Jane Fonda and Michigan have more connections than you’d think, including the fact that a Detroit political icon had a major influence on her career path.

In the early 1970s, the two-time Oscar winner was considering leaving Hollywood behind and moving full-time into activism. But Fonda’s friend and mentor Ken Cockrel Sr., the late Detroit City Council member and attorney who devoted himself to working for social justice, advised otherwise.

“He changed my life. He did. He took me under his wing,” says Fonda, who's sitting on a couch at the Franklin Hills Country Club in the Motor City suburbs as she shares what happened. “When I told him I wanted to leave acting and become an organizer — because he had sent me out in the field with UAW organizers; he wanted me to learn — he said: ’We have plenty of organizers. We don’t have movie stars. You not only have to go back to your industry, but you have to take it more seriously. Own it. Do stuff you take seriously.'”

Fonda continues: “So I went and I formed a company. I made ‘9 to 5.’ I made 'Coming Home,’ all these movies. And that’s because of Ken Cockrel.”

At 86, the acclaimed actor, advocate, fitness guru and author of several books is a veritable poster woman for making the most of getting older. She is candid on personal issues and passionately engaged with political ones. Instead of reciting canned remarks and dropping as many celebrity anecdotes as possible during an interview, she approaches each question thoughtfully and from a relatable perspective.

In short, Fonda doesn’t give a performance. She holds a conversation.

On Wednesday, Fonda was the keynote speaker at the Heart to Heart luncheon hosted by the Corewell Health Foundation Southeast Michigan to support women’s heart health. The 2024 benefit event raised roughly $375,000 that will go toward supporting the expansion of the Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital advanced heart failure program and helping under-insured and uninsured women receive cardiovascular care.

Fonda entertained the crowd of benefactors during a question-and-answer session with WXYZ-TV (7 Action News) anchor Carolyn Clifford, sharing anecdotes about making “On Golden Pond,” the movie that won her father (Henry Fonda) his first Oscar months before his death from heart disease, and how she came up with the idea of getting Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton to join her in “9 to 5” the classic comedy about three secretaries and their sexist boss.

Her speech before the question-answer session also revealed her funny side. Standing onstage next to Heart to Heart event chair Debra Ernst, who introduced her, Fonda compared her own rather subdued gray suit to Ernst’s vibrant, pink outfit by joking, “I’m the accountant!” A few minutes later, Fonda quipped that she had been told what not to talk about, “and I’m sure you’re all relieved to know I follow the rules.”

While discussing the importance of her “third act,” the period of her life from age 60 to now, Fonda even brought up her split from her third husband, Ted Turner, describing how she realized later in life that she was worthy of being loved and adding with perfect comic timing, “which had an effect on my marriage.”

Fonda 'redefining the third act' of life

At this particular moment, however, Fonda is taking some time before the luncheon to talk to the Free Press. And she is making a convincing case for the potential and wisdom that can define third acts.

Asked whether her generation of women — which boasts powerful figures like ex-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, 84; Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony winner Rita Moreno, 92; labor leader and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta, 94; U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, 86; and groundbreaking feminist Gloria Steinem, 90, among others — is changing perceptions of aging, Fonda replies, "Totally. Older women are the fastest growing demographic in the world. We have stayed healthy and we have stayed mentally alert. So, along with millions of others, we’re redefining the third act.”

And kicking some butt as well? “I hope so,” she says. “Raising a ruckus.”

Fonda, who revealed in 2022 that she had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and announced later that same year that she was in remission, says she is feeling "very well, thank you." She pays attention to maintaining her physical health. “I work out, slooowly,” she emphasizes. “I eat healthy and I sleep nine hours every night.”

She also considers maintaining a strong spirit as essential to aging well. “People always say, ‘You look so young for your age’. It’s attitude. It’s staying curious, wanting to figure things out, wanting answers, being interested.”

In recent years, Fonda has portrayed mature women onscreen with flair for both the hit Netflix series “Grace and Frankie” and popular movies about female friends like “Book Club” and “80 for Brady.” But despite her continued success and the lengthy list of honors she has accumulated, she stresses that getting to where she is now, professionally and personally, wasn’t easy.

