Jane Fonda With Marlo Thomas

hi and welcome to oneness with Marlo we are so excited today to have Jane Fonda I love Jane Fonda doesn't love Jane Fonda everybody loves her and she knows so many things she's an activist she's an actress she's a writer she's a fitness guru she's a mom she's a grandmom she's every woman she just knows about so many things and I know that you've got lots of questions today so we're gonna get right to it but Jane first I wanna say thank you you flew in and your plane was late and you came right here and you're a trooper I am I am I'm a trooper I said a saint you said no that's the same thing that's right it's great to have you so thank you for having absolutely I'm honored to be here good well I'm going to ask you the questions and the people are in there and you can talk to them straight or you can talk to me would it be like so the first one is from Tina Tina says hi Jane how does it feel going from a sex symbol to a grandmother and you're still a sexy ever by the way it feels good are you a sexy grandmother yeah I am I am you know I rely I was reading an excerpt from my memoirs about the making of on Golden Pond the other day in Thomasville Georgia I lived in Georgia for 20 years and I suddenly realized with a start that I am now the same age that Katharine Hepburn was when when we made that movie and you thought she was no late yeah but no not just any old lemon she was pretty awesome I feel so awesome but but you know I'm I mean I can't imagine her shacked up or even yearning for romance and and you love you know I yeah and and so it's just you know something one of the things that I've learned now then my old age is there's no one way to do life there are each individual does life slightly differently and you know and I mine is definitely different but I feel I feel good about being a grandmother I spent Easter as the Easter Bunny I have this full costume with ears and Emily a white face and I glue straws to my cheeks I was with my grandkids and all there all these children doing an Easter egg hunt and I just I love that I love that and I love the fact that I'm also still romantic so that's great so what you're saying is you didn't go from a sex symbol to a grandmother you hung on to being a sex symbol for yourself well I never saw myself as a sec well I mean part of your life as a sexy woman you hung on to that and your grandmother that's the secret yeah isn't it I like that yeah what do you think you this is from mg what do you think you would say is something your father taught you oh well you know my dad didn't verbally teach me very much he didn't I imagine it was quite different than your father he didn't talk a lot but many very juvies yeah but he made you know I had a conversation once with Yolanda King the the one of the daughters of Martin Luther King I was writing my memoirs and she happened to call me we got out of this conversation of fathers and I said did your father ever take you on his lap and tell you about life and values and teach you things and she said no I said no my dad didn't either but you had his sermons and I had my father's movies Grapes of Wrath locks bow incident 12 Angry Men the wrong man you know the plays that he did like Clarence did he played Clarence Darrow and embedded in these movies that were the ones that he really loved were values you know very of fairness and equality and against racism and I adored my father and because I knew that these were the characters that he wanted to be like I that's what taught me this one's from Molly Molly says I know you've been married three times I've been married twice I'm not sure I'd ever do it again would you no oh really no but you know everybody has their own way some people really like to be married my father was married oh really so it's not in my card I have one long your mom and dad were 55 years yeah yeah nah I hurt my father yeah I'm but you've been married a long 30 years yeah Mazel Tov I mean I I think it's fabulous and I wish that it had happened to me but I think at my age to get married again why yeah exactly I understand all right here's another one from Katherine there's a lot of new thinking unfitness today what do you think we should know that's different than it used to be I do hear a lot of things like don't do the hi aerobics and well I think there's less emphasis on high impact yeah robucket the the two big changes that have happened since since I started the fitness industry one is is core training there's much more understanding you know about the importance of working your core which means you know your your stomach your back your hips your pelvis the part that makes us able to function mm-hmm safely and well in life and part of doing that asks us to work out on unstable unstable surfaces you know there's the BOSU there's the all different kinds of wobbly surfaces that they put you on trainers in gyms for example and that so you do your bicep curls or whatever you're doing while you're on an unstable surface and you like that and when you approve of it well I have a fake knee and a fake hip so I don't do it that much anymore but when I did I found it very good because I'm challenged in the balance demand yeah and what it