Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
You're listening to a MoMA Mia podcast. Mama Mia acknowledges
the traditional owners of land and waters that this podcast
is recorded on.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Makeup is my Therapy.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
I'm in love, I'm obsessed and I don't even feel
guilty about it. Hello, and welcome to you Beauty, the
daily podcast for your Faith. I'm Lee Campbell and this
is the Formula with a twist. I know you used
to Kelly hosting the Formula, but I was given the
opportunity of a lifetime, and that's to ask someone about
(00:44):
the Formula well to life. When I sat down with
legendary Jane Fondykee when she was recently in Australia courtesy
of Wonderlust True North, I honestly didn't know what to expect,
but what I got was pure gold. This chat went
places I just did not expect and in the best
possible way. Jane's wisdom about her third act and about
(01:06):
life and about what's important was just incredible. I haven't
stopped thinking about it, and so I wanted to pop
it in the U Beauty feed because while it's not
strictly about lipstick or hair or skin care, it's that real,
authentic chat from one woman to another about what matters
and how purpose and intention can actually make you feel
radiant and beautiful. I guess Jane dropped so many truth bombs,
(01:30):
very funny ones, but there were two that stuck with
me since one of them is about your third act,
I guess, the final chapter of life, and it's the
most important one. And honestly, that's changed how I'm thinking
about aging, getting older, growing up. It was such a
relief to hear that the stage I'm in, perimenopause is
completely normal. She went through all the stuff I'm going through,
(01:52):
and she really emphasized to not sweat the small stuff
in her own raw and direct and hilarious way, and
it was like the permission I didn't know I needed.
Jane Fonda is eighty seven, and this woman is chaining
herself to oil wells, sleeping nine hours a night and
radiating this incredible energy that comes from knowing exactly who
she is and what matters. She's living proof that beauty
(02:15):
isn't about trends or what's on your face. I mean,
that's part of it. It's about having something that lights
you up from the inside. So grab a kuppa and
settle in I had had some honey and lemon, I
was sick weeks before, and of course my voice decided
to go, but I was not going to miss chatting
to the incredible Jane Fonder.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
What did you all do to get in here? How
did you get shows? Did you buy your place?
Speaker 1 (02:47):
They bribed somebody?
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Somebody bribed.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Now, I mean, you have such a phenomenal career and
so much to tell us, so we're going to have
to jump straight into it. I want to start with
your activism because I have for a very long time
admired that and I want to know not why you
do it, but how does it make you feel? How
does happy? Happy?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Yeah, I knew it.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
If it didn't mean yeah happy, you meet wonderful people
and you're it's just it's a very good way to
live life.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Do you think it helps with your inner well being?
Speaker 3 (03:23):
We all want meaning in our life. I think we
all want to be able to answer the question why
am I here? I haven't been an activist all my life.
I spent a good chunk of my life completely hedonistic, ignorant.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Not involved in anything.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
And I'm glad because I know what it feels like
before and after I'm a much happier person now that
I have committed a lot of my life to try
and to well right now save the planet.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
It's incredibly admirable. You can sleep at night thinking I'm
doing everything I can. There's nothing more beautiful than that. Now,
at eighty seven years young, you have so much experience
and you have so much wisdom when it comes to
beauty and wellness. What are your rituals that keep you going?
Your trap a very far way to get here? How
(04:11):
do you get your energy? How do you get your
inner glow?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I sleep? Now?
Speaker 3 (04:16):
How I sleep nine hours a night on average? I
didn't last night and I want tomorrow night. But uh yeah,
I sleep, I meditate, I walk, I work out. I
haven't worked out in a week, but when I'm home,
I work out and when I'm not a.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Walk And is that sort of daily rituals for you?
Do you try and fit them in? Obviously, travels, it's not.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
My life doesn't lend itself to a certain ritual. I
just try to adapt to where I am.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Can you tell me a bit more about meditation because
for me, I really want to be that in a
peaceful person because I know it really radiates out. How
did you learn to meditate or how did you see
the benefits?
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Do you just keep it? It's hard, it's hard. It's hard.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
I tried for years and years and years, and I
couldn't still my mind. And so at that time I
had a ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and I
found out there's a zen center, you pie, a zen
center run by a woman named Joan Halifax.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
She's written many books. Maybe some of you have heard
of her.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
And she showed me this incredibly beautiful temple on the
grounds and I said, what do you do here? And
she said, we have, you know, meditations and meetings and celebrations,
and she said, the next one is going to be
the first eight days of December.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
It's called Rohatsu.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
It's the celebration of the enlightenment of the Buddha. And
I knew I'm supposed to come to that and I did.
