An 80-Year-Old Icon Of Transformation And activism: Jane Fonda

It is hard to believe she has turned 80 last December: Jane Fonda seems to be more at ease with herself than ever in her New Yorker interview; and thus appears "younger" than ever. As the author points out at the beginning:

The first four acts in Susan Lacy’s new HBO documentary, “Jane Fonda in Five Acts,” are named after men: Fonda’s father, Henry; her first husband, the French auteur Roger Vadim, who directed her in “Barbarella”; her second husband, the antiwar activist and author Tom Hayden; and her third husband, the media mogul Ted Turner. The last act is called “Jane Fonda.” The story that the movie tells is largely about how Fonda, despite her outspokenness, took a lifetime to live on her own terms.

In the interview, Fonda talks about how she views Trump, the #MeToo movement, and the lifetime journey of "searching" and "finding" her identity as a woman, as a person.

The new HBO documentary introduced her with the following words: 

"Girl next door, sex kitten, activist, fitness tycoon: Oscar-winner Jane Fonda has lived a life marked by controversy, tragedy and transformation, and she's done it all in the public eye." 

Her separation from media mogul Ted Turner seems to have been a defining moment for her. As she describes it:

I moved into my daughter’s house, and it was pretty shocking going from twenty-three kingdom-sized properties and a jet plane to a really quiet, small house in a not-gentrified part of Atlanta. Me and my golden retriever. And I remember standing in the middle of the room, and I felt so sad. But then I realized, I’m O.K. I don’t need a man to define me anymore. 

She probably never did, just as any other woman—but sometimes it takes a lifetime to realize that and some have to travel along rocky roads for decades.