Eldergays, please tell me about Jane FONDA

Fuck off then. There is ZERO originality to your trolling opening gambit. Troll. DUMB TROLLING CUNT.

Op = Faye Dunaway...run away!

When Native Americans occupied Alcatraz in the early 70s Jane kayaked out there while visiting San Francisco and smoked pot with them as a show of solidarity.

Thanks that's what I thought. Nothing to do with acting.

A discussion of Fonda's acting talents and body of work would make a good DL thread. I fear this isn't it.

While I agree that Dunaway was a stronger actress than Fonda,the same certainly cannot be said about Farrow. And Fonda is a gifted actress in her own right.

She was 100 percent correct about the Vietnam War.

Let's empty our ripe stinking DEPENDS into OPs putrid mouth. He's probably 70 years old anyway.

She gave raw, intense, emotionally wrenching performances in "They Shoot Horses Don't They?" and "Klute" that no other mainstream American actress had done before. So she was hailed as the best actress of her generation. Other leading ladies, and leading men, took note and upped their game, so over time, these portrayals became the standard throughout the '70s, where grit and realism were what moviegoers seemed to want.

She's brilliant in Klute and They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Her oscar for Coming Home was well deserved. .

She went through a period where every movie she did her character became radicalized in some way. I remember Pauline Kael making particular note of it in her review of 9 to 5. (Which by the way, she is surprisingly the weak link in) I think that limited her somewhat. But The Morning After is a superb return to form.

What happened to Penelope Milford, BTW? She was a great actress, and a quirky beauty but

You're the same fucking moron who created the "There's someone in my house. HELP" thread?

Time to grow up a bit.

OP..

The HBO documentary was very good, I recommend it.

I like Jane, Peter and Bridget. Henry, no.

[quote]The HBO documentary was very good, I recommend it.

It is, but it's saddening as well. It showed how much of her situation at any given time was defined by the man she was with during it. The exercise thing was her idea, but that was even inspired to raise money for her husbands campaign.

Jane Fonda was the finest film actress of her generation. She is supremely talented.

Nepotism.

On a personal level, she appears to be another bisexual woman who would have been better off with another woman. She may have had a marriage to rival that of her good friend Lily. I would love to have seen her sing backup for Dolly at the Grand Ole Opry. I enjoy her work in Grace and Frankie but am surprised two actresses who are part of the LGBT community would be ok with queerbaiting.

Loved her as a kid, wanted to be her in CAT BALLOU. She made a lot of lousy films, but a few great ones. Has the supreme quality of enthusiasm and caring about the world--two qualities.

R17, yes, she is Henry Fonda’s daughter, but she proved her talent and she became a big star on her own.

She always looked too much like Henry Fonda to be attractive to me.

Fonda never appeared on stage so she's not a genuine actress like Diana Rigg. Fonda may have larger breasts but she wasn't a genuine actress like Diana Rigg

Amateurs and models can appear in front of a camera with an army of advisors and directors behind the camera to coach them and edit out all their sundry errors.

R22, Fonda has appeared on stage. She has two Tony nominations, one from 1960 and another from 2009.

Sweetheart, always one for a bit of mischief.

r17 I have to disagree. I think Jane Fonda is one of the probably 1% of people from show business families who would've become a successful actor even without nepotism. Michael Douglas and Liza Minnelli are a couple of others.

[quote]She always looked too much like Henry Fonda to be attractive to me.

She was absolutely gorgeous when she was young.

Gorgeous young Jane...

R22, Google is your friend and helps prevent ridiculously ignorant statements. Fonda studied with Strasberg and appeared on stage first in 1954 in a production of The Country Girl. Her first appearance on Broadway in 1960 gained her a Tony nomination, as did her work 49 years later in 33 Variations.

Respect for Jane in producing and costarring in one of the most lesbionic movies of all time!

she was iconic in Monster in Law. Blew JLO away in the acting department. Not that that is hard to do.

Jane was great.

Dianne Keaton is fucking awful, OP!

fake hippie, cia spy.

ok in the right role, otherwise just same-old, same-old.

R33, you realize that link is pro-Fonda, right? And fake hippie? She gave away a ton of her money to the Campaign for Economic Democracy and walked with the Black Panthers. I wouldn't call that fake. And she must've had quite a lot of right roles then.