“I never assumed I could be anything. I grew up with no confidence whatsoever. It’s taken me a lifetime to gain confidence and to feel OK about myself. And, believe me, most of that time has been spent working on myself. I mean, we’re born, and then, for the majority of us, it’s not so smooth sailing very often. We get a lot of scars. Things happen. And we spend the rest of our lives trying to recover from that and heal and make something of ourselves.”

These days, she is facing questions about what she still wants to accomplish, and not in terms of fame or glory. “Am I going to die feeling that I’ve had a life of meaning? Am I going to feel that I’ve done what I needed to do here? Those kinds of things. I’m happy to say that I’m working on all of that.”

Instead of scaling back her commitments to causes in her mid-80s, Fonda seems to have doubled down on her activism, whether it’s for what she calls the existential crisis of climate change ("that means it’s going to determine whether there's a livable future" on the planet, she says) or the 2024 presidential race or women's rights.

When the topic of Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance’s past “childless cat ladies” comment and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ apparent jab at Harris for not having biological children is raised, Fonda looks at the big picture of what women face today.

“I think women are angry and that’s good. We have a lot to be angry about. We still don’t even have the ERA in our Constitution. We are one of the few countries where women are not in the nation’s constitution. Hopefully that is going to change soon. Our body integrity, our body agency, is being taken from us. We have every reason to be angry. Let’s demonstrate how angry we are by voting for a woman in November, voting for a strong woman who can stand up for herself and be a great model for us and our children.”

Fonda’s visit to southeast Michigan included stops in Ann Arbor to support presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her running matet, Tim Walz. While canvassing door to door in the city for the Democratic ticket, Fonda hugged a woman who was visibly moved to meet her and wound up with a clip generating traffic on social media.

This isn't the first time Fonda has canvassed for candidates. "I’ve had doors slammed in my face. I’ve had people who did recognize me and were delightful. It’s all over the place," she says of the reactions she encounters. " I get very nervous. I find it hard. I also find it one of the most wonderful things I can do. I learn so much. I usually tell people: ‘I’m really nervous, I hope you don’t mind. But this is so important, I’ve come anyway.’”

Fonda's many ties to Michigan

Fonda’s life has intersected frequently with southeast Michigan. “One of my very first boyfriends was from Grosse Pointe. I came and stayed with him,” she says, reeling off some local ties. “My second husband was from Royal Oak, Tom Hayden. My last boyfriend went to the University of Michigan and gave (a scholarship to) the music department there, Richard Perry.”

Hayden, who died in 2016, was a University of Michigan alumnus, an influential anti-Vietnam War activist, a Chicago Seven trial defendant and a California state legislator. He and Fonda first met in 1970 at a conference held at U-M's Michigan Union. Perry, a successful music producer, is another U-M alum and the founder of an annual scholarship named after him for a deserving U-M musical theater major. Fonda attended the campus homecoming weekend with Perry In 2011.

She has traveled to Detroit with Motor City native Lily Tomlin, her co-star in “Grace and Frankie” and the films “9 to 5,” “80 for Brady” and “Moving On.” In 2017, Fonda and Tomlin campaigned for a fair minimum wage at Wayne State University. Two years later, they returned for “A Fun Conversation with Jane Fonda & Lily Tomlin” at Detroit’s Fox Theatre.

And in yet another fondly remembered bond, Fonda won an Emmy for playing a poor farmer's wife in Kentucky who moves with her family to Detroit in the ABC 1984 TV movie "The Dollmaker."

As the clock ticks closer to the pre-luncheon meet-and-greet for the Heart to Heart event, Fonda has time for one more question. It's about patriarchy in government and whether it's time for matriarchy instead, but Fonda interrupts before it reaches the part concerning her thoughts on Michigan's Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Attorney General Dana Nessel and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.

“No. Unh-uh. No. When we talk about the patriarchy, it’s not to say that what we need is a matriarchy,” she states firmly. “What we need is democracy. The opposite of patriarchy is democracy. Democracy isn’t just political; it’s economic. We don’t have economic democracy. We have to fight for that. We don’t have democracy in the bedroom. We have to fight for that.”

Words matter to Fonda. So does fairness, equality and the future of the planet. No matter how old you are, you better plan on getting nine hours of sleep the night before if you want to keep up with this 86-year-old legend.

Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds at jhinds@freepress.com.