She may be an actress on screen, but she is an activist first and foremost. From calling for an end to the wars in Vietnam and Iraq to mobilizing with the women’s movement and fighting for indigenous rights, Jane Fonda has marched and protested most of her life.
But five years ago, as she walked beneath a hazy orange sky filled with forest fire smokeShe felt like she hadn’t done enough. This wasn’t the bucolic, pollution-free California she’d known growing up at the end of a dirt road in the Santa Monica Mountains.
“It’s way beyond what I thought it would be,” she told CBS News. “It’s not just about the environment. It’s about the entire planet.”
Something clicked, what Fonda describes as “a lightning bolt right in her solar plexus.” She had always had a soft spot for nature, but had never been vocal about her desire to protect it. She realized at that moment that she needed to use her platform to draw attention to nature. climate crisis.
The Hollywood star, now 86, has exchanged his “Grace and Frankie” I wrote the screenplay for Naomi Klein’s “On Fire,” and I picked up the phone and called the director of Greenpeace at the time, Annie Leonard, to tell her she was moving to Washington. “I’m going to cause trouble. Can you help me?” she said.
It’s just one of many moments Fonda shared about her climate activism journey in an interview with CBS News national environmental correspondent David Schechter.
CBS News
In this candid conversation, Fonda explains why she joined the fight to save our planet and why she urges others to join her cause, especially with less than two months until the 2024 presidential election. “We can’t waste four more years,” she said.
Why 2024 is such a crucial year
The stakes of this election are so high in Fonda’s mind that she has told her agent she will not be able to take any acting jobs this year.
“When the election is going to determine the future, I can’t do it,” she told CBS News.
Fonda is backing Vice President Kamala Harris, confident that the Harris-Walz duo will fight for climate solutions and make progress toward ambitious goals like cutting our fossil fuel emissions in half by the end of the decade.
“I’m really involved this time because of the climate emergency,” Fonda said.
A Trump-Vance victory, she believes, would send the country in the wrong direction by increasing our dependence on fossil fuels. Trump’s slogans “We cannot allow this to happen in the United States,” Fonda said, “not when the future of the planet is at stake.”
Andri Tambunan for the Washington Post via Getty Images
She acknowledges that young people may be tempted not to participate in elections, especially if they are frustrated or hurt by what is happening in Gaza. But her message is clear: “Show us your power! Vote!”
“Don’t stay away from this election, no matter how angry you are,” she urged young voters.
On the role of celebrity endorsements
Fonda isn’t the only celebrity using her voice to rally political support. presidential debate September 10, Taylor Swift has announced her support for Harris on Instagram, signing the post “Childless Cat Lady”, a punch in the face Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance.
“I thought it was very smart of him to decide to do it after the debate,” Fonda said. “I think it will have a big impact.”
According to data from vote.org, from 9 p.m. to midnight on debate night, the website saw a 585 percent increase in the number of people using its registration/verification tool, compared to the same period the previous eight days. vote.gov reported receiving 405,999 visitors through a link shared by Taylor Swift within 24 hours of its publication. The site includes information on how to register to vote and how to vote, and directs users to state sites where they can register.
Whether it’s knocking on doors or posting on Instagram, Fonda believes celebrities can have a huge influence. They act as “repeaters,” she said, referring to electronic devices that help amplify and extend the reach of signals. “They pick up the weak signals in the Valley and distribute them to reach a wider audience,” she said. “That’s what celebrities, like me, do.”
On Strengthening Climate Candidates Across the Country
Outside of the presidential race, Fonda is also focused on mayoral, city council, and state elections. Electing climate champions to these positions is the primary mission of the Jane Fonda Climate PAC. Founded in 2022, the group’s informal motto, promulgated by Fonda, is: “If we can’t change the minds of those in power, we have to change the people in power.”
“There’s a disconnect between what the science says and what elected officials are willing to push through as policy,” she told CBS News. “That has to change.”
The second-tier candidates may seem like a drop in the bucket of climate change action, but Fonda said the goal is to develop leaders who can advance to more senior positions. They also have the power to challenge projects in their own regions, such as Line 5, a pipeline through Michigan and Wisconsin that is backed by Canadian oil company Enbridge, Fonda said.
“We need local people to put a stop to this.”
In its first year, the Jane Fonda Climate PAC raised $2 million and helped elect 42 “climate champions.” This year, the PAC is looking to make even more noise by supporting 100 candidates in several states, including the swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Arizona.
How the climate crisis calls for a collective solution
Fonda firmly believes that power resides not only in the halls of government, but also outside, in the streets. It’s a kind of symbiotic relationship, in his eyes: getting people elected to government and getting them to act.
“Nonviolent civil disobedience and protests have historically changed history,” she told CBS News. “But it takes people in the halls of power with ears and hearts to hear the protests and the demands.”
Fonda is no stranger to civil disobedience. In 2019, she was arrested five times during Friday fire drills, a series of protests It began in Washington, D.C., and was designed to draw attention to global warming. Fonda even spent the night of her 82nd birthday behind bars. “I knew it would have an impact,” she told CBS News.
Mark Wilson / Getty Images
Before that, Fonda last spent a night in jail in 1970, at the age of 32, while on a speaking tour protesting the Vietnam War. She was known for her outspoken criticism of the Vietnam War and had made a controversial trip to the war-torn country in 1972.
Kypros / Getty Images
Fonda says she started Fire Drill Fridays because she realized that much more can be accomplished by joining forces with others who are fighting for the same cause. A collective crisis demands a collective solution, she says.
Asked what advice she would give to young people joining the cause, she echoed that sentiment: “If you want to go fast, go alone,” she said. “If you want to go far, go together.”
JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images
After nearly 60 years as an actress, dozens of films, three marriages and six arrests, Fonda feels like she belongs.
“I think a lot about when I’m on my deathbed, and I know when you’re on your deathbed, you want to feel like it was worth it,” she told CBS News. “For the first time, I felt like my life had value.”
She may be on her last act, but she has no plans to slow down. She is currently traveling around the country visiting district candidates backed by the Jane Fonda Climate PAC and supporting the Harris-Waltz ticket. Last week, she was in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to go door-to-door for the campaign.
“If fame is currency, which it seems to be, why do you spend it this way?” Schecter asked Fonda during the interview.
After a brief pause, Fonda replied, “How else could it be spent?”
The interview with Jane Fonda was coordinated by Covering Climate Now and produced in partnership with The Guardian and Rolling Stone.
David Schechter and Tracy J. Wolf contributed to this report.
