NEW YORK (AP) - Don’t get Jane Fonda wrong. The 74-year-old actress got a thrill when she wowed the fashion crowd at France’s Cannes Film Festival in a form-fitting, two-tone Stella McCartney gown.
“It’s very nice at my age to have glamour attention _ something I missed out on when I was younger so it’s nice to be getting it now,” she says.
But the two-time Academy Award-winner says she can’t take it too seriously: “It goes as fast as the walk on the red carpet does, it’s over and real life comes back.”
Fonda spoke in an interview Monday to promote her new independent film, “Peace, Love & Misunderstanding” that debuts in limited release and on Video On Demand Friday. Fonda is also taking on a recurring role as a media executive in Aaron Sorkin’s new HBO drama “Newsroom,” and has signed on to play former first lady Nancy Reagan in the Lee Daniels film “The Butler,” due out next year.
In “Peace, Love & Misunderstanding,” Fonda plays Grace, a hippie grandmother living in Woodstock, N.Y., who is reunited with her estranged daughter Diane, an uptight New York lawyer played by Catherine Keener. Fonda and Keener say their desire to work with each other was one reason both signed on for the film.
Keener, who has garnered Oscar nominations for her roles in “Capote” and “Being John Malkovich,” admits to being a bit awed when meeting her co-star, saying “That was just cool for me.”
Fonda says she found a friend in Keener that she wanted to hold on to. “When I was younger _ you make a movie and it’s over and you go on and you don’t necessarily stay in touch but you’re older you realize, `If I want to be her friend I’m going to have to really make it happen.’ So I’ve tried to stay in touch. We’ve stayed pals.”
The Oscar-winner says having Keener around also helped her get into the role of the free-spirited Grace. “What was fun for me is that I’m not a hippie. She kind of is,” she said. “So she kind of got me into the zeitgeist of the `60’s and Woodstock and being a hippie. She was very helpful.”
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