has no intention of retiring at 85-years of age and just a few months removed from grueling chemotherapy treatments following a diagnosis of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a blood .
In fact, the legendary actress plans on maintaining the busy schedule that she’s been on since her late-career renaissance, along with her activism that’s been focused on climate change in recent years, as reported by .
Now happy and content to be a single woman, the New York City native stars in three new films that will be all dropping over the course of about four month, which is something the longtime leading lady said she didn’t due while in the heyday of her career.
‘Even at the height of my career — whenever that was, I guess in the ’70s — I never had three movies in one year,’ Fonda confessed in a new interview with THR. ‘So I feel pretty lucky.’
First up for Fonda is her role as Trish in the sports comedy film, 80 For Brady, alongside fellow Hollywood icons and friends Lily Tomlin, Sally Field and Rita Moreno.
Going strong: Jane Fonda, now 85, revealed that she has no intention of retiring anytime soon, due in part, because she believes being active as a high-profile actress will help draw attention to the causes she cars about, including climate change
The ladies star as four senior women, and longtime New England Patriots fans, who travel to Houston to watch their hero, Tom Brady, who also happens to be a producer, play in Super Bowl LI (2017).
80 For Brady is slated to hit theaters on February 3, which in the end comes two days after Brady officially announced his retirement from the NFL after 23 seasons at the age of 45.
Fonda again teams with Tomlin as the leads in the upcoming indie film Moving On.
In it they play two estranged former friends who reconnect at the funeral of another mutual friend, and decide to exact revenge on their dead friend’s widower for wronging them decades earlier.
The dramedy, which also stars Malcolm McDowell, Richard Roundtree and Catherine Dent, is scheduled to premiere on March 17.
Keeping up busy schedule: The longtime leading lady has three new films coming out over the course of four months, including 80 For Brady on February 3; she is pictured with her co-stars Lily Tomlin, Sally Field and Rita Moreno
For her third new release of 2023, Fonda stars in the romantic comedy Book Club: The Next Chapter, a sequel to the 2018 white-wine-soaked comedy she made with Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen.
The women portray four best friends who take their book club to Italy for a fun girls’ trip they never had. When things go off the rails and secrets are revealed, their relaxing vacation turns into a once-in-a-lifetime cross-country adventure.
Set to debut on May 12, Book Club: The Next Chapter also stars Andy Garcia, Don Johnson and Craig T. Nelson, among others.
Acting, now, has largely turned into a vehicle to help Fonda attract attention to causes she cares about.
While her days of protesting the Vietnam War were well chronicled decades ago, in more recent years the actress has been joining protests in the name of climate change.
Fonda and Tomlin also star as estranged friends who reunite to seek revenge on the petulant widower (Malcolm McDowell) of their recently deceased best friend in Moving On
For her third new release of 2023, Fonda stars in the romantic comedy Book Club: The Next Chapter, a sequel to the 2018 white-wine-soaked comedy she made with Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen
Fonda spent her 82nd birthday in jail after getting arrested for a fifth time in Washington, D.C., in 2019, during a sustained climate change protest she called Fire Drill Fridays.
‘I was happy to turn 82 in jail because I knew it would get a lot of attention,’ she said about her personal sacrifice to the cause.
‘One feeds the other,’ the two-time Oscar winner said. ‘I recently thought, “Maybe I do want to quit acting.” I mean, I’m 85. But then I realized, my platform matters. It brings people in that might not come in normally.”‘
During the flurry of work, Fonda got hit with the cancer diagnosis that resulted in chemotherapy treatments that only just ended in mid-November.
‘It really hit me hard,” Fonda says of the chemo. ‘Sometimes my energy just gave out. Normally, I can hold a push-up for a couple of minutes. When the chemo was in me, after 30 seconds, I’d collapse.’
Star soaring: Fonda saw her status as a sex symbol soar when she starred in science fiction film Barbarella (1968) that was directed by her first husband Roger Vadim
Now in remission, she’s still as busy as ever, spending time fundraising and campaigning for political candidates through the Jane Fonda Climate PAC that she launched in 2022, while keeping up with the news by reading three newspapers a day and an assortment of books.
Confessing she doesn’t really put too much thought into her own legacy, Fonda admits she’s ‘not scared of dying.’
‘I think I’m telling the truth when I say that,’ Fonda says without hesitation, before adding, ‘But I am really scared of getting to the end with a lot of regrets when it’s too late to do anything. And when you figure that out, it instructs the way you live between now and the end.’
Fonda’s acting career dates back to her stage work in the late 1950s, which laid the foundation for her film career that kicked-off in the 1960s.
Among her more memorable movies include Cat Ballou (1965), The Chase (1966), Barbarella (1968), Fun With Dick and Jane, (1977), Coming Home (1978), The China Syndrome (1979), The Electric Horseman (1979), On Golden Pond (1980), The Morning After (1986) and Stanley & Iris (1990).
After about a 15 year absence from the silver screen, Fonda returned with a hilarious role alongside Jennifer Lopez in Monster-in-Law (2005), which set off her resurgence as an actress.
Career boom again: The New York City native has had a career resurgence since starring in the romantic comedy film Monster-In-Law (2005), alongside Jennifer Lopez; she’s seen in January