"Empathy is not weak or woke": Jane Fonda tells actors to "resist" and fight for goodness

Jane Fonda is urging her fellow industry peers to fight the good fight in troubled times.

The decorated Hollywood veteran and activist received the Life Achievement Award at the SAG Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday for her decades-long career, taking her big moment to express that actors must "resist," while emphasizing the importance of empathy.

“What we, actors, create is empathy. Our job is to understand another human being so profoundly that we can touch their souls,” said Fonda. “And make no mistake, empathy is not weak or woke. By the way, woke just means you give a d**n about other people.”

Reflecting on her expansive career, Fonda noted, “For a woman like me, who grew up in the ’40s and ’50s—when women weren’t supposed to have opinions or get angry—acting gave me a chance to play angry women with opinions. Which, as you know, is a bit of a stretch for me,” she joked.

A whole lot of people are going to be really hurt by what is happening—what is coming our way. And even if they’re of a different political persuasion, we need to call upon our empathy—not judge, but listen from our hearts and welcome them into our tent. Because we are going to need a big tent to successfully resist what’s coming at us,” Fonda said, referring to the numerous executive orders passed by President Trump and the laying off of federal workers.

Fonda stressed that unions like SAG-AFTRA empower disenfranchised people: “This is really important right now, when workers’ power is being attacked and community is being weakened.”

“I made my first movie in 1958. It was at the tail end of McCarthyism, when so many careers were destroyed,” she recalled. “Today, it’s helpful to remember, though, that Hollywood resisted.”

Addressing the industry-filled crowd, Fonda asked, “Have any of you ever watched a documentary about one of the great social movements—apartheid, civil rights, Stonewall—and asked yourself, ‘Would I have been brave enough to walk the bridge?’ Well, we don’t have to wonder anymore. We are in our documentary moment. This is it, and it’s not a rehearsal!”

She continued, “This is it, and we mustn’t, for a moment, kid ourselves about what’s happening. This is big-time serious, folks. So let’s be brave. This is a good time for a little Norma Rae, Karen Silkwood, or Tom Joad. We must not isolate. We must stay in community. We must help the vulnerable. We must find ways to project an inspiring vision of the future.”