Four longtime friends head to the Super Bowl and misadventures ensue in the comedy “80 for Brady,” starring Jane Fonda alongside Lily Tomlin, Sally Field and Rita Moreno. It’s one of several recent projects for Fonda that centers on meaningful friendships among women, from the long-running Netflix series “Grace and Frankie” to the upcoming sequel to “Book Club,” which comes out in May.
“It’s not intentional,” Fonda said of this throughline, just a happy turn of events. “Friendships are very important to me. In fact, friendships are very important to human beings. We are an animal that needs relationships. We need to be touched and hugged and loved and not feel alone. And fortunately, the women that I’m working with, both in ‘80 for Brady’ and ‘Book Club: The Next Chapter,’ they both have four women in them and all those women are friends of mine. I got really lucky.”
Fonda’s career spans six decades, her winning two Oscars along the way for “Klute” in 1971 and “Coming Home” in 1978. It’s a resume filled with iconic titles, from “Barefoot in the Park” to “Barbarella” to “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” to “The China Syndrome” to “9 to 5.”
When asked about a worst moment in her career, she recalled a memory from her early days as an actor.
My worst moment …
“I met a French director who will remain nameless — he is no longer alive and he was not someone I was married to. He was a famous French director and he had flown in from Paris to meet with me about a role in a film with Alain Delon. This might have been in ‘60 or ‘61.
“And he said — he was kind of flirting with me — he said, ‘You know, the character has to have an orgasm in the movie and I need to know what you’re like when you have an orgasm.’
“He didn’t speak English, though. He spoke French. So I pretended that I didn’t understand what he was saying. I spoke French fluently, but I pretended I didn’t understand what he was saying.
“And he never had his way. I guess that’s the most absurd, horrible thing.”
How did the meeting culminate?
“He hired me. Not that day, but I was hired. I don’t remember the immediate aftermath of the conversation.”
Fonda was young and this was early in her career — how did she have the wherewithal to decide: I’m not going to play this game?
“I wasn’t attracted to him. And I’d rather lose a job than sleep with a guy.
“I didn’t (have experience with the Hollywood casting couch) because most of the heads of the studios at that time knew my father (Oscar winner and bona fide Hollywood legend Henry Fonda) and, you know, I think that had something to do with it. This guy was French. So, it was different. He didn’t know my father (laughs).”
“Afterward, I thought it was funny. We didn’t think about it that much back in those days — at least, I didn’t. I mean, I remembered it, so obviously it had an impact on me, right? Because it was 60 years ago. But I just thought it was weird — and stupid on his part.”
Did it give Fonda a sense of confidence in herself — if she wasn’t going to be pressured into doing this, did that allow her to make similar decisions going forward?
“No. I wasn’t that sophisticated. It didn’t feel at all like confidence — I don’t think confidence had anything to do with it. The stakes weren’t very high for me. I didn’t particularly care one way or the other.
“Listen, a lot of actresses have it much worse. I told this story a few weeks ago to somebody and she kept saying, ‘I’m horrified!’ She kept coming back to it and saying, ‘I’m horrified.’ And I said, listen, honey, that’s nothing compared to what I’ve heard that other girls and women have gone through. All he did was ask (laughs).”
The takeaway …
“The guy was horny and he couldn’t get a proper date.”
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