For her fourth feature film since returning to the screen after a 16-year hiatus, Jane Fonda chose a role that can only be described as happy ... or hippie.
"Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding," directed by Bruce Beresford, stars Fonda as an eccentric grandma who takes in her estranged daughter (Catherine Keener) and two grandchildren for a family vacation after Keener's character, a humorless New York City lawyer, splits with her husband.
The film, a tale of inter-generational conflict and forgiveness, premieres in Atlanta on Oct. 4 as a fundraiser for Fonda's Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention (G-CAPP). Fonda is still as passionate as ever about the cause.
"When you plant your flag in an important issue, you keep your flag there until it is no longer needed," said Fonda by phone a week before the Georgia event. "In 1995, Georgia had the highest [teen pregnancy] rates in the country. Now we are 13th, which is still impossibly awful."
She is currently working on a series of books for boys and girls (ages 11 to 17) and their parents about emotions, feelings and their bodies.
"All those things kids need to know about and parents need to know about," she said, but written in an age-appropriate manner.
Fonda chatted with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about what it is like to play the hottest grandma we've seen on film in a long time and about missing Atlanta.
Q: What appealed to you about this film?
A: I liked the script. It is about things I am interested in: love, forgiveness, inter-generational misunderstandings and how they can be resolved. I really wanted to work with Bruce Beresford and Catherine Keener. I loved the idea of playing this hippie grandmother who still thinks it is 1969.
Q: Is this character anything like the real Jane Fonda?
A: Not really, except that she is feisty. I am a grandmother now, [but] I don't push drugs, I don't push pot, I wouldn't sell pot at my daughter's wedding. I wasn't always the best parent and it took a while for reconciliation to happen, only in the case of the movie, it is severe. She hasn't seen her daughter in 20 years and she has never seen her grandchildren.
Q: Grace [Fonda's character] is one hot grandmama. What are your thoughts on mature women and style?
A: The challenge that I find and that I know other women find is the line between not wanting to look frumpy, not wanting to dress in a way that makes you look older, but not looking like you are trying too hard to look younger. I am in the midst of figuring it out myself.
Q: How has your criteria for evaluating film roles changed since resuming your career later in life?
A: I avoid dour. I think we all need pick-me-ups. And number two, older faces don't do dour well. I like happy. I like funny with a serious undertone. One reason I liked "Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding" is I'm told the audience laughed a lot. But it also has some serious messages.
Q: The Atlanta screening is the East Coast premiere of the film. What do you miss about living here?
A: My loft is being rented so when I come to Atlanta, I have to stay in a hotel. The last time I stayed at a hotel ... I woke up and walked out to walk my dog in the morning. I heard a voice saying, "Hi, Jane," and it was [Atlanta caterer] Tony Conway driving by. Only in Atlanta. It is just the perfect size where you run into people that you know.
Event Preview
Premiere of "Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding" and fundraiser for Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention (G-CAPP)
6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 4. $150.
Woodruff Arts Center Symphony Hall, 1280 Peachtree Street NE.
For tickets and information call: 404-475-6046 or visit www.gcapp.org/peace
