Jane Fonda turns 80 today and in many ways is just getting started
WATCH Jane Fonda celebrates 80th birthday with star-studded fundraiser
Jane Fonda turns 80 today and shows no signs of slowing down.
The two-time Oscar winner has made no secret of how much she is enjoying her third act.
In a Thanksgiving blog post, she wrote, "I’m celebrating my 80th soon and marvel at how terrific and energetic I feel."
So in celebration of her 80 years, here are a few of the things she has said in recent years about everything from her acting to activism to staying fit in her third act of life:
') Jane Fonda celebrates 80th birthday with star-studded fundraiser Jane Fonda calls the current political climate a 'nightmare'
Not wanting to be young again
"You could not pay me to be young again," Fonda told the Daily Mail in 2016. "I don’t care how much money I was offered, I wouldn’t do it. I didn’t like being young at all. I actually felt I started to get old at 7. By the time I was 20, I hated how old I was then. At 30, I was ancient, I saw no future for myself. At 49, I said, 'I’m going down a dark hole, I can’t be creative any more,' and I quit acting for almost 16 years. I was just so old… Then, after I turned 60, I began to understand who I was, and I became young again. Now I’m in sight of my 80th birthday and feeling pretty good about life!"
On needing to stay busy
"I needed a steady job," she told the Daily Mail. "It’s hard to be an older actor and be in regular work — people forget this is how we earn our living. I support other people besides myself and I need to bring in money. Plus, it’s fun. I never would have thought that at my age I could say I’ve been working too hard to spend time pampering myself, but I’m happy to say that’s the case."
Melissa Moseley/NetflixOn her work with Lily Tomlin on the Netflix series 'Grace & Frankie'
"I left the business at age 50, and I came back at age 65," Fonda told the Washington Post earlier this year. "It’s been an unusual situation to re-create a career at that age. But ageism, unfortunately, is still alive and well. And one of the things that Lily and I are proud of — and want to continue with — is showing that you may be old, you may be in your third act, but you can still be vital and sexual and funny…that life isn’t over. Even when I was younger, I wanted to give a cultural face to old age."
On just getting started
"I think it's about how if you still have passion, and if you haven't become cynical and you've remained open to life, then no matter how old you are chronologically, you're still young. Aging is relative," she told Stephen Colbert on the "Late Show" in 2015. "If people say that I look young for my age, it's because I feel like I'm a newbie. I feel like I'm just beginning, just learning how to do things. It's not what I expected at all."
On her activism
"It's like what the hell do you have to lose? So arrest me already. So I'm going to go to the barricades. So I'm going to be an activist like you've never seen," she told Colbert. "So what. What can they do to me now that they haven't already tried and failed?"
Harry Langdon/Getty ImagesOn being fit
"I have a fake hip, a fake knee and I’ve had a number of back surgeries, so I’m sort of half-metal and half-bionic now. I have osteoarthritis and getting in and out of a car is a challenge," she told the Daily Mail. "But I feel lucky that I did a lot of fitness work earlier in my life because it means I’m stronger now."
On finally understanding intimacy
"When my first grandchild was born, that’s when I understood intimacy. I wasn’t the best mother to my daughter — I became a political activist just as she was born so I was away a lot, which I’ve apologized to her about," Fonda told the Daily Mail. "But when my grandchildren came along, a part of my heart broke open. It’s not everyone who gets to be a grandparent, but if you do, it gives you a second chance. I feel lucky to be given that."
On changing our view of aging
A more appropriate metaphor for aging is a staircase," she said in her 2011 TEDx talk. "The upward accession of the human spirit, bringing us into wisdom, wholeness and authenticity. Age not at all as pathology but age as potential."
On never being happier
"Now that I'm smack dab in the middle of my third act, I've never been happier," she told her TEDx audience. "I have such a powerful feeling of wellbeing."