written it recruits muscles that we don't often use the smaller kinds of muscles the connective muscles that are as you get older if those muscles aren't strong you pay for it in terms of functionality so that that's a biggie that's a big change in terms of modern-day exercise there's much more emphasis on balance and we never used to be well balanced in every literally being able to walk without tipping over which becomes important when you get older but also balance figuratively keeping a balance between weight you know resistance training aerobic training the kind of things that flexibility that yoga or time here pilates could do for you and keeping your workout balanced in terms of how it's using your body is very important very this is from storm she says for women who over 40 is there something they should specifically do or they should not do in terms of exercise well I think it storm it's good name bad I I think doing anything that that is very impactful to your joints is probably to be avoided for me you know I'm 73 and my my message is even if you've never worked out a day in your life it is never too late to start and you know the expression use it or lose it right what that leaves out is you can get it back again if you lose it that's just amazing how what a difference it can make yeah yeah I use it for for mind therapy when I'm out on the park out there running mmm I just feel better about everything you run oh yeah I run it and walk and running water is tirana I loved run yeah I did I cycle now oh I can't do that I like that it hurts my back cycling yeah really mm-hmm yeah for a long time this is from Jean Davis what gave you the confidence to do the first workout tape since this was not the field you were famous for I love the tape by the way even though I was just a kid because of course every woman I knew had it she loved these women who have to tell us that they were kids or they loved us yeah you know it's this is the truth this is how it came about weirdly enough I had been working out and it was something I really know about I'll try to make this real short and I had a statewide organization in California called the campaign for economic democracy and it was the 70s and there was a recession and it was hard to raise money and there was this terrible guy Lyndon LaRouche extreme right-wing a horrible terrible horrible character who funded his operation because he started a computer business and I thought I gotta start a business that can fund the political work and then I ran into someone very smart who said never go into a business you don't understand and well that narrowed it down the only thing I really understood was working out and so I started the workout business and for a couple of years all the money went to the political organization well you are a trooper and it was a great experience on a personal level but you know what you said about you run-through for the metal thing I hate working out oh you do huh did you hear this but why I do it it's working why I do I don't wake up saying wait I do it because I know I'm going to feel so great after I do it for the same reason you do oh it's the endorphins exactly and and and just feeling good about yourself and what I'm doing the weights for my upper body obviously I'm euphoric I just can't wait to get to that but I don't like exercising my legs as it hurts but you can't give me enough upper body stone really love it okay now what is left Renee wants to know what is left on your bucket list oh yes oh good the minute Ted Turner and I split up I developed a bucket list and it started with hiking to Machu Picchu because I knew I could never do it and I wanted it with him No so bucket list Machu Picchu have done that well uh scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef done that Wow made a movie in French again which I hadn't done since 1970 done that I mean I've I've got checked off a lot of things that's fabulous know what's left I don't know what's left doing it doing nothing maybe eventually I know I spent a lot of time doing I treasure doing nothing of course I'm not really doing anything I'm meditating or I'm praying or I'm trying to be very very quiet like to spend a lot of time alone yeah I mean you do I do yes I'm so happy I couldn't reach her I love to read that's what I love to spend my time I read at least one book a week yeah I read a lot too but I always I feel like if you spend like we go through very intense times people like you and me you know we're we're very public right now you know and we're giving and we're talking and we're writing and we're good and then is I feel like I empty out again I have to take time to refill exactly yeah that's great I feel the same way here's from Deb Jane I'm recovering from back surgery and I was wondering if you have any advice on how to keep positive about that I guess well do therapy you have to do your physical therapy I've had back surgery too you have to you know you have to be sure you do what I assume the doctor gave you physical therapy to do and you have to do it and you have to do it faithfully you have to be make very sure that your stomach is strong to support your back and but on the deeper level your question