Actor and activist Jane Fonda has opened up about the experience her celebrity friends have had after getting arrested alongside her while protesting the climate crisis during her weekly demonstrations in Washington, DC.
In an interview with BuzzFeed News' AM to DM on Friday, she also revealed which child star was upset that he was too young to risk jail time for the cause.
“Young Iain Armitage, who’s the star of Young Sheldon, he’s 11 years old, he was so mad that he was too young to get arrested,” said Fonda when asked about which celebrity had been the most fun to protest with.
Still, she made it known that she doesn’t necessarily see activism as “fun,” before adding that Armitage “gave a great speech at our rally.”
The two-time Oscar-winning star has been focusing her attention on saving the planet during her “Fire Drill Fridays,” where she and a handful of celebs, as well as hundreds of civilians, march on the nation’s capital to demand the government start taking the issue of climate change seriously and with urgency.
Celebrities who have come out in support of Fonda, 81, and the cause include actors Diana Lane, Ted Danson, and Manny Jacinto.
It's no surprise that a young person like Armitage felt compelled to risk getting arrested at her Black Friday protest in order to bring attention to climate change, considering it was Greta Thunberg who inspired Fonda's now-ongoing protests.
She told BuzzFeed News the 16-year-old Swedish environmentalist was an inspiration. "She sees things with such a laser focus more than us who aren't on the spectrum,” Fonda said. “It gives her clarity.”
In addition to Armitage, Fonda spoke about what getting arrested for this issue does to some of her celebrity friends, like her Grace and Frankie costar Sam Waterston, whom she said had a profound experience.
Waterston had already been arrested in October while protesting with Fonda in DC, and the week of Thanksgiving, the actor, apparently emboldened by this cause, protested and was arrested with dozens of others during a Harvard–Yale football game.
“He sent me a picture of himself handcuffed and said, ‘Now look what you’ve started!’” Fonda said of her costar, who, she added, "had never spoken at a rally, much less risked arrest for civil disobedience” before joining the long-running list of Fonda’s celeb supporters.
“To be arrested for doing something that you know is right … is kind of a transformative experience,” she added.
Fonda has been arrested four times so far and exercises caution when considering if she’ll be taken into custody so that it doesn’t conflict with filming of the final season of Netflix’s Grace and Frankie.
The star may risk arrest for a fifth time Dec. 20.