Ahead of the 2025 Screen Actors Guild Awards, Jane Fonda Looks Back on Her 65-Year Career—and Ahead to What’s Next

“I never thought I would live this long, much less be a working actor for this long,” she says. “I’m just so grateful to have had the career and life that I’ve had.”

Ahead of the SAG Awards, Fonda caught up with Vogue to chat about her storied career.

Vogue: Does receiving an honor like this life-achievement award make you reflective about your career?

Jane Fonda: Not at all. As Simone Signoret once said, “Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be.” An honor like this feels more like a big encouragement—less about the past, more about the future. But it feels pretty cozy, and I’m extremely grateful because I love being a member of SAG. I am a big believer in guilds and unions. Receiving this honor from my peers makes it very special.

Fonda and Anthony Perkins in the 1960 rom-com Tall Story.Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection

Did you always know you wanted to be an actor, or was there a particular film that solidified that decision?

At first, I just needed to get a job. I was still living with my father, and my stepmother wanted me out of the house. I was friends with Susan Strasberg, and she convinced me to go study with her father [Lee Strasberg]. He gave me the confidence and courage to start thinking of myself as an actor, and I sorta got into it slowly. I sunk into my acting career like a warm bath and didn’t really commit myself for quite a while. As a result, I didn’t enjoy my first films that much. I made [Tall Story] in 1958, and it came out in 1960, but that was a long time ago. You weren’t even born yet, were you?

I—

Actually, I don’t wanna talk about that. [Tall Story] was not a good experience. I was never confident in how I looked physically, and there was so much emphasis on looks at that time. It was a very difficult experience, so I decided I didn’t wanna make movies anymore and was gonna stick to theater. Then I got offered [1962’s] Walk on the Wild Side, where I played a homeless hitchhiker who becomes a prostitute in a brothel run by Barbara Stanwyck. She was a real character, and I loved playing her so much. That was my second movie, and it made me decide I really wanted to pursue this profession. I realized that if I could sink my teeth into a character different enough from who I am, I wouldn’t feel self-conscious anymore and could have a good time.