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Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Wednesday, March 13, 2013
FONDA: Feeling good inside and out Continued from Page 30
I am very comfortable with it. Although I started at age 71 — the blog, that is — I have been using a computer since I was 58. [Former husband] Ted Turner doesn’t have a cellphone or a computer. Hasn’t a clue how to use them. A lot of people don’t. You don’t have to. But I am a communicator. I like to learn. I want to communicate. I have lots of ideas. I have nonprofits. I have things that I want to say. Being a viral person helps you do that. Q: Do you prepare for roles differently now? A: I have always been someone who puts in a lot of time preparing. I think I am a braver performer now. I take more risks as an actor. I think I am a better actor than I was, because I know myself better and because I am a happier person. I left the business for 15 years — I was very, very unhappy in the ’80s. I just said, “I can’t.” Some people can act if they are unhappy. I can’t. I said, “I am just going to quit.” Then 15 years later, I was a very different person. I was ready to go back, and I find joy in it. I prepare pretty much as I always did. I love playing Nancy Reagan [in the soon-to-be-released movie “The Butler”]. I think I kind of look like her. I am told she is very pleased at the fact that I am playing her. Even though we don’t necessarily agree. But you know something when you are getting older? All that mellows. I am still very strong in my beliefs, but Ted Turner helped with that. His philosophy is you catch more bees with honey than with vinegar. And I spent 20 years in Georgia. I am much more comfortable with people who don’t agree with me. I can see them as human beings instead of saying, “Hm, we’re different.” But part of that is just plain age. Q: How is your memory? Do you
still memorize lines easily? A: Memorizing has always been easy for me. That really helps me in the “The Newsroom” because speeches are very long. I memorize easily, and that stays true. Now, remembering things like where did I put that or who is the person’s name, that can go right out of my mind. The trick for that is to breathe and let it go. The worst thing you can do is fret over it. Maybe in a minute or 10 minutes or 20 minutes it comes to you. If I can’t find something, I don’t fret. I know it is going to show up in a pocket of a coat or a purse. Q: People say Hollywood is harsh for older women. A: It is. I understand why that is true: It’s a big screen up there that you watch. And it is very nice to look at beautiful faces with beautiful skin and bodies. [But] it is a business, and there are more and more older people in the world. It is the fastest-growing demographic globally, and within that fastgrowing demographic, women are the biggest part of that. There are more older women than anybody. I believe in time [that] Hollywood — and all sectors of society — will have to adjust to this new reality. But it is tough. I am [now] 75. It’s not easy. I hope in some small way I can change that, just by being there. Q: What’s in your future? A: I want to keep working as an actor. I am very, very happy in “The Newsroom.” I think it is a fantastic television series. It is written by Aaron Sorkin. Have you seen it? I love playing that character, Leona Lansing. I want to have my own television series. I want to make movies. Q: Looking back, is there anything you wish you had done differently? A: I wish I had been more confident. I wish I had had more confidence in myself and been more conscious. I
always used to think that being selfconscious was a pejorative. The person who taught me otherwise was Katherine Hepburn when we were making “On Golden Pond.” She was extremely self-conscious, and what that means is conscious of how you put yourself out to the world, conscious of the way you are received by people, the way you are perceived, both in how you look and how you are experienced by other people. She got mad at me because I wasn’t conscious enough. I didn’t pay much attention to how I looked. I am in the process of putting together a reel of photographs of my life for my birthday party. I am in a room where the walls are covered with [photo] albums, and I am going through the albums. It really strikes me how little attention I paid early on to how I came across, how I looked, how I was in the world. It is striking. I think if I had been more self-conscious, I would have made fewer mistakes. Q: How do you project yourself now? A: I have become a happier person. I have become a wiser person. I am grown up. It took me a long time. I am a late bloomer, that’s for sure. That is what I project, someone who has gained a certain amount of wisdom, who is good in her skin. I don’t get rattled very much, frankly.
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Q: Do you think about what you wear and how you look? A: Yes. I am far more glamorous now than I was in my 20s, 30s and 40s. Way more. I don’t obsess about it, but if I have to be in public, I am going to go out of my way to look good and glamorous. I think the most important thing is to be confident about yourself. Older women tend to be more confident. They know who they are. I think that can radiate from you. That will be destroyed if you overdo plastic surgery, if you try to look like someone who is way younger than you are. ... I have had plastic surgery. I don’t want to be a hypocrite. I have said to the surgeon, “I don’t want to get rid of the wrinkles. Take the bags away from my eyes.” I still look like me, whereas I know too many people I see walking toward me [where] I know somewhere in that encasement is someone I once knew, but I don’t know who they are. That’s not good. Staying healthy, staying fit, being confident, being intentional about how you live, staying curious about things, maintaining love — it can be sexual love or it can be the love of friends — this is very important as you get older, and I think it helps people glow from the inside out.