The actress and celebrated activist spoke with ET about her health, her philanthropic efforts and her legacy.
Jane Fonda is feeling the love! The acclaimed actress and celebrated activist will be turning 85 next month, and she's opening up about her health, her fundraising efforts and what she hopes will be her legacy.
Fonda recently sat down with ET's Brooke Anderson, and reflected on the upcoming milestone birthday, and how she plans to celebrate the occasion.
"My family will be there. My daughter and grandkids will come in from Vermont and my son and his wife and child, who live in Los Angeles, and a few friends will come over, and we'll just we'll have a quiet time," shared Fonda, with a smile.
Fonda's sit-down with ET comes just over two months after she revealed on Sept. 2 that she's been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, and was already starting chemotherapy.
Addressing her health battle, Fonda shared that she's "doing fine."
"The week that I get chemo is challenging, you get tired, but then after that week it's great," Fonda explained. "I've been traveling, campaigning for climate candidates."
Even while battling illness, Fonda isn't letting that keep her from aggressively fighting for causes close to her heart, and along the way, she's been getting a ton of love and support from a large legion of fans and followers.
"It means a lot to me," Fonda said of her fans' support. "It moves me very much."
One of the many things Fonda has been working hard to raise money and awareness for is her organization, the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power and Potential (GCAPP), which she founded in 1995.
"I founded it 28 years ago at a time when Georgia had the highest rate of teen pregnancy," Fonda said of the organization. "I met kids that were 10,11,12 who were having babies. It's very hard to take advantage of opportunities that come along if you're young and you have a baby. It's very hard to have a future when you're young and have a baby."
"So the state gets robbed of all that human potential, it costs the state a lot of money. And on a human level, it costs a lot," Fonda explained. "Now there are some young girls who will have a baby and it will make them grow up and they'll be wonderful mothers, and they'll turn out great. That's the exception."
After going to a UN conference in Cairo, Egypt, that gave her the idea to start an advocacy group, she returned home and "traveled all over Georgia and got to know the state and created what became GCAPP.
"Teen pregnancy has dropped here 73 percent [since the organization was founded], and I can't say that that's all GCAPP," she continued. "GCAPP, though, is the only organization that has kept this issue on the front burner."
Fonda explained that, through years of studies and research and outreach, they've learned how to connect with the groups that need help and how to really make a difference.
"We found that when young people are part of a group that's trying to do something positive, it really, really helps. When young people become advocates for issues, it's a great antidote to despair," she said. "So we have our youth advisory counsels, we have our youth advocacy, but also even comprehensive sexuality education that we've brought into many, many school districts in Georgia."
"When you teach a young person how their body works and how to protect themselves, they gain agency. They also learn a lot of things like decision making and team building and trust, and a lot of life skills become theirs," Fonda shared. "It has really made a difference for tens of thousands of young people."
Looking into her future, Fonda said she is interested in getting other celebrities involved in GCAPP.
"For better or worse, celebrities bring attention to a subject matter. And I'm not gonna be around for much longer and we need to get celebrities involved in this issue so they can help keep it going," Fonda shared. "When you get to be my age, you better be aware of the amount of time that is behind you as opposed to in front of you. I mean, that's just realistic."
The celebrated actress reflected on what she still hopes to accomplish in her life, after decades of incredible work, both onscreen and in the world of activism and philanthropy.
"[I want to] see my grandkids get old enough so I go out knowing they're gonna be OK. That would be important," she said. "But, you know, my work on the climate is gonna be something. I'll be doing that till I drop."
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