Jane Fonda Encourages Young People to Embrace Aging, Says She Regrets Facelift: “I Don’t Want to Look Distorted”
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Jane Fonda says she is “not proud” of getting a facelift and never did any more cosmetic procedures because she was concerned she’d look “distorted” and might get addicted to it.
In a new interview with Vogue, the Grace and Frankie actress opens up about her iconic career revolutionizing fitness and how she approaches wellness in her own life. In the process, the actress and longtime activist around several issues, including climate, discusses her own history with facelifts, her thoughts on plastic surgery addiction and how she wants to help reframe people’s relationships to getting older.
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While talking about her own relationship to aging, Fonda said she wants “young people to stop being afraid about getting older” and to instead focus on their health.
“What matters isn’t age, isn’t that chronological number,” she said. “My dad died six years younger than I am now. He seemed so old because he was ill. He had a heart disease. I’m not ill. So I’m almost 85, but I don’t seem that old.”
The Oscar winner explained that in her decision to speak about health, fitness and wellness — as well as her work representing one-half of the leading older female duo in her now-concluded show Grace and Frankie — she wants to help people realize that being “a certain age doesn’t mean you have to give up on life, give up on having fun, give up on having boyfriends or girlfriends, making new friends or whatever you want to do.
“It’s still in the realm of life possibilities for you,” she continued. “That’s why I always tell people what my age is because I want them to realize it.”
Fonda’s stance doesn’t mean she’s unaware of how certain privileges can play a role in the aging process, including having access to fitness and wellness tools. She told Vogue that even “as those words are coming out of my mouth,” she’s also thinking about the fact that she has money.
“You can afford a trainer. You can afford plastic surgery. You can afford facials. You can afford the things that help make you continue to look young. That is true. Money does help. Good genes and a lot of money, as somebody once said,” she added.
The actress also discussed her own relationship with cosmetic surgery, noting that in talking about money and access, “we all know a lot of women who are wealthy who’ve had all kinds of facelifts and things like that,” before noting she believes “they look terrible.”
“I had a facelift and I stopped because I don’t want to look distorted. I’m not proud of the fact that I had [one],” she continued. “Now, I don’t know if I had it to do over if I would do it. But I did it. I admit it, and then I just say, ‘OK, you can get addicted. Don’t keep doing it.'”
Fonda added that there may be “a lot of women” who “are addicted” to facelifts and similar procedures, but that since her own surgery, she sticks to the basics.
“I don’t do a lot of facials. I don’t spend a lot of money on face creams or anything like that, but I stay moisturized, I sleep, I move, I stay out of the sun, and I have good friends who make me laugh,” she said. “Laughter is a good thing, too.”
