Six intriguing fast facts from HBO’s Fonda doc

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This article was published 24/09/2018 (2928 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Whatever one thinks of Jane Fonda — and opinions run the gamut — there’s no denying that the actress/activist has lived a fascinating life.

That becomes even clearer while viewing HBO’s Jane Fonda in Five Acts (Monday, 7 p.m. Central), a documentary from Susan Lacy (Spielberg) that illuminates the two-time Oscar winner’s life, from her difficult relationship with her movie-hero father to her reinventions on- and off-camera to her present-day independence and — finally — self-acceptance.

“I had spent so much of my life feeling if I’m not perfect, no one can love me,” says Fonda, now 80, at the end of a two-hour-plus film that includes archival recordings and more recent interviews conducted for the film with Fonda, son Troy Garity, Robert Redford, Dick Cavett and others. “Then, I realized…we have to embrace and accept our shadows. Sometimes, good enough is good enough.”

You already know the famous father (Henry), the marriages to accomplished, controlling men (filmmaker Roger Vadim, political activist Tom Hayden and media mogul Ted Turner) and the vaunted film career (Barefoot in the Park, Klute, 9 to 5), but Five Acts — four are named for her father and three husbands and the final one for her — includes lesser known, sometimes more revealing details, too.

Six things from Five Acts (because there was too much intriguing detail):

“I grew up in the shadow of a national monument”: For such an accomplished, outspoken woman, Fonda talks about being drawn to powerful men who molded and controlled her. The most profound influence was a “national monument,” as she calls her father, a man whose cold, disapproving nature was at odds with his public image.

“He was a hero to so many people, but these kind of men aren’t always good fathers,” Fonda says.

Location, location, location: Film may have been the family business, but a youthful Fonda wasn’t intent on being an actress. When the directionless 20-something was living at her father’s Malibu, Calif., home, she walked down the beach and knocked on the door of legendary acting teacher Lee Strasberg.

Her life changed when Strasberg told the self-doubting woman that she had talent. “It was like someone had opened the top of my head and birds flew out,” she says.

She wasn’t ‘brave’ enough to avoid plastic surgery: Fonda’s various outfits and hairstyles reflect changing fashion. The culture’s focus on a woman’s appearance took a toll, as Fonda discusses her battle with bulimia. And she acknowledges conflict about aging and how she dealt with it

“I’m glad that I look good for my age, but I’ve also had plastic surgery. I’m not going to lie about that,” she says. “On one level, I hate the fact that I have had the need to alter myself physically to feel that I’m OK. I wish that I wasn’t like that. I love older faces. I love lived-in faces. I love Vanessa Redgrave’s face. I wish I was braver, but, um, I am what I am.”

Heartfelt antiwar activism, with profound regret: Fonda is often identified with her progressive political activism, most memorably expressed in her opposition to the Vietnam War. Fonda’s visit to North Vietnam drew fierce backlash that persists today; she was dubbed “Hanoi Jane” and a traitor. But Hayden credits her with helping to stop the bombing of dikes that would have led to flooding and hundreds of thousands of deaths.

“I’m naive and I make mistakes,” Fonda says in the film. Of the infamous photo that showed her sitting on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun, she says: “It was a betrayal… I will go to my grave regretting that.”

Finding her voice: After having little say in early films, Fonda enjoyed a career-changing experience in 1969’s They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, a look at desperate marathon dancers during the Depression. It “was the first time I ever made a movie that was about something,” she says.

It also was the first time a director (Sydney Pollack) asked for her opinion. “I always had this sense that she was a serious actress buried inside this glamour-puss,” he says.

Over the years, Fonda has explored serious cultural and political issues in her films: the challenges facing military veterans in 1978’s Coming Home, the hazards of nuclear power in 1979’s The China Syndrome and discriminatory treatment of women in the workplace in 1980’s 9 to 5.

Unrehearsed emotion: Near the end of her father’s life, Fonda briefly broke through his armored emotional wall, using his own acting rigour against him. In 1981’s On Golden Pond, in which Henry and Jane play father and daughter, she tricks the great actor, famed for his rehearsal preparation, by sneaking in a spontaneous move, a simple touch of his arm. He raised his hand to cover his face. “I saw the tears in his eyes,” Fonda says. “And it meant the world to me.”

— USA Today