Jane's Game ‘I Am What I Am'
New Zealand Woman's Weekly|October 8 2018

THE ACTRESS REVEALS WHY SHES NEVER FELT MORE HERSELF

Jane's Game ‘I Am What I Am'

There aren’t too many topics Jane Fonda won’t discuss. Sex? Sure, let’s talk about it more. Plastic surgery? Of course – she’s had it and regrets it. 50 Shades of Grey? “It’s not very good, is it?”

From her three divorces, triumphs, activism and personal heartaches, no-one could ever accuse Jane Fonda of being boring – or not being brave.

A youthful 80, Jane is currently in the middle of a career resurgence, thanks to her critically lauded role in Netflix’s hit series Grace and Frankie and her latest film Book Club.

But as she gets older, Jane has managed to find herself too, after decades of being led, viewed and influenced by the lenses and personalities of her ex-husbands – despite her iconic stature.

In a remarkable new documentary, Jane Fonda in Five Acts, the actress opens up on her struggles with eating disorders and insecurities, regrets about her skills as a mother and reveals why she’s “closed up shop” when it comes to romance.

However, she maintains feeling “better than I ever have” at 80, and says she’s determined to continue the reinvention she started years ago.

“Up until my sixties, I was, to an extent, defined by the men in my life,” she tells of her father, famed actor Henry Fonda and three husbands, Roger Vadim, Tom Hayden and Ted Turner.

“I was brought up to please and I wanted my father to love me, so I would turn myself into a pretzel to be what he wanted me to be – not necessarily what I already was.”

This pattern continued in her marriages, she reveals, leading to their downfalls – and it was only when she found herself alone that she became the woman she was supposed to be all along.

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