Sixty years after her first appearance on the magazine’s cover, Oscar-winning actress Jane Fonda returns to Glamour, where she discusses the past six decades, her renewed outlook on life and her activism.
“When I was about to turn 60, I realized that I was approaching my third act — my final act — and that it wasn’t a dress rehearsal,” Fonda told Glamour magazine for her cover story.
“It also then dawned on me that in order to know where I was supposed to go, I had to know where I’d been and so I thought, well, now’s the time I’m going to research myself … a deep research called a life review. It totally changed the way I thought about myself and about how I wanted to live the last third of my life. And I realized the importance of being intentional about how we go through life.”
Fonda realized that she feels younger now than when she was 20. She attributes her youthful outlook on life to her persistent curiosity.
“If you’re curious and you’re healthy and you’re open, eventually who you are and where you’re supposed to be will come to you. And it could take a long time. For older people, if you stay curious, you will also stay young for a long time,” she said.
After failing as a secretary, Fonda began her acting career at 23 on Broadway. Fonda told Harvard Business Review that she initially thought of acting as a job. She took any offer that came her way. Low in confidence, Fonda revealed she didn’t know how to say “no.”
At 30, Fonda was pregnant with her first child and tensions from the Vietnam War were at an all-time high. With the anti-war movement raging, Fonda left France and returned to the United States and became an activist. Her passion for activism nearly made her quit Hollywood, yet she decided to make her own movies and began to enjoy her work instead.
Now, Fonda describes herself as brave, something she didn’t see in herself when she was younger.
“I tended to gravitate toward people who were smarter and braver and morally stronger than I was. I always aspired to be more like them, but I never could imagine that I was like them,” she said.
Now, Fonda advocates for climate change and celebrates the small victories that help change the world into a better place.
“There are victories everywhere, and we have to celebrate those and allow those to remind us of what’s possible because they usually come from people who individually have no power but collectively have huge power.”
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