud to have gone under the knife. Last night I slept 13 hours, I eat well, I'm curious about everything, I walk. And most of all, now I try not to look like anyone."
"I'm not proud that I went under the knife," she said. And he revealed his formula for being well. AFP Photo
Fonda, whose latest film, the comedy Cuando ellas quiere más, is still on the bill in Argentina, recalled a phrase of his, about the world being in perpetual revolution. "I should also have said that art is in perpetual revolution. The same actors give life to all kinds of characters, which is in itself a constant revolution, "he corrected himself.
Robert Redford and Alain Delon
"Robert Redford? He's three hours late and angry, but he's a nice guy. Anyway, he didn't like kissing and I'll just say he has a problem with women." Of Alain Delon he said that he is "one of the most wonderful people I have ever met", of the aforementioned Michael Douglas was ambiguous ("he always cared about public relations before friendship, that's why he lasted so long in the business".
He said he moved to France in the '60s to run away from his father, Henry Fonda, and that Robert Refdford "didn't like to kiss." AFP Photo
But Jean-Luc Godard was directly annihilated: "He was a great director and a terrible person," he said of the man who directed her in Everything Goes Well (1972), alongside Yves Montand. And he said that his favorite shooting partner is Lily Tomlin, with whom he first worked on How to Eliminate His Boss and can now be seen in the series Grace and Frankie.
Jane Fonda in "Barbarella", one of her first hits. Photo Clarín File
De Barbarella (1968), which was directed by Roger Vadim, her first husband, confessed that the famous nude scene was filmed after having drunk large amounts of vodka – "in truth, it is a long shot of an actress suffering from a huge hangover tried to fix it – and recalled that, if she had moved here at that time, to France, it was "to escape the shadow of my father (Henry Fonda).
Of his social activism he mentioned that it began "in 1970, when I began to know things about the Vietnam War, stories that I could not believe. I lived in Paris with Roger Vadim and I went back to the United States, because then I could protest."
"There would be no global warming without racism and patriarchy. Activism changed my life," she said. AP Photo
He said that Sydney Pollack's Dance of Illusions (1969) was filmed because "my mother committed suicide, something that my character also tried", and Alan J. Pakula's Klute said it was the film that made him turn to social commitment. "To prepare the character I spent a week living with prostitutes, and I understood that all of them had suffered abuse as children. It was at that moment that I became an activist and feminist. And, at 34 years old, I felt like I was starting to be a person."
No cinema, for now
She does not have, for now, any project aimed at cinema, "because I am completely focused on the fight against climate change," she excused herself. "We have about six years left to drastically reduce fossil fuel consumption. There would be no global warming without racism and patriarchy. Activism changed my life. When I was filming in the last few years, I was more focused on fundraising than anything else, because I never felt part of Hollywood, nor have I cared much about my career."
With Kate Winslet at the "Lights on Women" event, parallel to the Cannes Film Festival. AFP Photo
And if he will not make movies or series, he will dedicate himself to promoting the Democrats in the next election campaign. "The left has a hard time having good leaders, and without them you don't get to power. You have to go out into the street, knock on doors and explain to people that public health and education benefits us all. The real change that must be made from activism is to learn to dialogue with those who think differently."
Finally, about her feminism, she called it "cerebral." Until one day, she said, "I saw The Vagina Monologues, and there I felt that my body and not just my brain was feminist."
Special Envoy
See also