0:00:15 > 0:00:20When Jane Fonda was planning a home movie that summed up her
0:00:20 > 0:00:22life for her 60th birthday,
0:00:22 > 0:00:24one of her daughters told her,
0:00:24 > 0:00:27why not just film a chameleon.
0:00:27 > 0:00:30Ha! You can see her point.
0:00:41 > 0:00:48A career spanning six decades has seen Jane changing from sex kitten,
0:00:48 > 0:00:53to political activist, to successful producer,
0:00:53 > 0:00:55to queen of the fitness video.
0:00:55 > 0:00:58On the way she picked up two
0:00:58 > 0:01:02Oscars and became the most divisive figure in Hollywood,
0:01:02 > 0:01:07admired for her acting but loathed by many Americans for her
0:01:07 > 0:01:11outspoken opposition to the Vietnam War.
0:01:11 > 0:01:14Throughout all this, were the pressures
0:01:14 > 0:01:19and privileges that came with her famous family name.
0:01:19 > 0:01:22Was that good news for you in terms of your career, because the
0:01:22 > 0:01:26name Fonda got you started, or was it also a bit of a curse?
0:01:26 > 0:01:29Well, on a scale of 1 to 10, it's 9% good and 1% bad.
0:01:29 > 0:01:33Especially over the last 50 years, the competition is very heavy
0:01:33 > 0:01:39when it comes to trying to make it in the movie business.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42There's a talented and competitive field
0:01:42 > 0:01:46so anything that allows you to kind of stand above the others
0:01:46 > 0:01:48and have people take notice of you,
0:01:48 > 0:01:51which having a famous parent does, is all to the good.
0:01:51 > 0:01:53It can get you in the door.
0:01:53 > 0:01:57It doesn't keep you there, you have to have talent to keep you there.
0:01:57 > 0:02:00The only 1% negative would be, there's always
0:02:00 > 0:02:02the tendency, subjectively,
0:02:02 > 0:02:06to feel, "I've only got this because I'm Henry Fonda's daughter."
0:02:06 > 0:02:09So how I coped with that is I worked extra hard.
0:02:09 > 0:02:13Instead of going to one class a week at the Actors Studio,
0:02:13 > 0:02:15I'd go to four. I'd do five scenes instead of three
0:02:15 > 0:02:16so that I could always...
0:02:16 > 0:02:19I knew at least inside me that I wasn't a dilettante.
0:02:19 > 0:02:24Jane always said she had no intention of following in her
0:02:24 > 0:02:28father's footsteps and dreamt of being a writer or a painter.
0:02:28 > 0:02:34But then encouragement from outside the family set her on a career
0:02:34 > 0:02:37path that to everyone else looked inevitable.
0:02:37 > 0:02:40I was out here with my father one summer and
0:02:40 > 0:02:43Lee Strasberg, who was the founder of the Actors Studio which
0:02:43 > 0:02:46brought the Stanislavski method to America...
0:02:46 > 0:02:49It was the method, it was what trained Marlon Brando
0:02:49 > 0:02:51and Montgomery Clift and all those.
0:02:51 > 0:02:52He was the head of the Actors Studio.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55He was out here with Marilyn Monroe, working with her
0:02:55 > 0:02:56on Some Like It Hot.
0:02:56 > 0:02:59His daughter said to me, "You should be in Lee's classes."
0:02:59 > 0:03:01I said, "I'm not an actor." She said, "You should be."
0:03:01 > 0:03:04Finally she convinced me to be interviewed by him.
0:03:06 > 0:03:08I'll never forget. He told me later...
0:03:08 > 0:03:12He said, "What I saw was this very proper, repressed, uptight,
0:03:12 > 0:03:16"middle-class young woman
0:03:16 > 0:03:20"and the only giveaway was my eyes."
0:03:20 > 0:03:24He said, "Your eyes were filled with fear and vulnerability
0:03:24 > 0:03:26"and that's why I decided to take you."
0:03:26 > 0:03:29So I went back to New York and I began studying with him.
0:03:29 > 0:03:32You've got to understand, I'm living with my father,
0:03:32 > 0:03:34my father hates acting school.
