Jane Fonda was stunning at the Women’s Film Honors gala in Beverly Hills on Thursday night.
“I’m so excited,” she told me, practically jumping down the red carpet.
The longtime political activist is riding the Election Day blue wave that helped Democrats take control of the House and Senate.
“I felt pretty optimistic, but I didn’t dare to imagine it would be this large,” Fonda said. “I’m so proud of Americans, they were paying attention, and it wasn’t just about affordability. [James] Talarico’s acceptance speech was a masterpiece and he said: ‘We voted to love our neighbor.’”
“I am thrilled that so many incredible women have been elected to high-profile offices,” she added.
As for Democrats’ next move, Fonda said, “We have to be very smart. We can’t go back to the old neoliberalism. We have to take off our corporate hat, take off our donor hat, and start doing things to help the people who work in this country, and we have to govern with love. We don’t govern yet, but we have to prevent what’s bad and fight for what’s good.”
He continued: “This is not just about accountability and investigations because there is so much corruption and crime, it also has to be about putting power in the hands of actual working people and making life better for them.”
Fonda said she knew most of the candidates who won the election. “I have a PAC and I travel around the country to meet them. These are different types of people,” he said. “People are very angry. They don’t want crime. They don’t want chaos. They don’t want corruption.”
Fonda was present at the gala held in memory of Salma Hayek, who received the Jane Fonda Humanitarian Award.