is interesting because I just finished writing a book and it partly it had to do with aging and how so many people are in wheelchairs I mean gosh I met Steven Hawkins the great physicist who's had ALS Lou Gehrig's disease for 50 years and is he can't do anything but which one cheek and yet he's just written a book about the origins of the universe so your physical condition is not who you are it does not define you don't let it define you there are so many much more interesting aspects to life like your heart your soul your mind these things are not affected by your back that's right and emphasize those kinds of things this becomes more and more important as you get older that's great it is amazing when somebody like Steven Hawkins has such an impairment and he just in life is full so full for him yes wonderful this is from Lauren I know you lived in France for many years would you ever consider living there again well I just last June a year ago June I did a a movie there in French I mentioned earlier I hadn't done a movie in French since 1970 with Jean Loup Gouda and I wasn't staying there not I'm not I couldn't live here but um not really nothing so I kind of was happy to be home again but I love France I love the French I love the French food yeah here's from Lele she's good day Jane I was hoping to give me some new advice on belly fat I'm over 40 and it's to be settling at my midsection please help well Lily Lily Lily first of all part of what happens in midlife and older is it starts to come on around your waist and you know it's it's it's almost inevitable so again it's not who you are don't let it freak you out now that said the only way to get rid of fat is with cardio exercise and cutting down on calories which means the few you want to eat fewer calories you want to be sure the calories you eat are meaningful not fast foods and stuff like not junk food meaningful calories you know and reducing it and making sure that you're burning more than you're taking in burning calories more than you're eating calories but cardio activity not only gets rid of the fat underneath your skin it's the only thing that gets rid of the fat that's marbled in your muscle and so you know the best thing to do is you can do all the sit-ups in the world you can have a really strong stomach but to get rid of the fat that's there you've got to do cardio so how much cardio do you do a week well it very normally depending on where I if I'm at my ranch in New Mexico I will walk for an hour and a half every day oh wow and a lot of that as a yes would you get a car do you have to be a pill no and when I'm not there I do the treadmill or the exercise bicycle or the elliptical and it's boring so I do ten minutes on one and ten minutes on another and I try to do it three or four times a week or half hour 40 minutes whoo yeah good that's why you look so good miss Fonda you are an absolute rock star I didn't say it Darrell did I love and respect you to pieces how do you stay so beautiful oh good genes and a lot of money thank you don't you love it woman is honest and missus says oh hello you girls should do a TV show or movie together love you both yes yes and I create girl power Tachi wants to know do you think the roles for women and movies have evolved did you play Barbarella the water movies of the roles for women women they have on other words in Barbarella days who did a lot of movies where we had women look like sex kittens and do you think we've sort of evolved from that you ever seen the movie you know there were women in movies before there was censorship before there was that what's a call you know the the hide the hide there was a code the highborn man whether it was Mae West yeah or Myrna Loy or Barbara Stanwyck I mean they were hot you know women who were not afraid to ask what they wanted and I mean and then of course it all got sort of pushed down now we're back being sexy but a lot of it is objectified I think um still today I mean I can't believe what young women are asked to do in terms of taking their clothes so I'm pretty explicit sex um I'm lab that didn't exist when I owned the first movie on I when I was first making movies men and when husbands and wives couldn't even sleep in the same bed there were black and white movies in separate beds I know Wow so you know I don't know how good a trade-off it is to see every frontal nudity and explicit sex it's not sexy no it's not no in the imagination I don't think there's anything worse or more of a turn-off than a porno movie it's just like oh no I can't oh I've got a title good one it turns me right away you know women are making them now in their matter yeah maybe I'm an Atlantic story have a little bit of knowledge of the women initiate oh I see yeah no they're pretty clean oh yeah I want to know see you're single that's what you got all this stuff married ladies we don't have now well there's a difference between being single and married yes I'm living with oh I see you mean is a middle ground okay let's see here perhaps you could discuss a golden pond all it was like working with your father and that flick was that your first time working together it was my first time working in movies with my father when I was way