Actress Jane Fonda won the SAG lifetime achievement honor at the SAG Awards on Sunday night and used her speech to defend woke and encourage Hollywood to pursue an anti-Trump agenda.
While the world and broader culture has been seeking to leave woke behind, Jane Fonda came to its defense at the SAG Awards on Sunday night, defining it as simply giving “a damn about other people.”
“What we, actors, create is empathy. Our job is to understand another human being so profoundly that we can touch their souls,” said Fonda. “And make no mistake, empathy is not weak or woke. By the way, woke just means you give a damn about other people.”
Fonda also vaguely referenced the Trump administration’s efforts to cut segments of the federal bureaucracy before issuing a defense of unions.
“A whole lot of people are going to be really hurt by what is happening,” she said. “Even if they’re of a different political persuasion, we need to not judge but listen from our hearts.”
“I’m a big believer in unions. They have our backs,” she added. “They bring us into community, and they give us power. Community means power, and this is really important right now when workers’ power has been attacked and community is being weakened.”
Later in her speech, Fonda talked about her resistance to McCarthyism during the 1950s and encouraged her fellow actors to lead a resistance.
Empathy is not weak or "woke." And, by the way, "woke" just means you give a damn about other people."
— Spencer Althouse (@SpencerAlthouse) February 24, 2025
—Jane Fonda accepting her SAG Lifetime Achievement Award pic.twitter.com/HMZcHzfR0J
“A whole lot of people are going to be hurt by what is coming our way” warned Jane Fonda at the SAG Awards where she was honored with a lifetime achievement award. She told viewers to have empathy for others. “And by the way WOKE means you give a damn about people.” #SAGAwards pic.twitter.com/n6M97lkQBv
— Rebecca Aguilar (on Blue Sky & LinkedIn) (@RebeccaAguilar) February 24, 2025
“I made my first movie in 1958. It was at the tail end of McCarthyism, when so many careers were destroyed,” she said. “Today, it’s helpful to remember, though that Hollywood resisted.”
“Have any of you ever watched a documentary of one of the great social movements — of apartheid or civil rights or Stonewall — and ask 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, because we are in our documentary moments. This is it, and it’s not a rehearsal!” she continued.
Fonda concluded with a call for actors to stick together in their activism.
“We mustn’t, for a moment, kid ourselves about what is happening. This is big time serious, folks. Let’s be brave. We must not isolate. We must stay in community. We must help the vulnerable. We must find ways to project an inspiriting vision of the future,” she said.
Paul Roland Bois directed the award-winning Christian tech thriller, EXEMPLUM, which has a 100% Rotten Tomatoes critic rating and can be viewed for FREE on YouTube, Tubi, or Fawesome TV. “Better than Killers of the Flower Moon,” wrote Mark Judge. “You haven’t seen a story like this before,” wrote Christian Toto. A high-quality, ad-free rental can also be streamed on Google Play, Vimeo on Demand, or YouTube Movies. Follow him on X @prolandfilms or Instagram @prolandfilms.
