JANE FONDA The revolution within

At 87, Jane Fonda has found the happiness that comes with introspection, good friends and a life well lived.

- SAMANTHA TRENOWETH

In the month before we meet, Jane Fonda has hiked through the Amazon Rainforest, addressed the United Nations on ocean conservation, launched a renewable energy campaign, and walked the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival.

More than ever, there seems to be an energy and an urgency to her life. “I’m a very determined person,” she admits, and she laughs – a wonderful, warm, generous laugh.

She’s also happy. “I’m pretty much happy all the time,” she tells The Weekly, and she means it, “because I’m doing what I love”. That might be picketing the Pentagon, spending time with her grandchildren (Malcolm and Viva) or developing new films. And she understands that, at 87, it is a blessing to have so very many choices.

Tonight, in Cannes, dressed in floor-length, body-hugging white, Jane will join a glittering guest list (including Helen Mirren, Viola Davis, Elle Fanning and Andie MacDowell) to celebrate the achievements of emerging women filmmakers and honour this year’s winner (Heo Ga-young) of the L'Oréal Paris Lights on Women’s Worth Award. It is the short-film award’s fifth year, and Jane has been a supporter since the beginning. It’s a cause that resonates deeply with her.

“I made my first movie in 1959,” she explains. It was called Tall Story and she played a cheerleader. “All through the early parts of my career there were no women anywhere on the set. Maybe the continuity – the script girl – maybe she was a woman, but that was all, and it was very lonely.”

Which perhaps explains why she reached out to a young Meryl Streep when she met her, back in 1976, on the set of Julia. It was Meryl’s first movie, and she was entirely in awe of the film’s two stars, iconic British actor Vanessa Redgrave and Jane.