Jane Fonda is explaining, in her clipped, slightly raspy, no-nonsense tone, the liberating benefits of reaching a certain age. “The over-50s tend to have a greater sense of well-being, be less hostile, more positive,” she says. “Social scientists can’t quite explain why. It could be because of changes in the brain, but also, they think, it is partly just a question of having been there, done that.”
“Women also tend to get braver, feistier,” she continues. “It’s called the ‘f--- you fifties’.”
“Once you are past 50, it’s like: why the hell not be the person who I really am? What do I have to lose? You can do all the things that you are not supposed to do as a woman, like tell the truth and get angry.”
I meet Fonda – Oscar-winning actress, political activist and former fitness guru – in an airy suite in New York’s historic Waldorf Astoria hotel. Tulea, her tiny white fluffy Coton du Tulear dog comes skittling across the floor to greet me.
We’re here to talk about Grace and Frankie, Fonda’s new Netflix comedy, co-starring her old friend Lily Tomlin, and fellow septuagenarians Martin Sheen