0:03:34 > 0:03:37My father still believes people should do it the way he did.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40It was actually the right move for me to go to school,
0:03:40 > 0:03:43but it was an act of rebellion and a personal threat against him.
0:03:43 > 0:03:45He was very, very angry with me for doing this.
0:03:45 > 0:03:48So here I was, leaving his home, going to study, coming back,
0:03:48 > 0:03:51practising my sense memory exercises in front of him with him
0:03:51 > 0:03:54glaring at me.
0:03:54 > 0:03:57Eventually my turn came to do a scene.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00Scared to death, and when it was over Lee just sat there.
0:04:00 > 0:04:06And he looked at me. And he said to me, "You have real talent."
0:04:09 > 0:04:13And with those words, my whole life changed. Literally. I'm not kidding.
0:04:13 > 0:04:18It was like the roof came off my head. It was like the sun came out.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21It wasn't my father, because I'd been in some plays
0:04:21 > 0:04:24with him, but he was my father, he had to tell me I was good.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27This man who has seen all these people go by told me I was talented.
0:04:27 > 0:04:29Well, that was the beginning of the end.
0:04:29 > 0:04:30I mean, I suddenly knew what I wanted.
0:04:30 > 0:04:32I just needed that encouragement.
0:04:32 > 0:04:37Jane's biggest early successes came in the
0:04:37 > 0:04:41'60s with Cat Ballou and Barefoot In The Park,
0:04:41 > 0:04:43which both earned her praise
0:04:43 > 0:04:46and award nominations for her comedy skills.
0:04:46 > 0:04:49Thank you, Mr Dooley.
0:04:49 > 0:04:52Next time you're in New York just call me up.
0:04:57 > 0:05:01Towards the end of the decade, Jane moved to France
0:05:01 > 0:05:05and married the director, Roger Vadim.
0:05:05 > 0:05:10He had helped turn Brigitte Bardot into an international sex
0:05:10 > 0:05:13symbol and pretty much did the same for Jane,
0:05:13 > 0:05:17when she appeared in his sci-fi fantasy, Barbarella.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23But the film's release coincided with her first big
0:05:23 > 0:05:26transformation. In cinemas, she was
0:05:26 > 0:05:27writhing around in zero gravity.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30In interviews, she was sometimes
0:05:30 > 0:05:32struggling awkwardly to
0:05:32 > 0:05:37explain how that tallied with her political awakening as a feminist.
0:05:37 > 0:05:43One of the objectives of the Women's Liberation Movement is to
0:05:43 > 0:05:48attack the position of women as what they call sex objects.
0:05:48 > 0:05:53Now, that is exactly what you have been in many of your films,
0:05:53 > 0:05:55Barbarella for example.
0:05:55 > 0:05:59Does your new attitude mean that you will no longer appear in
0:05:59 > 0:06:00motion pictures of that kind?
0:06:00 > 0:06:06Yeah. I-I will not be making films like that any more. I had never...
0:06:08 > 0:06:11I wasn't really aware of...
0:06:11 > 0:06:16..of male chauvinism and of myself as being...
0:06:17 > 0:06:21Aren't you married to a male chauvinist?
0:06:21 > 0:06:26- I would've thought that Vadim was...- I think that all men
0:06:26 > 0:06:30are male chauvinists and... Poor dears,
0:06:30 > 0:06:32not because they mean to be but
0:06:32 > 0:06:35because that's the way we've all been educated.
0:06:35 > 0:06:40Women have always allowed themselves to be put into a subordinate
0:06:40 > 0:06:42position. That's just, I mean,
0:06:42 > 0:06:49for centuries that's the way we have been educated and raised.
0:06:49 > 0:06:51But surely Roger Vadim is a male chauvinist par excellence?
0:06:51 > 0:06:53No, no. Oh, no.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57Not really. He... It would seem that way but in fact it's not...
0:07:00 > 0:07:03I would say he is no more guilty of male chauvinism than most men
0:07:03 > 0:07:05that I know.
0:07:05 > 0:07:07My God, he made Bardot into a sex symbol,
0:07:07 > 0:07:09he made you into a sex symbol.
0:07:09 > 0:07:13Yeah, well, I'm talking about the way one relates on a personal
0:07:13 > 0:07:15level, on a day-to-day life.