I give Jane Fonda a lot of credit, she was Hollywood Royalty and then became a superstar in her own right and she could've lived the life of a princess but she didn't. She went out and really dedicated herself to important causes and got in the trenches so to speak. Unlike so many celebs then and now, she spent time in really shitty areas and marched and mixed with disadvantaged people, she didn't just show up at a fundraiser or make a speech and then went home to her mansion. And she didn't have to do any of that, she really put herself right into the middle of many unpleasant circumstances, she wasn't all talk and no action. I admire and respect that tremendously about her.

I saw her at a political fundraiser in the late 1980s or even 1991. Way across the room. She was stunningly gorgeous even in her 50s.

I loved her in "Barefoot in the Park" (1967), opposite Robert Redford.

She was amazing in "Klute" (1971).

And she starred opposite Redford again in "The Electric Horseman" (1979).

I also enjoyed her performance in "On Golden Pond" (1981), opposite her father, Henry. Stories at the time hinted it was a difficult role because of her legendary estrangement from him during her early years. They reconciled eventually, but the tension between the two was palpable on screen.

I like Fonda, onscreen and off, but I'm not a Boomer. The Boomers seem to have a white-hot love/hate thing going on: no middle ground.

I think she's a talented actor but it's difficult for me to separate her offscreen personna and fame from onscreen performances, ie, I'm always conscious of watching Jane as a housewife, a journalist, Lillian Hellmann, etc. She never disappears in her roles and she doesn't really seem to have a wide-ranging technique (voice, body, accents, etc.) that would allow her to do so. (I know she trained for the stage in NYC, but she's always been more Method-y/internal than external.) It's true of many of her peers from that era (Redford is a prime example).

I'm really glad she's lasted this long and is still working. But no, I don't think she's the greatest actor of her generation.

PS, KLUTE and THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY are my favorite Fonda performances.

OK I've read all your posts, but I am not convinced. I found her AWFUL in every movie I've seen, except Klute. This is what I've seen : barbarella, barefoot in the park, the chase (she was sexy), the Electric horseman, on golden pond, a doll's house, Julia, and monster in Law. Maybe I've missed the best of her. They shoot horses don't they is a ridiculous movie. Anyone who has ever spent one day with a heavily pregnant woman knows what I mean. Keaton is awful now, but I 've several movies in which she was great, including the one with Streep, I think it's called Marvin' s room, and she blew Streep off the screen. She was really very good in mr goodbar, annie hall of course, shoot the moon and reds. And I don't even like her. Mia Farrow is an excellent and versatile actress, she was fantastic in R's B, but also, secret ceremony, a wedding, Gatsby, broadway Danny rose, radio days, full circle, the purple rose of cairo. Faye Dunaway as I said is a genius, although limited in range, Gena Rowlands is incomparable better than Fonda, even Natalie Wood, especially in splendor in the grass. I understand that you like Fonda for political reasons. I accept that. But she's not a good actress.

Anyone who types "R's B" and lacks basic capitalization and punctuation, can keep his cultural criticism to himself.

OP, get back to us when you've seen Coming Home, The China Syndrome, The Dollmaker, The Morning After, All Together, This Is Where I Leave You, and Youth.

Jane, with comically awful plastic surgery, in the last episode of Season 5 of "Grace and Frankie." (It's a "what if" show that goes into what their lives would've been like if they hadn't moved in together.) She ends up marrying George Hamilton's character, the Patio Prince of Palm Desert.

^ Aaarkh!

Is that Amanda Lepore?

Hilarious sendup of going way overboard.

Warren Beatty was going through his teenaged-Richboy-Lenin-and-Stalin-loving phase and wanted Commie Jane to star in this glacial turkey instead of Woody Allen's skinny cast-off.

r45 The "glacial turkey" that won three Oscars, including Best Director?

Reds was forgotten as soon as it left theaters. Not exactly a classic for the ages.

^. I don't understand why pretty rich kids from LaLa Land could make an expensive movie adoring the failed utopianism of Leon Trotsky and Ilyevich Lenin.

Obviously Jane Fonda had Father Issues in LaLa Land and needed to fly to Hanoi to be photographed there to demonstrate she was a teen rebel.

Teen rebel, R49? She was over 30 at that time.

