Why Jane Fonda didn’t learn a thing from her father: “I never could get him to talk about acting”
It’s likely that Jane Fonda considers herself to be somewhat fortunate to have been born to one of the most prominent actors of the 20th century. The daughter of the legendary Henry Fonda was naturally given a leg up into the film industry via her father, although she still had to prove she was good enough to stand on her own two meritocratic feet once the initial nepotism had worn off.
Sure enough, Jane Fonda managed to show the world that she was capable of delivering mesmerising acting performances based on her own talent. Looking across some of Fonda’s greatest on-screen efforts, including those in Barefoot in the Park, Klute, Coming Home, Julia and On Golden Pond, it’s clear to see that she was worthy of her own acclaim, free from the shackles of her heritage.
Of course, there was always a chance that Fonda would inherit the acting prowess of her father, who had appeared in a number of classic movies such as The Grapes of Wrath, The Ox-Bow Incident, My Darling Clementine and 12 Angry Men, but she had once suggested that as far as acting advice went, Henry Fonda offered little to his daughter.
Speaking with The Hollywood Interview, Fonda was once asked if she had learned anything from her dad about the acting craft and replied, “Consciously, nothing. I never could get him to talk about acting, ever. I produced On Golden Pond for him, and after our big scene together, I still couldn’t get him to talk to me about acting.”
In 1981, Henry and Jane Fonda appeared in On Golden Pond as an estranged father and daughter who reconnect with one another. Jane Fonda once admitted that she found a scene in which her character becomes overly emotional and tells her father that she wants them to be friends, which was the hardest she had ever shot.
The film also saw Katharine Hepburn play the wife of the family and Jane Fonda felt that it was Hepburn who actually managed to teach her more about acting during production, noting, “In many ways I learned more from Katharine Hepburn and I’m older now than she was in On Golden Pond, which really staggers me because I feel so different than I think she did then.”
If Henry Fonda was unable to teach his daughter anything about acting, then at least his many brilliant films served as a way for her to understand more about being a human. “I learned about life from watching his movies, like The Grapes of Wrath,12 Angry Men [and] Young Mr. Lincoln. It’s what made me who I am, the roles he played.”
Sure, Henry Fonda might have taken his daughter to one side and taught her everything he knew about the acting craft, but on the other hand, there’s a sense that he knew that an actor must largely find their own path to acting brilliance, which Jane Fonda undoubtedly did.
Jane Fonda always knew that she had her father’s genes in her, explaining, “I am my dad’s daughter, and I know I look like him in many ways, so I’m sure that there are things that other people see that I don’t,” which goes to show that she was always going to continue his legacy, even if she had to do it her own way.