0:07:15 > 0:07:19Vadim was the first of Jane's three husbands,
0:07:19 > 0:07:24but the most important man in her life was always her father, Henry,
0:07:24 > 0:07:30one of America's favourite sons and along with a few friends,
0:07:30 > 0:07:33genuine Hollywood royalty.
0:07:33 > 0:07:38And your father was a big star, did you see much of him?
0:07:38 > 0:07:42- Wasn't he away working all the time? - He was away at war, mostly.
0:07:42 > 0:07:45That was the growing up, was losing him at the beginning of the war and
0:07:45 > 0:07:47getting him back when the war ended.
0:07:47 > 0:07:50He was gone almost the entire time in the navy, in the Pacific.
0:07:53 > 0:07:57But before that, he was at home a lot,
0:07:57 > 0:07:59but he would become different people.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02He'd be a swashbuckler for three months.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05In those days it took less time to make a movie.
0:08:05 > 0:08:07He could make four movies in a year.
0:08:07 > 0:08:11He'd be a western cowboy and then suddenly be a very elegant businessman.
0:08:12 > 0:08:15But of course we took it for granted, we didn't think it
0:08:15 > 0:08:17was strange, because everybody else's father did the same thing.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21- They were all actors too? - But he brought it home.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24His best friends were Ward Bond and John Wayne and John Ford,
0:08:24 > 0:08:25with a patch on his eye.
0:08:25 > 0:08:27They would play a game, I can't even remember,
0:08:27 > 0:08:29it was a very strange card game.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33They would wear pistols and holsters and they would come
0:08:33 > 0:08:36sit around this big round table, you know, with their pistols.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39They would take the pistols out and put it on the table and play this game.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42The guys. The guys with their beer.
0:08:42 > 0:08:45It all ended when the McCarthy hearings started.
0:08:45 > 0:08:47They stopped speaking to each other but...
0:08:47 > 0:08:50Dad's best friend was Jimmy Stewart.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53They became friends when they were struggling
0:08:53 > 0:08:55and literally starving actors in New York.
0:08:55 > 0:08:57They lived together,
0:08:57 > 0:09:00lived on rice for about a year from what I can understand.
0:09:00 > 0:09:04So when they both made it and came to California, Jimmy, who was
0:09:04 > 0:09:09a bachelor forever, lived in our, we had a little kind of playhouse.
0:09:09 > 0:09:13He lived there when he would come back from the war.
0:09:13 > 0:09:15He was in the air force and he would come back at Christmas.
0:09:15 > 0:09:19He would be Santa Claus, although at the time I didn't know that.
0:09:19 > 0:09:24I remember Dad would put bells on Jimmy's feet
0:09:24 > 0:09:27and Jimmy would run across the roof, clomp, clomp, clomp.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30We would think it was Santa Claus coming.
0:09:30 > 0:09:34Your father was, all his life, a sort of presidential,
0:09:34 > 0:09:38magisterial figure. He had this great command.
0:09:38 > 0:09:42In a way, because he was very remote, very shy, very quiet,
0:09:42 > 0:09:44very un-expressive.
0:09:45 > 0:09:51Not entirely like the character in On Golden Pond but somewhat similar.
0:09:51 > 0:09:56You never could quite get enough of what you wanted.
0:09:56 > 0:09:59There was no bouncing on the knees and very little expression of...
0:10:02 > 0:10:05A very elusive kind of a character.
0:10:05 > 0:10:09So, a child, I adored him, I worshipped him and I created
0:10:09 > 0:10:14a monument, presidential if you will, but definitely out of reach.
0:10:16 > 0:10:18It was a challenge.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21I think until I was well into my 30s, I would somehow judge
0:10:21 > 0:10:25everything I did according to what he would think of it.
0:10:26 > 0:10:29Despite the need to please her father,
0:10:29 > 0:10:34Jane was definitely not interested in acquiring his presidential status.
0:10:35 > 0:10:38By the early '70s, she was defiantly campaigning
0:10:38 > 0:10:43against the Vietnam War, despite the fact her actions turned many people
0:10:43 > 0:10:48against her and could potentially have ruined her acting career.