younger like 15 17 I did a couple of regional theaters with him plays but it was the first movie I produced it he was dying and I knew he didn't have much longer and I bought the play that was on bra way did you do that because you wanted him to have that I wanted I wanted it was the only way I could work with him before he died and I it was a totally amazing experience and we don't have time for me to go into detail about it but I think I learned more from Hepburn during the making of that movie I mean she was one of these women and it's it's so great when you get older you become an elder and she took that very seriously about teaching to younger people and she took me I can't say under her wing she didn't like me very much she didn't but others didn't like anybody well I that could be she liked me because I was married because I had children she thought actors never should have children and I had a patch she preferred people who had absolutely no attachment except to her that's right but she had a greatness about her and she taught me a lot and what would you think like what one thing she taught you was I read that she made you jump into the lake she made me do the dive myself you had no intention of doing that and it was icy cold she also what did she say to make you do that she just shame you into it well it all happened the first time I met her where she was already it was all ready to go and I came to where she lived in New York and the first thing she said to me was I don't like you and there were reasons why she said that and once we've got that out of the way the next question was are you going to do the backflip yourself well following on the heels of I don't like you I was not going to tell her that no I was not going to do the backflip there was a double already lined up and besides I suddenly remembered her dive in the Philadelphia Story uh-huh so I said of course I'm gonna do the dive my death well when I finally did it took me a month of rehearsals and it was never a good dive but she would hide in the bushes and watch me and when I finally did it one time I did it better than it's actually in the movie she she praised me and told me that I taught her to respect me so that was really no that's great that was she pushed you she did she didn't anyway she pushed me she used to get together me for tea in the afternoon and the house that I rented for her up there because I produce the movie and she would read me my lines give me a line reading oh yeah oh my god oh my god I'm sure the director loved that this this is a question is from Griselda major life lessons learned oh thank goodness we need another hour here's real quick okay it's more important to be interested than to be interesting very good I like that this is from Edgar Jane how are the Braves through this year and what about Peter Oh Peter your brother well see the man I'm living with right now is more into football and basketball so I haven't really been following the Braves I hate to say that I'm more into college football peter is fine great I see him out now that I'm living back in California thank you for asking what this is from Vicki what tips do you have for grandmothers to stay fit so they can keep active and play with their grandchildren right it's important exercise yeah you know now ideally you would do cardio exercise three times a week and you would also do something to maintain muscles because maintaining muscles is important not just because it it's what increases your metabolism so you'll burn calories but also it's good for your brain you know as we age the frontal cortex which is where executive functioning takes place shrinks as you age but if you workout you you minimize this the shrinkage in the front part of your brain it's also good for your bones and your balance so doing cardio doing white work keeping you know practicing balancing things like that all of those things are are very very important and probably one of the key things to aging successfully that's great now we this is and I'm interested in this and I love the week you're not interested in the rest I don't know but I mean I like to a question you're not really interested in this will you do a Jane Fonda workout for the Wii gaming system I love the Wii right and could be flying I'm marinating in that thought I mean I intend to kind of you know I've strived I'm back in the fitness business I have last winter I came out with two new my new brand is called primetime because it's for boomers and seniors great and they're having a big I mean people getting ill they really really really love them and then I've just made two more that'll come out next next fall and winter and human we WI we gaming is a possibility because I watch my son do it I want an avatar man I want people to be able to create their own avatars and join me in a workout plan of egress a great I think it's great that's what this is like a livestream at this point in 2011 Kerr Shapiro wants to know which of your many causes is closest to your heart causes you work on so many things women's me well I have two I have two what one is the issue of adolescence adolescent development adolescent sexuality in fact I'm I'm starting now on three new