Jane Fonda at 87: ‘I'm not a Kardashian, okay? I prefer not to wear make-up'

Telegraph

24-05-2025

There are some ambassadors for beauty brands with whom an interview can feel like a rehearsal for a TV commercial; a passionate explanation of the merits of a certain face cream or a shampoo. Not with Jane Fonda, who, at 87 years old, is unapologetically telling me the opposite. 'I don't have very much to say about make-up,' she shrugs. 'I'm not a fanatic about make-up, you know, I'm not a Kardashian, okay? I just moisturise a lot and I always prefer when I don't have to put make-up on.'
Despite being an award-winning actress with a career spanning six decades, I gather Fonda has more important issues on her mind: Fonda has just returned from the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador where she spent eight days as part of her work to support indigenous land rights. She has been an outspoken activist for over 50 years, earning the nickname 'Hanoi Jane' in the 1970s for protesting the Vietnam War, and more recently has been working with Greenpeace on climate change.
She's now in the French Riviera dressed in a crisp cream blazer, looking every inch the glamorous octogenarian you see on the red carpet. There's not a single eyelash or natural silver hair from her halo of curls out of place. As ambassador for L'Oreal Paris, she's a regular on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival, along with the brand's other ambassadors such as Helen Mirren, Kate Winslet and Andie MacDowell. 'It's always fun to be here,' she tells me. 'I like the other ambassadors, you know, I have good friends here so I'm always very happy to see them.'
No matter how many times she's been on a red carpet, though, she explains it's still 'a challenge'. 'I feel beautiful when I've gotten all fixed up to go out, when somebody has done my hair and I've got my beautiful clothes on and I'm going out. I feel beautiful then, sometimes. Not always.' She pauses. 'Up until the time when you have to put a corset on and you're plucked into it trying to pretend like you're not uncomfortable, and you're trying to not fall over. You know, it's challenging. I'm not crazy about doing things like that, but I do it.'
Does she ever think about how she looks? 'I mean, I think a lot about how I look if I'm going to go out to a party, but for everyday life, I don't think about it that much. It's hard for me to talk about 'beauty' because it's not what I think about very much.'
Fonda stopped colouring her hair at 83, and tells me she only washes her hair once a week. As for the shine on her silver strands, she uses the L'Oréal Paris Elvive Glycolic Gloss 5 Minute Lamination Treatment. She tells me she loves a good mascara, such as the Volume Million Lashes by L'Oreal Paris and also uses foundation and 'rouge, or whatever you call it,' she says flatly, shrugging her shoulders.
Volume Million Lashes by L'Oreal Paris, £11.99, Boots; L'Oréal Paris Elvive Glycolic Gloss 5 Minute Lamination Treatment, £16.99 (currently on sale for £8.49), Boots
She is refreshingly uninterested in an elaborate beauty regime. 'I think there are some people that chase beauty, and I'm not one of them, but there are some people who do for sure,' she tells me. 'I feel sorry for them because it's elusive.' According to Fonda, what matters more is how a person chooses to live.
'If a person, and it can be a man or a woman, knows who they are and they are living the way they want to live in life and they feel they have integrity, it's gonna show in their face and in their demeanour, right? I think that person would be in some ways more beautiful.' She pauses for a minute. 'Someone who was unhappy and didn't know how to express themselves and self-worth, I don't think it's a good sign,' she says, shaking her head. 'Especially if a person is always obsessed with how they look.'
Is there any advice she'd give to her younger self? 'Don't give up Jane, it's gonna get better.' I reluctantly ask her if she cares to elaborate. She sighs. 'Well, my mother killed herself and everybody in my family suffered from depression.' (When Fonda was 12, her mother died in a psychiatric hospital.) 'Um, a lot of our friends committed suicide and early life was not so happy,' she continues. 'And so what I would say to myself is don't give up, don't kill yourself, it's going to get better, especially if you work at making it better.'
For Fonda, there was no single 'turning point' to feeling better. 'It's just little-by-little,' she says, looking off to one corner. 'You get better, you grow, you become wiser if you work on yourself.' Part of this is in the form of exercise: Fonda's 1982 fitness video changed the landscape of fitness for women, and she told The Telegraph in an interview last year that she 'forces' herself to exercise 'because it makes a difference not just in my body, but in my brain'.
As our interview time comes to an end, I ask Fonda what her favourite part of being in Cannes is? 'Taking it all off,' she says, gesturing to her face and clothes, 'and getting into bed. I'd much rather have it off than on.' She stops, and leaves with her final few words of advice. 'Stay happy, have good posture and get enough sleep.'