Jane Fonda names the performance that had a “profound impact on my approach to acting”
Even the best actors of their generation take time to figure out how to give the best of themselves to a performance that requires a deep level of exploration, with Jane Fonda more than a decade into her career before she found her own turning point.
Not that she was a struggling unknown before it happened, with the second-generation star working solidly from her screen debut in 1960, but it was a three-year period towards the end of the decade that cemented her transition into a certified superstar.
1968’s Barbarella was one of the most popular and profitable releases of the year, elevating Fonda’s sex symbol status to a brand new level while entertaining audiences around the world with its camp and kitschy sci-fi stylings. After that came Sydney Pollack’s hard-hitting drama They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, which underlined her dramatic chops by earning her a first Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Actress’.
Fonda didn’t appear in another movie for two years, but when she did, she went one better and landed her first ‘Best Actress’ trophy for Alan J. Paluka’s psychological thriller Klute. It was a complex performance, and one the star admitted forced her to become more immersed in a character than she’d ever been before.
“Playing Bree Daniels in Klute was a turning point for me,” she wrote in her autobiography My Life So Far. “It had a profound impact on my approach to acting. I had to dig deep to understand Bree, which forced me to confront parts of myself I hadn’t before.” As part of her research, Fonda observed high-class escorts and madams to get a handle on the part, which saw her playing a call girl who becomes involved with the detective hired to investigate a disappearance she’s potentially involved with.
It may have won her an Oscar, but Fonda initially tried to steer the producers of Klute in the direction of a completely different performer. Per Du Jour, when she reflected on the classic thriller, the lead admitted she was so confident she wasn’t right for the role that she recommended one of her peers instead.
“After spending a week with prostitutes, I said, ‘I can’t do it. Hire Faye Dunaway. I can’t do it,'” she said. “Then I figured out a way to get into it. I became who she was and just let it happen.” It took her a while to get there in the end – with Fonda even trying to extricate herself from her contract at one stage – but once she seized the bull by the horns it became a transformative moment in more ways than one.
Not only did it win her one of Hollywood’s highest honours, but it forever altered the way she’d approach her characters from that day forward, making a mockery of her initial reluctance.
