Jane Fonda remains an absolute legend. Not only is she an incredible actress, but she’s dedicated her entire career to bringing awareness to social justice and environmental issues. Fonda was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award at this year’s Golden Globes, and she used the opportunity to bring awareness to the hard work Black actors, filmmakers, and crew put into making some of the most notable projects in the past year.
“Just this year, Nomadland helped me feel love for the wanderers among us and Minari opened my eyes to the experience of immigrants dealing with the realities of life in a new land, and Judas and the Black Messiah, Small Axe, United States vs. Billie Holiday, Ma Rainey and One Night in Miami... and others have deepened my empathy for what being Black has meant,” she said. She also mentioned I May Destroy You, the Golden Globes’ biggest snub of the year, saying it “taught [her] to consider sexual violence in a whole new way.”
“Stories. They really can change people,” she added. “But there’s a story we’ve been afraid to see and hear about ourselves in this industry. The story about which voices we respect and elevate and which we tune out. It’s about who’s offered a seat at the table and who was kept out of the rooms where decisions are made. So that’s all of us, including all the groups who decide who gets hired and what gets made and who wins awards. Let’s all of us make an effort to expand that tent, so that everyone rises and everyone’s story has a chance to be seen and heard.”
The dedication of her speech comes after it was revealed this year that there are no Black members in the HFPA, the organization in charge of voting for Golden Globes nominees and winners. Earlier in the night, hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler called out the HFPA for not having Black members and made note of this important lack of inclusion, with Poehler saying that “a number of Black actors and Black-led projects were overlooked.”
Check out Fonda’s speech below.