Jane Fonda–winner of two Academy Awards for Best Actress–wants to go back to acting classes. She told the audience at the Film Society of Lincoln Center last night–in an interview with Hilton Als of the New Yorker–that she wants to “update her instrument.” Later she told me, “I don’t know who I’ll go to. But I want a class with other people, not private lessons.”
Fonda was at the Film Society after a long day of promoting her new film, “Peace, Love and Misunderstanding.” It opens tomorrow from IFC Films. Today she’s on “The View.” Tomorrow she takes her grandkids to Chicago to see son Troy Garity on set –where he’s doing a knockout jon on the Starz show “Boss.”
Fonda was pretty candid with Als and the audience about her recent choices of movies. Talking about “Monster in Law” with Jennifer Lopez, she said she did it because she was nervous a new generation wouldn’t know who she was, but they’d know Lopez. “And then they’d get to see me.” She said when she’s walking in the street, she gets more shoutouts for that movie than any other. Her Oscars, by the way, were for “Klute” (1970) and “Coming Home” (1977). Before Fonda stopped acting in the late 1980s, she was the number 1 American actress. Meryl Streep, who succeeded her in that title, got her start in a Fonda film–“Julia.”