0:10:48 > 0:10:52I think you're right, I think I am different.
0:10:54 > 0:10:56Changes don't...happen overnight.
0:10:56 > 0:11:03It's over a period of years, particularly the last two years,
0:11:03 > 0:11:08I've been turning my eyes outward
0:11:08 > 0:11:13and becoming more aware of what is happening around me.
0:11:13 > 0:11:16Partly because of myself and partly
0:11:16 > 0:11:19because of what is happening around me.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22I grew up in the '50s,
0:11:22 > 0:11:25I was a student of the '50s when it was pretty easy for a white,
0:11:25 > 0:11:30middle-class girl, privileged girl as I was and am,
0:11:30 > 0:11:35to think that things were all right, that America was working,
0:11:35 > 0:11:39that we live in a viable democratic system.
0:11:39 > 0:11:40So anyway,
0:11:40 > 0:11:44what I'm saying is that I became...
0:11:46 > 0:11:49Particularly over the last year and a half, I've become aware
0:11:49 > 0:11:55of people who are less fortunate than I, of what the system is doing
0:11:55 > 0:11:59to us here in America, all over the world, but particularly in America.
0:11:59 > 0:12:02Tell me this, do you think that this new interest of yours
0:12:02 > 0:12:06in civil rights is going to damage your career as an actress?
0:12:06 > 0:12:08No, I don't think so.
0:12:08 > 0:12:13This isn't the McCarthy period. It may damage my life.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16In the McCarthy period, people just lost their jobs.
0:12:16 > 0:12:20Today people are, you know, are being put in jail and killed
0:12:20 > 0:12:23and shot and all kinds of things that are much more serious.
0:12:23 > 0:12:26I don't think that my career is going to be hurt.
0:12:26 > 0:12:30We may all end up in jail one day, the way things are going.
0:12:30 > 0:12:36Has the FBI shown any interest in your activities, personally?
0:12:36 > 0:12:38Yes, of course.
0:12:38 > 0:12:41The FBI has been to see my husband, my brother and my father
0:12:41 > 0:12:48and, you know, that's to be expected.
0:12:48 > 0:12:52You say this, these activities of yours, you don't
0:12:52 > 0:12:56think they endanger your professional career and yet,
0:12:56 > 0:12:58let me put it like this, if it came to a decision
0:12:58 > 0:13:03between your career and your civil rights work, which would come first?
0:13:03 > 0:13:07I know that's a very hard question because it would depend
0:13:07 > 0:13:10on the circumstances, but let's put it like this,
0:13:10 > 0:13:12if it was a question of doing something you felt you should
0:13:12 > 0:13:13do, which might mean going to jail
0:13:13 > 0:13:16and going to jail might mean you wouldn't do the picture
0:13:16 > 0:13:19which you are signed to do, would you go to jail?
0:13:19 > 0:13:22I'm not doing anything for which I can...
0:13:22 > 0:13:24actually go to jail for.
0:13:24 > 0:13:30Today in America, anyone who's doing anything involving root
0:13:30 > 0:13:33changes in this country can go to jail.
0:13:33 > 0:13:35- Right.- And so,
0:13:35 > 0:13:39I...I cannot stop doing what I am doing.
0:13:39 > 0:13:45I am involved in things because I know that without that
0:13:45 > 0:13:51involvement on the part of everyone, there will be no world any more.
0:13:51 > 0:13:55- Let me put it like this... - Nowhere, and so, erm...
0:13:55 > 0:14:00To be safe today in America it means you have to be Bob Hope,
0:14:00 > 0:14:04if you are an actor, or you have to do nothing at all.
0:14:04 > 0:14:10I don't think that's a viable way of living, I don't think that
0:14:10 > 0:14:13anyone can live that way today when things are so crucial.
0:14:15 > 0:14:18So it may mean I go to jail, I will certainly be in good company
0:14:18 > 0:14:20if that happens.
0:14:20 > 0:14:24Jane's choices around this time reflected her more serious
0:14:24 > 0:14:27take on life.
