Jane Fonda and her son, Troy Garity, appeared September 16, 2025, as the first celebrity guests on “Scandal” star Tony Goldwyn’s new podcast, “Far From the Tree,” which he hosts with his oldest daughter, Anna Musky Goldwyn.
In the interview, Fonda got real and raw about her rocky adolescence and how she overcame shocking family dynamics to eventually flourish as a Hollywood star. The 87-year-old also reminisced about a time she found herself sitting shoulder-to-shoulder with none other than Marilyn Monroe. Read on for all the details she spilled.
Jane Fonda’s Triumph After Heartache: ‘My Father Called Me Fat’
Jane Fonda was born in 1937 to actor Henry Fonda, and she says he made her beginnings in showbiz anything but easy. The “Barbarella” star revealed she originally got into acting not at his encouragement, but rather out of fear of being jobless at 18 after her stepmother gave her a deadline to get out of the house. She explained, “I never wanted to be an actor. My dad never brought joy home. I never got a sense he found joy in his profession. I was very shy, and Dad told me I was fat.”
She further revealed, “My dad never supported me and my brother going into acting. He didn’t think I would make it.”
Fonda went on, “I needed a job. That summer, Marilyn Monroe was in L.A. making “Some Like It Hot.” The actress said she got to know the daughter of Monroe’s acting coach through a chance meeting on the beach, who suggested, “You should go into my father’s class.”
The activist recalled, “He let me into his classes and encouraged me. I sat in back of class with Marilyn Monroe. We both were too terrified to do a scene.”
She says the coach lit a spark by telling her, “I see a lot of people come through here. You really have talent.” She continued, “Everybody wants to know, ‘What am I supposed to do?’ If you don’t know, it’s terrifying. It gave me direction.”
Jane Fonda Built Her Career After ‘Bad Experience’ On First Film
The legend recalled how she initially struggled to feel comfortable on camera, saying, “My first movie was not a good experience. There was all this focus on how you looked. I vowed I’d never do another. I had no confidence on that level.”
However, as fans know, she continued and ended up making scores of successful projects. Fonda’s son said on the podcast, “From when I was three to nine, my mom made ten films.”
Garity also told Goldwyn about how he always saw his mother as much more than just a top actress. He said his mother and his father, Tom Hayden, turned their Ocean Park house into “a political haven that had a movie star in the center of it.” He explained his mother was away often, but it wasn’t always a negative. “When you have committed parents, you sometimes don’t feel like you’re the priority. But it helped me in my acting.”
Fonda chimed in, “I was away making movies, but Tom involved Troy a lot. He was brought into Tom’s political life a lot more than my acting life.”
People says Hayden, a former California senator, was Fonda’s second husband. They wed in 1973 and splitting in 1990. The outlet quotes her as saying of her ex, “I learned all the things that I consider the most valuable from Tom.”
Jane Fonda Reacted to Robert Reed’s Death After Podcast Appearance
People says after Robert Redford’s death on September 16, 2025, Fonda shared a statement which was published by several outlets. In the statement, she fondly called her longtime friend “Bob” and said learning of his death in the morning “hit me hard.” The statement continued, “I can’t stop crying. He meant a lot to me and was a beautiful person in every way. He stood for an America we have to keep fighting for.”
