Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin of 'Grace & Frankie' on aging without fear and the power of women's voices united
Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin are the kind of ladies who lunch while talking frankly about bionic body parts and joint diseases. At least that's the case today.
"I have a fake hip, a fake knee," Fonda says. "I've got so much metal in my back. I have a fake thumb. I have osteoarthritis."
"I have osteoarthritis and these joints poke out," Tomlin adds, flexing her hands to demonstrate. "My hands are just ruined. I used to have lovely, graceful hands and now they're kind of like a kielbasa."
"They work, though," Fonda reminds her.
"They work — exactly, exactly," Tomlin nods in agreement.
Sitting side-by-side at a Hollywood hotel restaurant before the recent holidays, the longtime friends — all too familiar with how pervasive ageism is in the entertainment industry, particularly for women — are deep in conversation about the privilege of not having to slow down. Fonda, at 80, and Tomlin, at 78, are multiple seasons into their Netflix buddy comedy, "Grace & Frankie," on which they star and executive produce. The pair are both nominees at this weekend's Screen Actors Guild Awards
"Listen, to be 80 years old and on a steady job — that's something," Fonda says.
"And we love it," Tomlin says.
"I don't care how early in the morning I have to be there," Fonda adds. "I love going into the studio and going to my trailer and working."
In "Grace & Frankie," created by Marta Kauffman ("Friends") and Howard J. Morris ("According to Jim"), Fonda and Tomlin play two seventy-something sort-of friends who become roommates and eventual besties after their husbands, Robert and Sol (Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston, respectively), reveal they are gay and leave the women to marry each other.
If "Golden Girls" broke new ground in the mid-80s/early-90s for its portrayal of senior women as complex — and sexual — beings, then "Grace & Frankie" is doing its part to help ensure nuanced depictions of older women carry over to the Netflix generation.