Jane Fonda: ‘I’m Not Afraid of Death’

Jane Fonda doesn't flinch when it comes to death as she approaches her 80th birthday.

Jane Fonda Interview
Jane Fonda walks the red carpet during the 74th Venice Film Festival. Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images

Jane Fonda has done it all and has been celebrated accordingly for a career that spans more than five and a half decades. Two Academy Award wins (seven total nominations), seven Golden Globe statues and a Primetime Emmy mark the pinnacle of this cut throat entertainment world. One of the most amazing things about Fonda is that she’s still going strong with the well-received Netflix series Grace and Frankie while also tearing off the heads of rude interviewers, even as she closes in on her 80th birthday.

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The legendary actress has no desire to slow things down, but even she’ll admit that that the thought of death has come to her before. That’s not to say she’s afraid of it, however.

“The way I figure, the way to live, especially in the latter part of your life, is to envision how you want to die,” Fonda told Town & Country. “I think we all would like it to be in bed, surrounded by family and loved ones. To get there you have to work hard to heal the wounds and mend the fences. Because in the end it’s always what you didn’t do, not what you did.”

“I’m not afraid of death,” the star added, “but I’m afraid of getting to the end without becoming the best I can be as a person.”

Fonda has kept busy with a handful of interesting projects recently, including Our Souls at Night for Netflix (NFLX), which reunited her with her Barefoot in the Park co-star Robert Redford. The movie follows a widow and widower who find solace in one another over their shared loss. Fonda herself is newly single after splitting from Richard Perry after eight years. Previously, Fonda had been married to Ted Turner, Tom Hayden and Roger Vadim.

“I just always saw that it could get better,” she told the outlet. “That sounds terrible. I wouldn’t want to erase any of them. But they all seem like stepping stones.”

Jane Fonda: ‘I’m Not Afraid of Death’