Jane Fonda: ‘Woke Just Means You Give a Damn About Other People’

While being recognized for a lifetime of creative achievements and activism at the 2025 SAG Awards, the actress reminded viewers of the heightened importance of empathy and bravery.

We confess: Jane Fonda is an idol of ours.

It’s not just because of her prolific performance career, full of sharp, dynamic turns in films such as “9 to 5,” “On Golden Pond” and “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” as well as on TV shows like Netflix’s “Grace and Frankie” and onstage in various Broadway plays. Performances that, by the way, earned her two Oscars, seven Golden Globes, an Emmy and several Grammy and Tony nods, among numerous other honors.

It’s also because she has been an ardent activist for decades, speaking out loudly about social justice causes like ending wars, combating climate change and refuting government infringement upon women’s rights. She also co-founded the Women’s Media Center in 2005 to ensure better representation for fellow women creatives.

While accepting a Lifetime Achievement honor in celebration of all of that work at the 2025 SAG Awards, Fonda, now 87 years old, once more reminded us of her fire and forthrightness with a barn-burner speech.

After graciously accepting the award, and reflecting upon her atypical career trajectory – including a 15-year hiatus that preceded a career boom later in her life – she talked about the benefits and power of unions, noting that SAG-AFTRA, the union of professional creatives that hosted the event, is “different than most other unions because us, the workers – we actors – we don’t manufacture anything tangible. What we create is empathy.”

She continued: “Our job is to understand another human being so profoundly that we can touch their souls. We know why they do what they do. We feel their joys and their pain.”

And in this current moment, that isn’t just a laudable trait – it’s a vital one, Fonda asserted. “Make no mistake, empathy is not weak or ‘woke’ – and by the way, ‘woke’ just means you give a damn about other people,” she said to the cheering audience.

Fonda concluded her speech by impressing upon viewers that we are, right now, in a critical moment in history. “Have any of you ever watched a documentary of one of the great social movements, like apartheid or our civil rights movement or Stonewall, and asked yourself: ‘Would you have been brave enough to walk the bridge?’ ‘Would you have been able to take the hoses and the batons and the dogs?’”

“We don’t have to wonder anymore,” she continued, “because we are in our documentary moment. This is it, and it’s not a rehearsal. This is it, and we mustn’t for a moment kid ourselves about what’s happening. This is big-time serious folks – so let’s be brave.”