“I’m going to quit Hollywood”: the movie that saved Jane Fonda’s career
The biggest stars in the business aren’t entirely immune from growing disillusioned with their chosen profession, something that became such a concern for Jane Fonda that she began growing increasingly convinced her future lay as far away from the silver screen as possible.
Embarking on her career in the early 1960s, the actor was instantly placed in a predicament she couldn’t control as the daughter of respected industry veteran Henry Fonda. While there were definitely advantages to be had, the second-generation star was always determined to forge her own path instead of leaning on her name and connections to get her foot in the door.
Of course, it soon became clear that Fonda was a huge talent in her own right, with acclaim and accolades soon following. She won a ‘Best Actress’ trophy at the Academy Awards and Golden Globes for 1971’s Klute, but disenfranchisement eventually began to settle in, a large part of which was brought on by her outspoken activism.
While it wasn’t an active detriment in the long run, Fonda’s high-profile campaigning in support of civil rights and in opposition to Vietnam didn’t do her any favours among the Hollywood power players who weren’t aligned with her well-known belief system. By her own admission, the star was happy to accept any offers that came her way, but she knew that wasn’t the wisest long-term strategy.
“For a long time I had no agency, no volition; if someone offered me a role, I took it. I wasn’t very happy in my career because of that,” Fonda admitted to Harvard Business Review. In fact, she was ready to abandon cinematic superstardom altogether in favour of dedicating herself completely to activism.
She informed a friend of hers, “I think I’m going to quit Hollywood, I don’t like the parts I’m getting, and I want to be a full-time organiser,” only to swiftly be shot down with a salient rebuttal. “He said, ‘Don’t! Stop right there! The movement has plenty of organizers but no movie stars. You have to keep acting and to pay more attention to your career; the movement needs you to do that.'”
That inspired Fonda to shape the direction of her own future, which led her directly into 1978’s Coming Home, the point where she “really began to find joy in my work.” It was her production company that conceived the idea for Hal Ashby’s romantic war drama, and it was clearly a story perfectly in tune with who she was.
Playing the wife of a soldier currently deployed in Vietnam, Fonda’s character volunteers at a local veterans hospital, where she ends up falling for Jon Voight’s wheelchair-bound veteran, with romance soon blossoming. Considering Coming Home won three Academy Awards, including her second ‘Best Actress’ statue to go along with its ‘Best Picture’ nomination, seizing control of her destiny was the best move she could have possibly made.