0:14:27 > 0:14:30Gone was any sign of light comedy,
0:14:30 > 0:14:33replaced by intense dramas,
0:14:33 > 0:14:37like the 1969 film They Shoot Horses, Don't They?,
0:14:37 > 0:14:41which earned her first Oscar nomination.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45I wanted to shed the Barbarella armament, whatever.
0:14:45 > 0:14:50It was the first time I was really taken seriously as a dramatic
0:14:50 > 0:14:54actress. The world was changing. I had experienced 1968.
0:14:54 > 0:14:57This was the first time in my life that
0:14:57 > 0:15:01I was asked to do a movie that was about society,
0:15:01 > 0:15:05that was a critique of American society, it had something to say.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08It was right after that that I became an activist.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12When Jane failed to win the Oscar, there was speculation that
0:15:12 > 0:15:17her recent arrest on the military base had cost her the award.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20If that had been the case,
0:15:20 > 0:15:24the Academy had clearly forgiven her two years later
0:15:24 > 0:15:28when she won the Best Actress award for her role in the thriller
0:15:28 > 0:15:33Klute. Playing a New York prostitute, she delivered what many
0:15:33 > 0:15:37felt was the best performance of her career.
0:15:38 > 0:15:39Klute was funny, you know.
0:15:39 > 0:15:43Between the time I accepted to do Klute
0:15:43 > 0:15:48and when I actually did it, I began to identify myself as a feminist.
0:15:49 > 0:15:52I began to think, "I can't play..."
0:15:52 > 0:15:55This is part of the early women's movement, right?
0:15:55 > 0:15:58"I can't play a whore, it's not correct."
0:15:58 > 0:16:01I thought, "What am I going to do? How am I going to do this?
0:16:01 > 0:16:03"It's not appropriate for me to play a whore."
0:16:03 > 0:16:06Finally, one of my wiser feminist friends said,
0:16:06 > 0:16:08"All you have to do is make her real.
0:16:08 > 0:16:12"All you have to do is really show all the different layers that
0:16:12 > 0:16:15"make up a woman who does this." And so, I did.
0:16:15 > 0:16:19I thought I was able to bring something to the performance
0:16:19 > 0:16:22that I would not have brought if I had not been a feminist.
0:16:22 > 0:16:27In Klute, for example, the scene when I am finally face-to-face with
0:16:27 > 0:16:31the guy that's going to kill me the way he killed my girlfriend and...
0:16:33 > 0:16:37He plays a tape recording of her voice as he is getting ready
0:16:37 > 0:16:40to kill her and she begins to realise that she's going to
0:16:40 > 0:16:44be killed and I'll never forget it because I didn't plan anything,
0:16:44 > 0:16:46I didn't plan what I was going to do.
0:16:46 > 0:16:48I know what I would normally have done, I would have played "fear".
0:16:48 > 0:16:51That's what you play, you're going to be killed, you realise this is
0:16:51 > 0:16:54the guy that's going to kill me and you play "fear".
0:16:55 > 0:16:59I listened to the tape recording and I listened to her
0:16:59 > 0:17:02voice and something completely different happened to me.
0:17:04 > 0:17:06- TAPE RECORDING:- Nothing is going to happen.
0:17:08 > 0:17:10OK.
0:17:10 > 0:17:13Why don't you... Why don't you make yourself comfortable?
0:17:13 > 0:17:17- Why don't you...- I am perfectly comfortable.
0:17:17 > 0:17:19Just put your head down.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24You have such lovely, long, blonde hair.
0:17:27 > 0:17:30Turn your head. Like that.
0:17:32 > 0:17:33SHE SCREAMS
0:17:33 > 0:17:36SCREAMING CONTINUES
0:17:38 > 0:17:41I heard her voice and I began to think of all of the women
0:17:41 > 0:17:44that had been hurt by men, all of the women that have been
0:17:44 > 0:17:48victims of sexual violence because of men.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51I thought about it and reacted to it in a very, very different
0:17:51 > 0:17:53way because of the different feelings that I had,
0:17:53 > 0:17:56the empathy I had for women had come
0:17:56 > 0:18:00through my understanding of feminism, and I wept.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03I think it's one of the strongest scenes I've ever done
0:18:03 > 0:18:05because it's very unexpected.
0:18:05 > 0:18:10It also impressed the man whose opinion of her mattered most.
