SECTION ONE
PAGE SEVEN
sm
COLUMN
SIXTY-THREE, SEPTEMBER 1, 2001
(Copyright © 2001 Al Aronowitz)
AMERICA'S
ANSWER TO BARDOT
THE YOUNG JANE FONDA
VII.
She was living with her maternal grandmother in
Greenwich at the time of her mother's death.
She was told that her mother had died of a heart attack.
"And then," she said, "about a year
later, the way children always find out everything, some kid in school, in
history class, handed me a movie magazine that said what really happened."
To one interviewer, she said she never was close to
her mother. To another, she said
she didn't understand her mother. To still another, she has said she didn't
know her mother. By the time she talked
to me, her half-sister, Frances, wasn't speaking to her; her brother, Peter, had
written her a letter; and her father had told me he was shocked.
"I
told her," he said, "'Darling, you must realize that everything you
say today is going to be reprinted in Tokyo and Australia and Greece and Salt
Lake City, because you are a provocative exciting girl.' She doesn't have
to say things that are hurtful. And
when she reads things that she has said, she wishes she could bite her tongue
off."
'so you see," said Jane, "I'm very edgy to talk about it now. Not that it causes me any pain. I'm just afraid it's going to cause somebody else some pain. I don't want to create any more of these schisms. I didn't think I'd said anything hurtful. I just spoke truthfully,
Peter
Fonda refused
to be interviewed
about his sister
but it
really upset them. I certainly didn't do it thinking I was saying anything
slanderous. And it wasn't slanderous. It's just that maybe it was unnecessary to
talk about it. It's just that, when I was a child, I always had defenses put for me so I wouldn't feel
things.
"It
was like if something happened, if you have a toothache, you make your foot hurt
and then you pay attention to the foot ache. When my mother died, when she
committed suicide, I didn't feel it, I didn't react to it---which was not a
good thing, because I still have it inside of me. I still haven't come to terms
with it. My brother did, and he reacted very strongly, he got it all out. But I
didn't."
Peter
refused even to be interviewed about Jane. Filming The Victor in London
at the time, he instead sent a message with his press agent,
whose explanation included something about a family feud. Jane, of course, would rather consider herself a
non-combatant. To her, Peter is still her partner in emotion on a California
rooftop, and, whether at play or at acting, she still thinks she can lasso
buffalo better than he can.
"Jane
is so motherly toward Peter," says Madeline Sherwood.
"I remember once we were at their place in California and we were
sitting by the pool. And their
father came and he was incensed because Peter didn't want to go East two weeks
before his opening in Blood, Sweat and Stanley Poole,
to study with the director. And Jane immediately came to Peter's
defense and acted just like a mother would in placating her father."
On
the other hand, Jane's maternalism also has resulted in her telling Peter
what to do. She wanted him, for example, to follow her own footsteps into Lee
Strasberg's acting classes and, eventually, the Actor's Studio. Peter tried for a while but then gave up
Stanislavsky's Method for his father's, favoring the instinctive, on-the-job training as an actor.
"I
think Peter's wrong," Jane said, "because I think it's going to hurt
him and I don't want him to be hurt. But
he was a boy
when I talked to him that way. He'
a man now so who the hell am I to tell him who to study with? So I don't talk to him
about it any more. . . You see, something that has gotten me into trouble is
that---if I had felt particular anger or hostility towards my brother or my
father---I will
say little things that'll come out in print, and I don't really mean them. It's
just kind of a childish vindictiveness, and so I've tried to be honest in terms
of the fact that I love them and there are difficulties.
"But
I've tried
not to be one-sided about it. Although
sometimes I get very snide and I take it out by criticizing my father's acting
or my brother's acting, or something unnecessary like that. I mean the end will prove the means. I think I'm right, and I think my brother's wrong, but we'll
see who's right in the end." ##
CLICK HERE TO GET TO PAGE ONE OF SECTION ONE---AMERICA'S ANSWER TO BARDOT: THE YOUNG JANE FONDA
CLICK HERE TO GET TO PAGE TWO OF SECTION ONE---AMERICA'S ANSWER TO BARDOT: THE YOUNG JANE FONDA
CLICK HERE TO GET TO PAGE THREE OF SECTION ONE---AMERICA'S ANSWER TO BARDOT: THE YOUNG JANE FONDA
CLICK HERE TO GET TO PAGE FOUR OF SECTION ONE---AMERICA'S ANSWER TO BARDOT: THE YOUNG JANE FONDA
CLICK HERE TO GET TO PAGE FIVE OF SECTION ONE---AMERICA'S ANSWER TO BARDOT: THE YOUNG JANE FONDA
CLICK HERE TO GET TO PAGE SIX OF SECTION ONE---AMERICA'S ANSWER TO BARDOT: THE YOUNG JANE FONDA
CLICK HERE TO GET TO PAGE EIGHT OF SECTION ONE---AMERICA'S ANSWER TO BARDOT: THE YOUNG JANE FONDA
CLICK HERE TO GET TO PAGE NINE OF SECTION ONE---AMERICA'S ANSWER TO BARDOT: THE YOUNG JANE FONDA
CLICK HERE TO GET TO PAGE TEN OF SECTION ONE---AMERICA'S ANSWER TO BARDOT: THE YOUNG JANE FONDA
CLICK HERE TO GET TO PAGE ELEVEN OF SECTION ONE---AMERICA'S ANSWER TO BARDOT: THE YOUNG JANE FONDA
CLICK HERE TO GET TO PAGE TWELVE OF SECTION ONE---AMERICA'S ANSWER TO BARDOT: THE YOUNG JANE FONDA
CLICK HERE TO GET TO PAGE THIRTEEN OF SECTION ONE---AMERICA'S ANSWER TO BARDOT: THE YOUNG JANE FONDA
CLICK HERE TO GET TO PAGE FOURTEEN OF SECTION ONE---AMERICA'S ANSWER TO BARDOT: THE YOUNG JANE FONDA
CLICK HERE TO GET TO PAGE FIFTEEN OF SECTION ONE---AMERICA'S ANSWER TO BARDOT: THE YOUNG JANE FONDA
CLICK HERE TO GET TO INDEX OF COLUMN SIXTY-THREE
CLICK HERE TO GET TO INDEX
OF COLUMNS
The
Blacklisted Journalist can be contacted at P.O.Box 964, Elizabeth, NJ 07208-0964
The Blacklisted Journalist's E-Mail Address:
info@blacklistedjournalist.com
THE BLACKLISTED JOURNALIST IS A SERVICE MARK OF AL ARONOWITZ