Actress Jane Fonda. Picture: Chris Pizzello/AP/African News Agency (ANA) Actress Jane Fonda. Picture: Chris Pizzello/AP/African News Agency (ANA)
London - Jane Fonda claims she received preferential treatment when she was arrested during a climate change protest because she is white and famous.
The 82-year-old actress was detained four times last year during weekly demonstrations in Washington.
She revealed that on one occasion she spent a night in jail and used her £700 (about R16 000) red wool coat to bed down.
Before the coronavirus crisis, Miss Fonda and famous friends including Lily Tomlin, Martin Sheen, Ted Danson and Joaquin Phoenix staged ‘Fire Drill Fridays’ in front of the Capitol. She would be arrested and put in a police van with her wrists bound.
But she was treated well, even when detained overnight. "I’m white and I’m famous and I think orders came down from the attorney general to handle me with kid gloves," Miss Fonda told Elle USA.
She managed to sleep through the sounds of fellow inmates sobbing, screaming and rattling the bars of their cells.
"There was a woman who was very cold and I loaned her my coat... But I did have to take it back: It was my mattress," she said. Miss Fonda bought the coat, thought to be from Canadian luxury brand Mackage, in a sale.
But, in a bid to be eco-friendly, she now says she will never again shop for fashions.
On being jailed, she told Elle: "I have chosen to put myself in this position where I lose all power because of something I believe in. And it’s incredible."
The two-time Oscar winner has a long history of protesting, beginning with a campaign against the Vietnam War that in 1972 saw her dubbed ‘Hanoi Jane’.