0:18:10 > 0:18:14- I am in awe.- Really? - I am awe of both of them.
0:18:14 > 0:18:18Jane, not only is one of the most incredible actresses I've
0:18:18 > 0:18:23ever seen, and I have to say that I am not surprised
0:18:23 > 0:18:27because I saw her do things early before she committed herself.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30I thought if she ever does want to, she is going to make it.
0:18:30 > 0:18:35But when I saw Klute, as an example, I couldn't wait to sit
0:18:35 > 0:18:38and talk to her.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41This is not a father-daughter, this is actor-actor.
0:18:41 > 0:18:46Where did it come from? How did that happen? Do you know?
0:18:46 > 0:18:50We are talking actor talk and when I realise that the scene that
0:18:50 > 0:18:53had knocked me out was an improvisation,
0:18:53 > 0:18:56which I couldn't do if I was paid money to do it, I just can't.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00I have to have the written word and a director to help me a lot.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03They got to this scene and the director knew what he wanted
0:19:03 > 0:19:04but it wasn't written.
0:19:04 > 0:19:08He talked to Jane about it, she said, "Just give me a moment."
0:19:08 > 0:19:11And this came out of improvisation and just tore you apart.
0:19:11 > 0:19:16Anyway, she is not only this incredible actress,
0:19:16 > 0:19:19but she is the activist that you note her to be.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23And I'm in nothing but sympathy with her.
0:19:23 > 0:19:25You are proud of that part of her?
0:19:25 > 0:19:28- Yeah, part of it, only in as much as I am in sympathy.- Yes.
0:19:28 > 0:19:30It's not in me to be an activist.
0:19:30 > 0:19:36Just in my make up, I'm not, she's extrovert and I am very introvert.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41It's impossible, it would be impossible for me to get up,
0:19:41 > 0:19:45as much as my heart may be full and my head full of cause, to
0:19:45 > 0:19:48face an audience in my character to talk about it, I couldn't do that.
0:19:48 > 0:19:53- I am in awe that she does, to five people or 5,000 people.- Mm-hm.
0:19:53 > 0:19:56And is good at it and feels deeply.
0:19:56 > 0:20:01That interview came three years after Jane's notorious visit
0:20:01 > 0:20:05to North Vietnam, where she caused outrage amongst many
0:20:05 > 0:20:10Americans by having her photograph taken whilst laughing
0:20:10 > 0:20:13and sitting on a Vietcong anti-aircraft gun.
0:20:13 > 0:20:18The incident earned her the name of Hanoi Jane
0:20:18 > 0:20:22and even years later, some have never forgiven her.
0:20:24 > 0:20:29Jane later claimed she was set up for propaganda reasons.
0:20:29 > 0:20:33But still called it a lapse of sanity that she will
0:20:33 > 0:20:36apologise for her whole life.
0:20:37 > 0:20:42The 1978 film Coming Home made some amends.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46It looked at the plight of servicemen returning from Vietnam.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50It was the first film made by Jane's own company.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54It earned her a second Best Actress Oscar,
0:20:54 > 0:20:59but, more importantly for her, won praise from many soldiers who
0:20:59 > 0:21:03had been left severely injured by the conflict.
0:21:04 > 0:21:08The following year, The China Syndrome was another hit,
0:21:08 > 0:21:10proving again it was a time
0:21:10 > 0:21:14when serious drama could do well at the box office.
0:21:14 > 0:21:18Was the public in any danger at any time as a result
0:21:18 > 0:21:19of the accident?
0:21:19 > 0:21:21I'm using that word very deliberately because
0:21:21 > 0:21:24I think that a good investigative reporter would do that.
0:21:24 > 0:21:29But Jane's next political picture ended up becoming
0:21:29 > 0:21:30one of the era's best-loved
0:21:30 > 0:21:36and most successful comedies. 9 To 5.
0:21:36 > 0:21:41Violet, we're not criminals, you're not a criminal. It was an accident.
0:21:41 > 0:21:43Well, we're criminals now, we've just stolen
0:21:43 > 0:21:46a corpse from a hospital, that sounds like criminal to me.
0:21:46 > 0:21:49We'll take it back, we'll just turn around and take it back.
