In an impassioned speech while accepting her Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, Jane Fonda delivered a rallying cry for the causes that have motivated her six-decade career.
Those included workers rights, unions, fighting against inequality, and above all, care for the disenfranchised. “Make no mistake, empathy is not weak, or woke,” she said from the stage. “And by the way, woke just means that you give a damn about other people.”
The remarks were unmistakably political in tone, though Fonda never mentioned the current president by name. Intriguingly, she evoked Sebastian Stan’s Oscar nominated performance as Donald Trump in “The Apprentice” from an angle of compassion. Of Stan’s work, she said, “(He had) to understand and empathize with the traumatized person (he was) playing.”
She also mentioned Bree Daniels, the sex worker she played in 1971’s “Klute,” to address the subject of self-harm and sexual assault on young women.
Keeping on the theme of care for others in the current political climate, she stressed, “People are going to be really hurt by what’s coming. And ever if they’re of a different political persuasion, we need to call upon our empathy and not judge but listen from our hearts. And welcome them into our tent, because we are going to need a big tent to resist successfully what’s coming at us.”
To rousing applause, she added that on the other side of that, “There will still be love, there will still be beauty. And there will be an ocean of truth to swim in. Let’s make it so.”
Fonda’s eight-minute address followed a presentation by Julia Louis-Dreyfus and a sensational clip reel of highlights from her films, such as her Oscar winning roles in “Klute” and “Coming Home,” along with “9 to 5,” “Julia,” “The China Syndrome,” “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?,” The Newsroom,” and many others.
At 87, Fonda proved still effortlessly quick and sharp in her surroundings. When a recorded announcement was accidentally broadcast for a few seconds in the room, she playfully quipped,”And I can conjure up voices!”
The actress also promised that her career is not finished yet. “This means the world to me,” she said. “Your enthusiasm makes this seem less like a late twilight of my life, and more like a go girl, kick ass. Which is good because I’m not done. Probably in my 90s, I’ll be doing my own stunts in an action movie.”
