Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Monday 24 SepteMber 2018

Jane Fonda, her life and men star in a revealing documentary

By LYNN ELBER “Before I started writing my
Associated Press memoir, I knew that what I
LOS ANGELES (AP) — As was writing was a gender
beguiling and powerful as journey. It was a journey
Jane Fonda is onscreen, defined by my gender.
she has yet to play a role And so it was important for
that’s a match for her whip- me to explain why that was
lash-inducing life of artistry, true,” she said.
celebrity and polarizing ac- Fonda’s voice is strong
tivism. Then there’s the per- throughout the film, which
sonal drama, including se- draws on 20-plus hours of
rial marriages to three very interviews in which she ad-
different husbands with dresses moments as inti-
their own claims to fame. mate as the childhood loss
When the 80-year-old Fon- of her mother to suicide
da decided to participate and an eating disorder.
in a documentary about Friends and colleagues
her — “Why not? I don’t including Robert Redford
know how much longer I’m and Lily Tomlin are heard
gonna live” — it was with from, along with Turner, the
award-winning filmmaker late Hayden and Fonda’s
Susan Lacy, who made children.
an intriguing choice: using While there was no epiph-
the men in Fonda’s life as any for her in watching the
the organizing principle for film, which she cooperated
“Jane Fonda in Five Acts.” In this July 25, 2018 photo, actress Jane Fonda, background, and Susan Lacy, director of the HBO with but didn’t control, it
The film, debuting from 8 to documentary “Jane Fonda in Five Acts,” pose together at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. was rewarding, Fonda said.
10:15 p.m. Monday EDT on Associated Press “It just brought home very
HBO, devotes its first chap- opposite each other as to when asked to name a living together was set- vividly to me what a full,
ter to Fonda’s fraught bond an estranged father and Hollywood career highlight. ting a bad example for his rich life I’ve had, and var-
with her emotionally re- daughter in the film “On Her father died four months grown children. ied. I mean, there’s been
served dad, the acclaimed Golden Pond.” The 1982 later. “The fact that it was “But I think it’s really be- a lot of change and a lot
actor Henry Fonda. It was Academy Award ceremo- with this movie, and he cause he’s insecure. I of controversy and a lot of
at the end of his life that ny at which Henry Fonda asked me to receive it (the mean, men want to get survival,” she said.
she managed to draw won his only Oscar is what award) if he won,” Fonda married,” Fonda said. “I Her accomplishments, in-
him closer: They starred Jane Fonda readily points said in an interview, her had two important rela- cluding a fitness empire
steady, blue-eyed gaze tionships subsequent to that made her a 1980s
reminiscent of her father. Ted, they wanted to get video star, were irrelevant
“It’s rare that a child gets married. They were ob- to critics of her protests
a chance to do something sessed with it, because it’s against the Vietnam War —
like this for a parent with possession.” especially after Fonda was
whom they have had such Asked about future rela- photographed perched on
a complicated relation- tionships minus marriage, an anti-aircraft gun during
ship.” (Co-star Katharine Fonda has a concise an- a controversial 1972 war-
Hepburn won her fourth swer: “I’ve closed up shop.” time visit to North Vietnam.
Oscar and showed her “Never say never,” parried She recently said that mo-
competitive streak. “You’ll a smiling Lacy, who was ment sent a “horrible” mes-
never catch me now,” she the creator and longtime sage to soldiers and their
crowed to Jane Fonda, a executive producer of PBS’ families.
two-time winner for “Klute” “American Masters,” home “I’m proud of most of what
and “Coming Home.”) to profiles of greats includ- I did, but very sorry for some
“Five Acts” then moves on ing Maya Angelou and Bil- of what I did,” she says in
to the husbands: French lie Jean King. the film, referring to that
film director Roger Vadim The film’s last act belongs period.
(of the “Barbarella” sex- to Fonda alone, unbound Her involvement resulted
kitten years), activist Tom by marriage and focused from a chance wartime
Hayden (a match for her on passions including vot- meeting with U.S. soldiers
growing political fervor) ing rights and other politi- in Paris, one that shook her
and media mogul Ted Turn- cal causes as well as work belief that America always
er (so magnetic that she (which includes Netflix’s fought on “the side of the
tried semi-retirement, until “Grace and Frankie” and a angels,” Fonda said. But
she didn’t.) planned sequel to the 1980 discovering her calling as
She recalls the thrill of sexu- hit film “9 to 5.”) an activist also was a pro-
al “electricity” with all three Lacy’s approach struck found personal moment.
partners, but felt com- some in her circle, espe- “I had a child, I was in a
pelled only by pregnancy cially younger women, as marriage. But I felt lost and
to marry Vadim (they had anti-feminist, the filmmaker empty. And when these
a daughter, Vanessa) and said. She defends it as re- soldiers opened my mind
Hayden (a son, Troy). She flecting Fonda’s 2005 auto- ... I was like dry brush and
wed Turner in 1991, she biography, “My Life So Far,” they were this match and,
said, because he insisted and Fonda concurs. whoosh,” she said.q