books about adolescent sexuality and gender and partly because my adolescence was challenged and partly because a lessons are tough here it's easy to love babies they're cuddly and they don't talk back adolescents are prickly and it's hard and so a lot of adults who work with adolescents don't like him very much so I'm very focused on boys and girls not just girls adolescents and the other is trying to stop violence against women and girls which is severe everywhere in the world one in three girls is raped or sexually abused often times by members of her family there's violence all over the world and I'm very much a part of Eve Ensler's organization v-day until the violence stops Eve Ensler's the woman who wrote The Vagina Monologues and out of that play built a global movement to stop violence against ones a great great movement this is an interesting one I don't know if you're gonna answer this one this is from Cooper hi Jane I Drive to and from work and don't really have time to go to the gym how can I add more activity to my daily life without going to the gym oh you can work out the car well if you're a woman you could do Kegel exercises actually you can do abdominal exercise in the car just try to carve out ten minutes here and there walk whenever you can you know if instead of taking an escalator walk up the stairs instead of taking the moving carpets at airports walk you know just all the daily activities try to do them always take them away always always takes unless it's like too high right exactly but it's it's really there's always a way that you can get more active it doesn't have to necessarily be going to the gym or doing a workout this is from Carolyn we don't have much time to try to get in as many as possible Jay and I've been having a great deal of difficulty with foot injuries and surgeries lately I remember reading you once broke your foot while shooting the China Syndrome do you have an exercise routine that someone can follow with this difficulty do have any ideas well I don't know why you you broke your foot so you know it all depends on you know it was if it's lack of balance there are exercises you can do that will help improve your balance when you broke your foot what did you do Jeff it's physical - I broke my foot flat time so oh my no I just had a cast uh-huh no but physical therapy after no no so I'm not quite sure about when I broke my wrist a few years ago on a fell off of a snowmobile actually I went off a cliff but we won't go into that but anyway I had to do a lot of therapy I couldn't even bring my hand up and yeah Jeremy - damn right but I didn't do anything for my foot yeah and Jane this is from Christina Jane what's the best way to get back in shape physically and emotionally after a moderate chronic illness I guess it's sort of the same right well yeah I think chronic illness you know I my the letters that I get from people who work out to my videos the old ones and the new ones are oftentimes people who have come through chronic illnesses and mastectomies and all kinds of things like that or emotional traumas right and there is no question that exercising will help you get through both physically and mentally emotionally spiritually all kinds of traumas be they physical or mental have this is an interesting question have you ever worked with another actor that you were starstruck by who gave you goosebumps yeah Redford I've made three movies with him I fortunately I was married every time I was always in love with him really oh yeah are you over it someone just called me today that has a script for the two of us Wow and we'll see do it now he's married there you go and I think we've ruled for one more this is from Joan Jane when you have time for a vacation again what places in our world seem to draw you back well I have a ranch in New Mexico that is my spiritual home and I go there I ryfi fish and there's a river and so I fish and I ride my horses and I meditate and I hike and that's why I go to refill myself and the next part of that question is what friend or friends would you most enjoy having along well you're not sharp liver I think you're one of already oh wow events ler Jody Evans Pat Mitchell Gloria Steinem this is like a good group should we do it yeah I'll make the pasta and my boyfriend yes and I love having my grandkids there too that's great and my children that's good wow that was a crowd how many grandchildren do it I have two grandchildren and my son and daughter-in-law keep rehearsing but they're not there yet you know well they will as my mother used to say it'll do you good to see a try well thank you Jade you're wonderful let me give you a little kiss oh I hope I answered your question okay you did you did you for joining us we're out of time I could sit and talk to her forever I know you guys could - she's wonderful and lovely and and so real so very real and you've shared so much so I really thank you for that thanks everybody for tuning in and we'll see you next week on Mondays with Marlo

Channel: marlothomas

Views: 158,022

Keywords: Marlo Thomas, establishing an acting career, jane fonda

Id: w4K_eyTP6vE

Length: 28min 39sec (1719 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 22 2012