0:21:49 > 0:21:52We'll get caught if we go back now.
0:21:52 > 0:21:53You think they are going to listen to us?
0:21:53 > 0:21:55Would you two stop arguing
0:21:55 > 0:21:57and think about where we can lay hands on some cement?
0:21:57 > 0:22:00CAR HORNS BEEP TYRES SCREECH
0:22:00 > 0:22:05It grew out of my understanding of the predicament of secretaries
0:22:05 > 0:22:10and wanting to show their situation and how difficult it was.
0:22:10 > 0:22:13I started out making a serious film,
0:22:13 > 0:22:17but then one night I went to see Lily Tomlin in her one-woman show.
0:22:17 > 0:22:19I was smitten.
0:22:19 > 0:22:20Oh, my God, the talent,
0:22:20 > 0:22:24and I thought, "She's got to be one of the secretaries."
0:22:24 > 0:22:27And as... This is true.
0:22:27 > 0:22:31As I was driving home from the theatre, I turned on the radio
0:22:31 > 0:22:35and it was Dolly Parton singing Two Doors Down, bingo.
0:22:35 > 0:22:37I thought, wow, Jane, Lily and Dolly.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40But it's going to have to be a comedy!
0:22:40 > 0:22:46After toppling the boss in 9 To 5, came On Golden Pond,
0:22:46 > 0:22:50a labour of love for the man she'd always looked up to.
0:22:50 > 0:22:54Previously a play, Jane bought the rights
0:22:54 > 0:22:59because its depiction of a troubled father-daughter relationship
0:22:59 > 0:23:03echoed that of her own and her father, Henry.
0:23:03 > 0:23:08- Ha!- What I'd like to know is why you enjoy playing games?- Huh?
0:23:08 > 0:23:11You seem to like beating people, I wonder why?
0:23:18 > 0:23:22You get another chance, Bill, another roll of the dice.
0:23:23 > 0:23:24APPLAUSE
0:23:24 > 0:23:28Was that a bit like it was with your father?
0:23:28 > 0:23:32Yeah, but it happened a couple of years before the movie.
0:23:32 > 0:23:34By the time we got to the movie we'd become friends.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37But it was a very interesting experience.
0:23:37 > 0:23:40Here, I was the producer, I put it together for him
0:23:40 > 0:23:45and I'd won two Academy Awards and I still,
0:23:45 > 0:23:49I went to work and I confronted him and I just felt like...
0:23:49 > 0:23:52This is the day he's going to discover that
0:23:52 > 0:23:55I don't really have talent, that it was all a mistake
0:23:55 > 0:23:58and he's going to judge me, the way I always felt judged.
0:23:58 > 0:24:02You know, do we ever own our successes?
0:24:02 > 0:24:05I felt like I am condemned no matter what I ever do in my life to go
0:24:05 > 0:24:08through life feeling that I haven't quite gotten there yet.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11- Mm.- And...
0:24:13 > 0:24:15And yet it was wonderful.
0:24:15 > 0:24:18It was really a very, very moving experience
0:24:18 > 0:24:22and what I found was someone who was still willing to just bear their
0:24:22 > 0:24:26soul and expose everything and be vulnerable and be scared
0:24:26 > 0:24:31and work hard and show up on time and be kind to the crew, you know.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34A pro is a pro. It was very, very moving.
0:24:34 > 0:24:39On Golden Pond is often spoken of as reuniting you with your father,
0:24:39 > 0:24:44- did you need reuniting by that stage?- There was a scene, oh,
0:24:44 > 0:24:46where we're, I'm...
0:24:46 > 0:24:50They're playing Parcheesi, him and Hepburn, and I'm reading
0:24:50 > 0:24:53a magazine and he's making fun of the fact that I don't like to play.
0:24:53 > 0:24:56I turn around to him and say, "Why do you like to beat people so much?
0:24:56 > 0:24:58"What is it about you that makes you want to win?"
0:24:58 > 0:25:02It was this very brief verbal exchange of hostility
0:25:02 > 0:25:06between the two of us. We shot his close-up first. No.
0:25:06 > 0:25:08We shot my close-up first with all the lights in my eyes,
0:25:08 > 0:25:10just like now.
