Between arrests, Jane Fonda has a date in Morristown

She's an heir to Hollywood royalty with two Oscars of her own, a cultural icon and a frequent political activist who has been arrested four times since June.

Because she has been a celebrity since birth and has tackled global issues head-on for more than half a century, it's not surprising to learn Jane Fonda has no use for a bucket list.

"I don't, really. I've done most of my bucket-list things," Fonda, 82, said during a recent phone interview.

In between getting busted as an active participant in the weekly Fire Drill Fridays protests in Washington, D.C., Fonda is continuing a tour of live appearances that put her on stage for career reflection and questions from her fans.

"An Evening with Jane Fonda: A Celebration of a Storied Career" comes to the Mayo Performing Arts Center in Morristown on Dec. 8.

Laughing, she quickly revised her bucket-list perspective.

"I shouldn't say that, because that means I could die, and I don't want to die," she said. "I don't know, ooh-hoo, I've been almost every place I would want to go over the course of my life. And I don't feel like traveling abroad these days. I'm trying to cut back on air travel. I don't know. I'm extremely happy, believe it or not. Because I'm involved in activism, and that makes me happy. So I can't think of anything now."

Right now, Fonda is committed to the Fire Drill Fridays, where she leads demonstrations on Capitol Hill "to demand that action by our political leaders be taken to address the climate emergency we are in. We can't afford to wait."

Inspired by Swedish youth activist Greta Thunberg and her school climate strike movement, Fonda pledges to continue the demonstrations until Jan. 10, when she returns to Los Angeles to begin shooting the seventh season of the Netflix series "Grace and Frankie."

"I'm going to be here in D.C. through Thanksgiving and Christmas," she said. "It's going to be interesting, doing these actions over the holidays."

Between the marches, she's continuing the live career retrospectives that give her fans an up-close and personal view of the actress, activist, feminist and entrepreneur who helped to launch the home-exercise video industry.

"It's really fun and a nice break for me," Fonda said, "There's an interviewer who asks me questions, but a lot of the questions come from the audience."

No topics are off-limits, Fonda said, from her sex-kitten days as "Barbarella" and a controversial anti-war protester to "The China Syndrome," "9 to 5" and her three ex-husbands.

"You know, I've been doing this for decades. I'm used to just about everything," she said. "I'm used to people being friendly. I'm used to people being very curious. I'm used to people being very hostile. I've heard it all, and I'm prepared for anything."

Fonda loves to respond with the stories she has accumulated since growing up as the daughter of Henry Fonda and her breakout as a Hollywood ingenue, starring with an equally young Robert Redford in the 1967 Neil Simon film comedy "Barefoot in the Park."

That was before her days as an icon of the 1960s counterculture, including a controversial 1972 visit to North Vietnam that drew fierce criticism from the public and threatened to derail her career.

Her acting triumphs continued, however, adding a second Best Actress Oscar in 1978 for "Coming Home," uniting with her father for the Oscar-winning "On Golden Pond" in 1979 and winning an Emmy for the 1984 TV movie "The Dollmaker."

Everything will be on the table for discussion in Morristown.

"They ask me to tell stories, and I love telling stories," Fonda said. "That's one of the pluses of living a long life. I've had an interesting life and a lot of interesting stories."

One of the tougher questions she gets is to name her favorite film.

"I've done some really good films, and I've done some really bad films," she said. "The good ones mean a lot to me. Of course, 'Klute,' 'Coming Home,' 'On Golden Pond' and 'The Dollhouse' are all very special to me.

"They ask me what movie I had the most fun on. They ask me about '9 to 5,' and I love talking about that. They ask me what it was like studying with Lee Strasberg, how I handle bad reviews, all sorts of things."

She also uses the opportunity to bring her fans up to speed on her latest passion project.

"They ask me why I'm doing these things, and why I have gotten arrested four times now," she said. "Why I'm doing it, and why I think climate change is so important."

Having spent her entire life in the spotlight, Fonda could hardly be blamed if she opted to cash it in and escape to an island somewhere to live a quiet life.

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"First of all, I'd never buy an island, because it won't exist in 10 or 15 years with the sea levels rising," she said with a laugh.

Instead, her passion inspired her to move cross-country for six months to lead the Fire Drill Fridays. Her spirit has rubbed off on the cast and crew of "Grace and Frankie."

"By the way, all the writers and showrunners for 'Grace and Frankie' are coming to D.C. to get arrested next week," she said. "I don't know for sure to get arrested, but certainly to engage in civil disobedience. Isn't that great? Sam Waterston has already been here, and Martin [Sheen] is going to try to come, but he is very busy."

Celebrity, she said, can be a double-edged sword, but she has come to terms with it and is not afraid to use her influence to champion causes close to her heart.

"Celebrity has never really weighed on me, because I've been fortunate," she said. "It's really hard for people who do not come from a privileged background, and then, all of a sudden, they're incredibly famous. Especially in this age of social media, it's very hard, on a very personal and interior level, to adjust to that."

As the daughter of a famous actor, "I never had to go through that. So I was much better prepared to handle that. Not that I always handled it well, necessarily, but it didn't do a whole lot of damage to me, I don't think. Other things might have, but not celebrity."

So she will continue to make movies and television, embrace her fans and fight for the causes she feels affect us all.

"I'm not somebody who wants to escape," she said. "On the contrary, I want to stay and fight, for survival, for all of us on the planet."

William Westhoven is a local reporter for DailyRecord.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: wwesthoven@dailyrecord.com Twitter: @wwesthoven