Jane Fonda Says Director's Hurtful Words Almost Made Her Quit Acting After Her First Film

Jane Fondahas had a long and varied career — but she almost stopped before she even got started.

“I had decided after my first movie, Tall Story , that I was going to quit while I was ahead,” the 87-year-old actress told Variety in an interview published Feb. 19. “I didn’t enjoy the experience. And before we started shooting, Josh Logan, the director-producer, said to me, ‘You should have your jaw broken so your cheeks aren’t so puffy.’ Stuff like that really builds a girl’s confidence.” In Tall Story , released in 1960, Fonda played a marriage-obsessed college student who connives to catch a husband.

Fonda changed her mind about acting and decided to keep going when director Edward Dmytryk offered her a role in 1962’s Walk on the Wild Side . “That made all the difference in the world. She was a real character,” she told Variety of her role as Kitty Twist. “She wasn’t some cheerleader from next door that I had a hard time relating to. She rode around in a boxcar and then she becomes a hooker in a high-class brothel run by Barbara Stanwyck. And I had a blast.”

Jane Fonda in ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ in 1961.

Fonda ended up working in French New Wave Cinema for a time, which she said was great, in part because there she wasn’t known as just Henry Fonda’s daughter.

“The idea of not being so American, not being under my dad’s shadow, this was going to do it for me, going to Europe and working there,” she said. She ended up working with — and marrying — French director Roger Vadim, her first husband. They made four movies together, including Barbarella.

Her time abroad also helped spark her political activism, which, she told Variety , also affected what roles she chose and how she tried to put feminist themes in her movies.

Fonda’s long career has spanned the big screen, the small screen and the stage and has earned her an Emmy, two Oscars and eight Golden Globes. At this Sunday’s 2025 Screen Actors Guild Awards, the Book Club star will receive the Life Achievement Award. She’s also been a vocal activist and attracted lots of fans with her fitness videos.

Jane Fonda with her second Oscar in 1979.

“Here’s the truth: I’ve been hated,” she told Variety of her life in the public eye. “I know what it means to feel endangered. People have walked up to me with beautiful smiles on their face and gotten almost nose-to-nose and said, ‘I’d like to cut your f—— throat.’ I’ve had death threats and all of that. So to be popular is amazing.”

Back in 2023, Fonda told PEOPLE that she struggled a lot as a young person and creative. “Being young is really hard. Don’t let anyone kid you,” she said. “I wish when I was younger, someone had said to me, ‘Don’t give up. Keep going. It’ll get better.’ “