"Klute" and "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" are probably her two best films/performances. Her acting is fantastic in both. She's done some crap as well, but she earned my respect for both of those movies.

R45/r46/r47 it’s a very good and well acted movie. And it never felt its length to me, either.

If I’m remembering the nominees that year correctly, it was probably the best of the best picture nominees but it lost to Chariots of Fire.

She came into a store I worked at like 15 years ago. She seemed like a very nervous woman. She has a small dog she clutched the whole time she was there. I was surprised. I'd expected this super confident feminist icon.

That second Oscar for ‘Coming Home’ was BS. It wasn’t a great part, she was miscast (way too old), and she was nothing special in it. Jill Clayburgh, Ingrid Bergman, and Geraldine Page were all much better.

She also has crap taste in actresses. Jennifer Lawrence is one of her faves.

Her son Troy is gorgeous.

I recently watched her interview with Mary Trump, both very intelligent women.

I like Troy Garity. He seems very down to earth, all things considered. (He also pings a bit for me, but he's married to a woman, so....)

It's surprising that he's never broken through bigger in his career. He's done a lot of episodic TV, but nothing very high-profile. I didn't see SOLDIER'S GIRL, which got him a lot of acclaim, but then that was 17 years ago.

I saw Jane at a taping of the 9 to 5 tv show in the 80s and although I like her, her skin was like a leather purse. Too much sun. I guess if you have millions you can even fix that, though.

Her skin, now, is pure wax.

R57 that’s when she looked the most like her father too. As she got more PS the resemblance got less and less.

I know she’s considered the “weakest” in 9 to 5 but o still think she’s great and very funny in it nonetheless. M&Ms!!!

Nobody loves Jane Fonda for her acting, they love her because of the kind of person she is, and that's okay. Oscars are meaningless, better they go to a good woman who uses her celebrity and her platform to do good things rather than another nepotism baby or another Weinstein fucker.

That being said, OP, the question isn't why Jane was so successful. The question is why do you hate her so much?

Anybody remember Barbarella?

R52 Do you think 'Reds' needs a remake seeing it was such a good movie but, unfortunately, 21st century millennials don't like watching 40 year old classics?

Jennifer Lawrence could take the role originally planned for Jane Fonda. But who would be Warren Beatty?

She deserves every ounce of praise she has ever gotten, and fuck you if you say otherwise. Hollywood is full of celebrities who only publicly adopt causes because they want attention for it. They make a big show out of how much they care, making sure the press are there to document it at every turn, pledging this amount of money to this charity, etc. Hollywood is full of celebrities who only participate in activism to make themselves look better. But not Jane. Never Jane.

The woman is a saint and she deserves even more recognition than she already gets. There has never been a celebrity like her and there probably never will be. She's the only celebrity I've ever seen in my lifetime who actually cares about the things that happen outside of Hollywood's bubble.

I think BARBARELLA (like some other cult films of that era) is a chore to sit through. It should be good campy fun, but it's actually just a bore, IMHO. But I know folks who love it.

Since you mention it, I find Roger Vadim hugely overrated as a director. He's no equal to the great New Wave directors of that era.

This is one of my favorite scenes of hers.

Roger Vadim was overrated. What the heck did he even do except marry hot women?

One of my favorite Twitter accounts.

My favorite Jane movies are Barbarella, Barefoot in the Park, They Shoot Horses Don't they, and Cat Ballou.

[quote]R53 She came into a store I worked at like 15 years ago. She seemed like a very nervous woman. She has a small dog she clutched the whole time she was there. I was surprised. I'd expected this super confident feminist icon.

Maybe she was nervous being out without bodyguards? I mean, she’s one of the most famous people, ever. Maybe stars like that get jumpy when they’re alone? I mean, combined with her age, maybe she felt vulnerable.

OP wrote virtually the same insulting comments in the On Golden Pond thread, word for word.

He doesn’t really belong on DL. But lately, more tighty-righties like him are infiltrating this space. It’s getting tiresome, which I’m sure is their goal.