Now it's like I just jumped into the fire.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
It's hard. You learn so much about yourself.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
And at the end of the eight days, I understood
what meditation was. Wow, So you saw the benefit and
I've done all. There's many different kinds of meditation. Sometimes
people have mantras that they say aloud, some say them silently,
some people are just quietly meditating. But it's also a
great way to solve problems. Thoughts and ideas and solutions
(06:08):
just come to you when you're med And it also,
I don't know about y'all. I hate this. I'm a
left brain person. It's weird for an actor to be
left brain.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
You know. Left brain is all it should be like this.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
It's supposed to be like that, and I'm going to
change that, and it's all The right brain.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Is the creative intuitive language.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Signals from the body are received at the right side
of the brain, and so for the last few years,
my task for myself is to integrate the two hemispheres
of my brain.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
I mean, this is probably so boring.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
No, it's well, I think it's what we all are.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
But like, drawing is one way to activate the right
side of your brain, and that there's a lot of
writing my hand. So I'm really working at it so
that I can be you know, when I turned sixty
and I realized, I think this is my last act,
and uh, last acts are really important, and I didn't
know how to live it. You know, the problem about
(07:10):
being old, I start a sentence and can't remember what
I wanted to say.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
So Mury, I'm in menopause and I can't remember either.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
I knew that I wasn't afraid of dying. I was
afraid of getting to the end of my life with
a lot of regrets when it was too late to
do anything about it. Wow, and inevitably those regrets are
things you did not do, and.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
You've done a lot from sixty to eighty seven, that's
many more decades. I think that happiness shows on your face.
It makes you beautiful. I think we can put lots
of things on our face that can make us glow,
but I think there's nothing like in a happiness. What
are you most proud of over all these years, and
what have you learned that's kind of given you that
happiness that's on your face.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
I wasn't such a great person early on in my life.
I was unhappy. I didn't have any meaning in my life.
And you know, most of my family or blasts, half
empty kind of people. And I have really worked hard
to overcome that and become a different kind of person.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
You can change how you react to things. You can
change the neural wiring in your brain. Actually, and better
late than never.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
Yeah, absolutely, Oh my gosh. I think we can all
take something from that. If you could take yourself back
to your forties and tell yourself everything you're going to do,
what would you tell her? What would you what words
of wisdom would you tell?
Speaker 3 (08:37):
How many women are in their late forties in here
raise your hands. Okay, it's the hardest time of life,
but thank you better it's peri menopause. You can a
woman can end up feeling she doesn't know.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Is that?
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Yes, that's me.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
I'm hot. I think I want to leave my husband.
I don't know what I'm doing with my life. It
gets better.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
I've been there, Okay I left him.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Oh okay, well see how that goes.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
No, but it's challenging because you don't know any more
who you are, all the things you just said. That's true,
and so the thing to do then is to be
kind of quiet. I wrote a book about it. This
state that happens to women in their late forties is
called a fertile void. It's empty, seemingly, but it's full
(09:31):
of seeds that will sprout if you're quiet, if you
pay attention to the people you're with. If you don't,
you know, hang out with people that cherish you, don't
look at violent movies things like that, and pay attention
to what's happening to you, and you will find eventually
the sprouts are beginning to grow. Something new is beginning
(09:53):
to happen, and you have to listen real carefully to
protect that and nurture it and let it grow.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
But I feel for you.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Oh, thank you.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
You know something weird?
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Yes, tell me I feel younger than I did when
I was twenty Wow.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Yeah, okay, but that's because you say so healthy and
you meditate, you do all of the things. I don't
do any of those things. But how do you?
Speaker 2 (10:16):
I mean, well, I don't have a five year old son.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
That's very true, you do, but you've made your habits.
You know, daily is hard to fit into your life,
but you've made them a regular thing. What's your one
tip for us trying to get on the wagon of
doing something for our inner wellness and well being? Is
it blocking out one section a week? How can we
realistically prioritize wellness?
Speaker 2 (10:39):
I don't know me neither.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Well, I just knew that when I was active and
I worked out, I thought more clearly, and I was
happier and I felt better.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
And that goes to the sleep and activism as well. Right,
it's like mind body spirit. Okay, I've got a lot
of things to do on my to do list.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
You know what's important?
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Yes? Good pasture. Oh I've got terrible posture.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
I know.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
I wanted to ask you Beauty standards they're interesting, you
would have experienced a lot or you know, trends, they
come and go. What would you say to women who
are looking externally at beauty standards or trends and they
might make them feel less than What do you say
to those women?
