This year’s The Hollywood Reporter roundtable include those comedy actresses that have set themselves apart in their own respective ways. Jane Fonda, Tiffany Haddish, Regina Hall, Natasha Lyonne, Alex Borstein, Maya Rudolph, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge take part in the conversation for women in the industry.
One of those women, star of Grace and Frankie, Jane Fonda who plays Grace Hanson, is determined to change the way the elderly are perceived in society.
“[Our] culture doesn’t like people with wrinkles to be talking about sex. Kids don’t either. They don’t like to think about their parents doing it,” Fonda told the Roundtable. “But the fastest growing demographics in the world are older women and a lot of them are doing it very pleasurably.”
Grace and Frankie tells the story of two women whose husbands leave them for each other after 40 years of marriage. Now, Grace and Frankie learn to cope with their loss and deal with the difficulties of love that come with their quite older age.
“I can’t tell you how much feedback Lily and I get from older women who say ‘It’s given me hope,’ and not so old women saying, ‘I now see another way forward,’ so I think it’s great we’re doing it and we’re having a blast,” said Fonda.
For Fonda, it took some time to get used to her character, Grace Hanson. “Took me a season to come to care for my character Grace,” said Fonda. “I had to go back into therapy and start Prozac.”
That season was enough for Fonda to develop a deep attachment to the role she took on. “It was a big trigger and I didn’t realize that a character like that in a comedy could actually trigger something very profound, and so I love her and I learned to invite her into the room,” said Fonda.
The Comedy Actress Roundtable will air on June 23 on Sundance TV.