Fonda, Jane

Jane Fonda, born December 21, 1937, is a renowned actress, activist, feminist, author, and fitness guru. While Fonda is known worldwide for her Oscar-winning performances in Klute (1972) and Coming Home (1979), she has worked tirelessly for decades on antiwar campaigns, reproductive health issues for teens, physical fitness promotion, and for civil and women's rights both locally and internationally.

Beginning in the 1960s, Fonda used her wealth and celebrity to stage protests and raise money to fight against the Vietnam War. In 1972, she traveled to Hanoi to investigate reports that the United States was intentionally bombing dikes that held back the Red River in North Vietnam. She recorded proof of these attacks, as well as interviews with Vietnamese soldiers, but her film allegedly disappeared once she returned to the United States. Fonda chose to speak publicly on Radio Hanoi about her strong antiwar sentiments. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency obtained transcripts of these radio shows, and monitored her closely, along with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and the White House. Rather than highlight her antiwar efforts, these institutions, along with the international media, focused on a photograph of Fonda sitting on an antiaircraft battery. The photo earned her the nickname “Hanoi Jane.” She apologizes for the lapse in judgment that led to the photograph, but remains unapologetic for her antiwar protests.

Despite the scrutiny, Fonda created the Indochina Peace Campaign (IPC) with the goal of moving the antiwar campaign from demonstrations and rallies into local communities. Through the IPC, she produced a film about ordinary Vietnamese people titled Introduction to the Enemy to prove to Americans that the Vietnamese were not the enemy. After the United States left Vietnam for good in 1975, Fonda and then-husband Tom Hayden began the Campaign for Economic Democracy (CED) to express opposition to nuclear power. Fonda used some of the money raised through the CED to produce the film, The China Syndrome in 1979, a story about corporate greed and a nuclear power plant accident cover-up.

A New Aspect to Her Career

Transcript

• I think that some people don’t like me very much and some people like me a lot. And there’s almost nobody who’s undecided.
• Do you like that?
• Not particularly.
• I talked to Fonda about whether she would ever want to direct and about her daughter Vanessa.
• I like to participate with other people in the creation of the movie, and I’ve become a producer. My partner, Bruce Gilbert, and I produced this movie and it was essentially my idea to do it with Dolly and Lily. But I’m not interested in directing.
• Would you want Vanessa to grow up to be an actress?
• If it would make her happy.
• Yes. Do you recommend it to her as a profession?
• No.
• Why?
• Too few people can succeed as an actress or an actor. It’s a very unhappy business if you’ve been bitten by the bug and you can’t make it. And I think there are particular pressures on you when you’re the son or daughter of someone who’s already made it. But if that’s what she wants to do with her life, I’m not going to stand in her way, but I won’t encourage her.
• And finally, does Jane think she’s mysterious?
• Not to my kinds I’m not. Maybe to some people I am.

In the 1980s, Fonda turned her sights toward physical fitness with the Jane Fonda Workout Book and Jane Fonda Workout video. She made home fitness fun, and encouraged women and men alike to “feel the burn.” The Jane Fonda Workout video sold more than 17 million copies and boosted sales of the video cassette recorder (VCR) as well.

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