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Stop looking at beauty tronds? What a boring thing to
be looking at?
Speaker 1 (11:26):
I love it, It's true.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
It's transient, It goes away, you know.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
But then how do they feel it? How do they
focus more on themselves? If we're fed all of this,
you know, devices and more than ever before.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Read better books. I don't know, yes, so true.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Read Our world is facing collapse, our civilization is facing collapse.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
What are you doing worrying about beauty trends? Jane?
Speaker 1 (11:53):
You're about to go on stage, please excuse my voice,
and thousands of people are here to see you. No pressure,
no pressure, But how does that make you feel? That
you're admired around the world by so many people for
so many things.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
It feels really good, you know why, because I've been hated.
When you have experienced real hatred and then you get popular,
of course being popular is better.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
It's great, it's true. How did you work through that
when you were hated?
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Or I was not alone? Yes, I was part of
a movement.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
I was part of a posse that had my back,
and I knew that what I was doing was right.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
I knew what was in my heart.
Speaker 3 (12:38):
And you just go through it and then they die
or go to jail and your laugh outlet all those
fuckerst I'll tell you what, it's really hard. I love Australia,
but it's very hard being here and looking at what's
(13:00):
happening in my country, my city, my state.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
It's hard.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
It is. It's different.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
So I'm going to I go home tomorrow and I'll
just go home and raise a It's hard to do
it when you're not there.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
We know, well, how are you going to raise the ruckus?
Speaker 2 (13:15):
It depends on what's needed.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
There's an oil well in Santa Barbara California, and if
you have been there, Santa Barbara is really it's beautiful.
That coastline. In twenty fifteen, it leaked and spilled oil everywhere.
They're trying to start it up again, and it's corroded,
and so I might chain myself to that.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
WHOA, I hope that you don't have to do that.
But that's incredible. You touched on the people around you.
Then how much do you think friendship, family, people who
you love unconditionally and they love you. How much do
you think that plays into our well being and our longevity?
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Love is always good. I mean, it's good to have
people who love you, of course.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
I think it's everything. I think that's why we're here.
Is connection, I think, and I've.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Thought a lot about it.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
The higher Power, the God, whatever, whatever it is, it
is created the miracles that exist on this planet. I
think what that power it wants us to do is
to become wholly realized people.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Not famous, not rich, not just all that you can be.
And it takes a lot of work.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
For some reason, in the last couple of years, all
kinds of people walk up to me and say, I
want to be you when I grow up. Now, for
somebody who went through an early life like mine. It's like, wow,
I never imagined that anybody would ever say that to me.
And I feel like I don't say anything but I
except thank you. But I said, do you know how
(14:51):
much work being able to be happy or have a
sense of well being in spite of what's going on.
It's great to be able to do that. Keeping learning
is critical. You know, my favorite ex husband, Ted Turner,
I left him at sixty two. He said, people don't
change after sixty people don't make new friends after sixty.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
I'm sorry, then you're in trouble.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
We always need to stay curious and be open to
change and learning all the time.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Talk to me about how you've kept well and still
have the energy and vivaciousness to be here and to
come all the way to Australia. What makes you keep going.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
I'm being paid.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Well, we've got to pay the bills right now.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
I'm going on to eighty eight, and I get offered roles,
but they're terrible, they're superficial, they're stereotypical. And so I
haven't worked in two years, and I support a lot
of people, and so when I was invited to come
over and speak with wanderlust. It just seemed like a
good way to make money and join with the corporation
(16:07):
that I liked.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Yeah, you're Jane Fonder. You're known for so much. What
do you hope is the catchphrase or the sentence or
what immediately comes to mind when people say, Jane Fonder.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
I don't know, you don't know?
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Is that for us to decide? How we I don't care,
you don't care? That's good?
Speaker 3 (16:29):
We know, we know, don't we We know when we're okay,
we know when we're whole.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
We don't need somebody else to like us or I
mean that's a slippery slop.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Well that's true self love. It's so true. Well, Jane,
you have a lot ahead of you tonight, I have
very little voice left. Thank you so much for joining
us tonight. We feel very special to have had you.
Thank you, thanks so much for listening. And I hope
you had a laugh and enjoyed that conversation as much
as I enjoyed having it. And if you love this episode,
(17:04):
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(17:24):
can visit Fenton and Fenton dot com dot a U
for smitzbo See you tomorrow for another dose of you
beauty goodness.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Hi,