I agree R70! OP gets FF and ignore from me

OP clearly has an agenda and I could care less about any of his digs against Jane. That said, I personally love Jane Fonda (as a person AND an actress) and have thoroughly enjoyed reading this thread. What an amazing and impactful life this woman has led. Being an Xer, I missed all of the hoopla bullshit that ignorant old-timers made about her multiple decades ago. Thank goodness their voices are disappearing over time. But war politics is neither the question posed nor what I wish to comment on. Jane turned out some amazing performances and her resume clearly speaks for itself. She has a selfless quality that is so clearly present in many of her films - often times she wasn't demanding to be THE STAR and conversely played a "background" role giving a lower-key performance in order to let other actors shine. When she nailed a role, she nailed it ("Klute", "Barefoot in the Park", "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?", "The China Syndrome", "California Suite", "The Morning After", etc.). When she intended to showcase another actor and take a step back, she did that too. I agree that Faye Dunaway was also a spectacular actress whose career was somewhat shorter but no less impressive. Both of these women had limits however - as most actors do - and that is perfectly fine. Be good at what you do best. And Jane most certainly did that and more.

Oh, and Natalie Wood's name should never be used in the same sentence as Jane Fonda's when it comes to acting ability. Ever..

Agreed, OP, she's a miserable actor. You can see the constipated strain on her face that signals, "Hey, look at me, I'm acting here!" (a look she shares with Leo diCaprio and Matt Damon.) Her best performances and worst performances are indistinguishable: brittle, wounded, fearful, mock brave, dumb, strong, weak, wisecracking, petulant, strident, disaffected, estranged...her every role is the same.

I generally agree with her politics but don't find her an interesting person to listen to and certainly not as an actress.

Your loss, R74, and certainly not ours that you can't distinguish between her performances in Barefoot in the Park, Klute, The Dollmaker, The Morning After, Tout Ensemble, This Is Where I Leave You, and Youth. You sound dreary.

[quote]But who would be Warren Beatty?

Laverne Cox.

Jane Fonda is a goddess. She’s also worked hard for decades, and somehow managed to not alienate anyone in Hollywood (aside from some bitter, crust Viet Nam War vets in the Valley.)

She funneled a great deal of time and wealth into social programs whereas most stars just set up complicated tax shelters.

Haunting photo. Especially when you consider that her mother slit her throat with a razor blade not too long after it was taken.

She is absolutely stunning in this Roddy McDowall home movie!

r78 they all look fucking miserable.

Has she ever had an assassination attempt against her? Right wingers have hated her with a burning passion since the 70's, so if not, I'm shocked and amazed.

^^ me, too, kind of.

Poor thing.

[quote]Eldergays, please tell me about Jane FONDA. Why was she so successful on the 70's? And TWO oscars ??

Don't ask me.

R79, What a gene pool! Lovely film.

So appealing when starting out.

Jane Fonda will tell you about herself, as she asserts why gay rights are human rights in the 1970s:

She will always be HANOI JANE .

I saw her on The Daily Show last night and she looks like she's recently had even more face work done.

I love her to pieces, but her face was so taut & white, she practically looked translucent - and not in a good way.

She looked less like a live person and more like an artist's rendition of Jane Fonda.

Re the OP's question - and I disagree with his premise that she's a bad actress - she's absolutely remarkable in Klute.

She's also [italic]very[/italic] good in The Morning After, On Golden Pond, Tout Va Bien, They Shoot Horses, Coming Home, California Suite, The Dollmaker and The Newsroom.

“... she practically looked translucent - and not in a good way.”

Who looks ‘translucent in a good way’?

I remember seeing her while walking by the theater where "33 Variations" was playing. She came out of the stage door and took time to talk to everybody, pointing out a few famous people who had come backstage to see her, and signing pretty much every playbill flung at her. Perhaps she was "on", but she was no spring chicken (72 I believe) so she could have done like Bette Midler in "Dolly" and waved then bolted.

I am not a stage door junkie and have seen and read about lots of horrible behavior that the stalker fan twitwits do (especially for their younger heartthrobs), but what Jane did was completely classy. What I like about her from interviews is that she doesn't hide her insecurities or doubts, so you get to see the real person behind that seemingly strong, confidante bravado. That makes her commanding. The 70's didn't have the number of great female stars consistently on the same level as male stars, but Jane went from being a sexpot joke to a controversial figure to a well respected star.

Among her interesting early films are "A Period of Adjustment", "In the Cool of the Day" and "The Chapman Report". I can't get through either "Joy Ride" or "Circle of Love", but with "Cat Ballou" and "Barefoot in the Park", she began to develop what she would later fully achieve as true talent with "They Shoot Horses" and "Klute".

