Jane Fonda delivered an electrifying speech Sunday on the thirty first Display Actors Guild Awards that appeared squarely aimed toward President Donald Trump, who earlier this month criticized the John F. Kennedy Heart for the Performing Arts for holding “woke” occasions.
Fonda, a lifelong actor, activist and Sixties counterculture icon, took to the Shrine Auditorium stage to obtain a Life Achievement Award. She praised her fellow actors for creating empathy by way of their craft.
“While you may hate the behavior of your character, you have to understand and empathize with the traumatized person you’re playing, right?” Fonda mentioned onstage. “I’m thinking Sebastian Stan in ‘The Apprentice.’ Make no mistake, empathy is not weak or ‘woke.’”
She continued, “And by the way, ‘woke’ just means you give a damn about other people.”
Fonda didn’t determine Trump by identify, however did point out Stan’s nominated efficiency within the 2024 drama about Trump’s unscrupulous rise as an actual property magnate — which the Trump marketing campaign tried to maintain from launch earlier than final yr’s presidential election.
Fonda’s clear-cut definition prompted raucous applause from the star-studded viewers. Trump and his allies have typically criticized Democrats, progressives and others against his politics as “woke,” which is outlined as “alert to injustice in society, especially racism” within the Oxford English Dictionary.
Earlier this month, Trump introduced he was taking on the Kennedy Heart as chairman, claiming the long-lasting arts venue was being ruined by “woke” performances.
“We don’t need woke at the Kennedy Center,” he advised reporters on the time.
Chris Pizzello/Related Press
Go Advert-Free — And Defend The Free Press
Already contributed? Log in to cover these messages.
Fonda has by no means shied away from talking fact to energy. She famously protested the Vietnam Warfare, was positioned on the “enemies list” of former President Richard Nixon and in 2019 was arrested 5 instances whereas protesting in opposition to local weather change inaction in Washington, D.C.
“We must not isolate,” Fonda mentioned Sunday onstage. “We must stay in community. We must help the vulnerable. We must find ways to project an inspiring vision of the future — one that is beckoning, welcoming that will help people believe that … there will still be love.’”
“Let’s make it so,” she concluded to applause.