0:25:10 > 0:25:14I couldn't see his eyes and so I asked to have a light put on his face.
0:25:14 > 0:25:16I said, "I need to see your eyes, Dad."
0:25:16 > 0:25:19OK, we did my close-up, it went fine. It was his turn.
0:25:19 > 0:25:23Just before we shot it, I said, "Is it OK, Dad, can you see my eyes?"
0:25:23 > 0:25:27He said, "I don't need to see your eyes, I'm not that kind of actor."
0:25:27 > 0:25:28CLIVE JAMES LAUGHS
0:25:28 > 0:25:30I wanted to die.
0:25:30 > 0:25:31I wanted to die.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34I felt just like I used to feel when I was a little girl
0:25:34 > 0:25:35and he would put me down.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38And yet, and this is so typical of actors,
0:25:38 > 0:25:41the other half of my brain was saying, "This is fabulous,
0:25:41 > 0:25:44"this is exactly what he does to Chelsea, the character."
0:25:44 > 0:25:47There's a scene when she says to my mother, "You know,
0:25:47 > 0:25:49"I'm a grown-up woman, I have a business,
0:25:49 > 0:25:53"I'm a professional woman, why is it I come here and I feel
0:25:53 > 0:25:54"like a fat little girl?"
0:25:54 > 0:25:57So it's that kind of schizophrenic experience.
0:25:57 > 0:25:59Afterwards, the minute the scene was over,
0:25:59 > 0:26:02Hepburn came and took me in her arms.
0:26:02 > 0:26:06She said, "He doesn't even know who he hurt you and it's all right."
0:26:06 > 0:26:09She said, "Tracy used to do that to me all the time.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12"When we were doing a love scene and it was his close-up,
0:26:12 > 0:26:14"he told me to go home, that he didn't need me there.
0:26:14 > 0:26:15"They just don't understand."
0:26:15 > 0:26:19I don't think I've ever grown up on Golden Pond. Do you understand?
0:26:21 > 0:26:25- No, No, I don't think I understand. - Doesn't matter.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30I act like a big person everywhere else.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35I'm in charge of Los Angeles and I come here,
0:26:35 > 0:26:38I feel like a little fat girl.
0:26:38 > 0:26:40That's just because your father said that.
0:26:42 > 0:26:47On Golden Pond won her father his first Oscar,
0:26:47 > 0:26:52which Jane collected on his behalf.
0:26:52 > 0:26:56It was also an unexpected blockbuster
0:26:56 > 0:27:00and arguably the last truly significant role of her career.
0:27:00 > 0:27:06The rest of the '80s saw her focusing more on her charitable work,
0:27:06 > 0:27:12made possible by the phenomenal success of her exercise videos,
0:27:12 > 0:27:17and after 1990 she didn't act at all for 15 years.
0:27:17 > 0:27:24The film that she returned for was the 2005 comedy Monster-In-Law,
0:27:24 > 0:27:29thought by many to be a surprisingly lightweight choice,
0:27:29 > 0:27:31but Jane had her reasons.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34I thought, "Gosh, I wonder if I could have fun again."
0:27:34 > 0:27:37- And I did.- You did?- I did, I really did.- So you might do it again?
0:27:37 > 0:27:39I'd like to do it a few more times, you know,
0:27:39 > 0:27:42nobody is pounding on my door, but...
0:27:42 > 0:27:46You know. I have other things, it's not the centre of my life
0:27:46 > 0:27:47but I would have fun to do it again.
0:27:50 > 0:27:56And she's been having fun in films and most notably on television.
0:27:56 > 0:28:02In the comedy series Grace And Frankie, which reunited Jane
0:28:02 > 0:28:05with her 9 To 5 co-star, Lily Tomlin.
0:28:05 > 0:28:10She is still a chameleon but a calmer one,
0:28:10 > 0:28:13looked on as a trailblazer, a role model
0:28:13 > 0:28:17and an important actress, her history means not
0:28:17 > 0:28:22everyone is going to love her like they seemingly loved her dad.
0:28:22 > 0:28:28But after all these years, there is a sense Jane Fonda is now
0:28:28 > 0:28:32someone many of us have grown very fond of.