‘The Newsroom’: The show Jane Fonda called “perfect television”
In the glittering realm of Hollywood, there are a few stars who burn eternally brighter than others, and it’s plain to see that Jane Fonda has undoubtedly achieved the envious status of a true icon with a series of memorable performances over the course of several decades in the limelight.
From her early breakthrough roles in the likes of Period of Adjustment and Barefoot in the Park to her acclaimed Academy Award-winning efforts in Klute and Coming Home, Fonda has always proven her fearless commitment to the actor profession, delivering time and time again with passion and intensity.
Indeed, Fonda is best known for her movie roles, which also include the likes of Julia, On Golden Pond and The Morning After. However, the New York City-born star has also made a deep impression on the world of television, notably starring in the Netflix comedy series Grace and Frankie with Lily Tomlin.
In playing a woman who befriends another when it’s revealed that their husbands are having an affair with one another, Fonda announces herself in the hearts of an entirely new generation of TV fans. Interestingly, though, it appears that Fonda starred in another TV show that she thinks was better than Grace and Frankie.
Speaking with The Hollywood Interview, Fonda said that Aaron Sorkin’s HBO show The Newsroom is “just perfect television”. The political drama first premiered on HBO in 2012 and ran for three seasons across 25 episodes until 2014, and it was a show that left a deep impression on Fonda.
The series tells of the behind-the-scenes events of a fictional news channel called Atlantis Cable News. “It’s just absolutely brilliant,” Fonda said, who played Leona Lansing, the CEO of Atlantis World Media, the parent company of CAN, in the show, which also starred Jeff Daniels, Emily Mortimer, John Gallagher Jr., Alison Pill and Dev Patel, amongst many others.
At the time, Fonda felt that The Newsroom would have a big impact on its audience “and on the news and maybe on the election.” she said, “It’s going to be very controversial. And it is just totally amazing. I’m so proud to have a small role in it, just three episodes.” In the series, Jeff Daniels played an anchor who puts on a news show to challenge the commercial expectations of the corporation that owns the news channel.
Discussing her character in The Newsroom, Fonda noted, “I play the woman who owns the conglomerate that runs the rule over the network. It represents less than three per cent of my annual profit, but the newsroom can make a lot of trouble for me. I know something about this, after all.”
As far as Fonda’s inspirations went for playing Leona, Fonda admitted that she tapped into her former husband, Ted Turner, noting, “I drew from some of the personality traits of Ted for the character because he’s very funny.” Turner had founded the Cable News Network, which pioneered the 24-hour news channel, the perfect inspiration for Fonda’s character.
Though Fonda is best known for her movie roles, it’s fair to say that she has made a decent impression on the world of television, too. While Grace and Frankie is perhaps her most beloved piece of TV, the actor herself believes that the best production she ever worked on was Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom of the early-to-mid-2010s.