I love her in Barefoot in the Park. TMC or AMC or one of those basic cable networks used to show it often and I was taken with it from the first viewing and have watched it many times. She was really charming.

is it weird that I get Nancy Sinatra and Jane Fonda mixed-up?

^ They have the same metallic-sounding voice

[quote]Who looks ‘translucent in a good way’?

What I meant was someone could be young and have glow about them.

However when one is 82 years old . . .

R92 R93 And Jane Fonda's boots in "Boobarella" were definitely made for walking!

Jane is a guest on "The View" today.

I think Jane Fonda is a compelling historical/cultural figure with respect to the post-Production Code "New Hollywood" of the late '60s and '70s, but not necessarily the anti-establishment feminist she's remembered to be. Up until her divorce from Ted Turner, everything she did in front of and behind the camera was dictated by the men in her life: following in her father Henry's footsteps and making, pretending to be a European sophisticate/sex kitten with Roger Vadim, then transforming into a chic left-wing activist with the controlling Tom Hayden (who was always jealous of her fame), capitalizing on the nascent aerobics craze to fund Hayden's political ambitions, jettisoning her activist identity to build up said workout empire and then giving up everything to be the trophy wife of media titan Ted Turner, complete with a new set of fake breasts. Then she decides to return to acting in dreck like Monster in Law and Grace and Frankie.

The most jarring element of her recent NYT interview with Maureen Dowd was her awkward defense of Richard Nixon, claiming that Trump is far worse and that Nixon did lots of good things, and "knew his foreign policy," never mind the fact that it was Nixon's foreign policy in Vietnam and Cambodia that Jane (and so many others) vehemently protested and that the US government illegally surveilled her at Nixon's behest. Historians may very well judge Trump more harshly than Nixon, but this kind of selective memory seems a bit dangerous to me.

And you, R7, will always be stuck in 1970.

I agree that Trump is much worse than Nixon, though that's an awfully low bar: a greedy, solipsistic, clueless pig vs. a calculating megalomaniac.

Actually r98 I wasn't even born yet. But Jane Fonda was correct.

Sorry, R7, I meant R87.

R38. That is really your problem.

Goddess

Jane was on SETH MEYERS, which is not the Daily Show. Yes she looked refreshed but it could have been the extreme makeup and filters. She has a book to promote so she's getting professional makeup everyday for awhile.

Jane was on Democracy Now this morning, touting her new book. I think she's a remarkable person, but enough with the goddamn surgery. Makes her look needy and stupid. AND she was using some kind of fuzz filter on her Zoom. Get over it, Jane, you old!

Jane will have body dysmorphia until she dies. She's been upfront about this for at least 2 decades, now.

She doesn't have 2 decades left.

R106 who said she did?

Jane is 82...and today 82 is practically a wee fawn frolicking in the morning dew! So silly to imply she is anything other than a fertile and supple ingenue.

But seriously, I’m 42 and was not around for ‘Hanoi Jane.’ I once witnessed my great uncle, who was really traumatized in the Korean war, turn at the mention of her name into a sudden rage and scream that she was a traitor to her country. It was kind of scary. Meanwhile, my father was in the Navy during Vietnam, stationed off the coast of Vietnam during the war on an aircraft carrier, and he likes her as an actress and respects her politics. My mom was a hippie and she loved Jane Fonda. And from everything I have seen of her interviews, I also really think her heart is in the right place and she is extremely bold and courageous in the stands she takes. I’ve seen her act believably contrite about the Vietnam incident and apologize for the role she played—and yet the mistake did not scare or intimidate her into being politically silent. I think that is pretty remarkable. And considering she grew up in a ‘Hollywood royal family’ and she is so grounded and seemingly humble, recognizing how much easier she has it than many do, makes her extra impressive to me. The Trump kids were raised with money and a famous name as Fonda was, and they are all parodies of Marie Antoinette.

For those of you who liked 'Klute' , could you explain? I watched it last night for the first time and found it terribly disappointing. I usually really like 70's slow-burn thrillers like 3 Days of the Condor etc, but I just found Jane (and Donald Sutherland) to be absolutely dreadful in this.

Her hair was also so distractingly horrible:

Jane Fonda with a Liza haircut is just weird period.