Actress Jane Fonda has had quite the full life already. She conquered Hollywood as both an Oscar and Emmy winner, then revolutionized the fitness industry. And at 73, she's not done yet. Author of best-selling memoir My Life So Far, she's back with Prime Time (Random House, $27), a primer on how growing older means only getting better. She chats with USA TODAY about what makes life so special in the "third act."
Q: You tell us that "the good news is you're getting older!" How can that be true?
A: I've noticed it in myself. I'm happier than I was when I was younger. There's a study and what was found was that starting at 50, people across the board are happier, less hostile, less anxious than when they were younger. The scientists aren't sure why, but there are several possibilities. Older people have a long backward view. They've been there and done that and survived. We know what we need. We travel lighter.
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PHOTOS: Jane Fonda through the years
Q: You say we should all do a life review. How did you do when you reviewed your life?
A: The rap on me was there was no "there" there. I was pretty much what my husbands (Roger Vadim, Tom Hayden and Ted Turner) wanted me to be. But when I did my life review, preparing for my 60s and writing my memoir, there were themes that ran through my life. I've always been honest, courageous, in general, and it gave me a lot of confidence. I saw who I was, as opposed to who my husbands wanted me to be. I could own who I was. It was liberating.
Q: Lots of your advice is very practical. Eat well, don't smoke, don't abuse alcohol and get enough sleep. You get eight to nine hours a night. How do you do that?
A: Well, I start to wind down a few hours before. My boyfriend (Richard Perry) works out. I can't do that. I try to become calm, drink warm milk, do things to calm myself down. I also get advice from my blog people (Jane's Blog at janefonda.com). One that I admit I have tried: one-half of a Valium.
Q: Living "in the moment" always seems to be the goal. Any quick tips on how we can actually achieve that?
A: That's the value of meditation. The more I do it, the easier it gets. Once you've experienced it — being in the moment — it's easier to get back to it. But you have to keep doing it. Being in nature helps me. Walking. Climbing. I'm never happier than at 14,000 feet.
Q: You trot out the notion that being positive serves you well in old age. What happened to the cranky old man, sitting on the porch, saying the world is going to hell? We were hoping to be that man someday.
A: I'm not sure about you, but most people who are older are more content if they're positive. That's what doing a life review did for me. It allows you to look at your past through new eyes, eyes of forgiveness. If you go through life in bitterness and depression, then that becomes the norm. If you look at life with forgiveness, the pathways change and they become the new norm.
Q: Why do you think it takes us all so long to get our acts together? Most people say they wouldn't go back to their 20s for anything.
A: It's not just going through the decades, it's reflecting on them. It's not just having the experience, it's reflecting on them. It's the importance of being intentional. When you're entering your third act, you have to get it right.
Q: One of your pieces of advice in your eating-healthy section, other than eating by color, is to never diet. You're putting a huge industry out of business.
A: It's one thing to not eat healthy when young, but when you're older, it's much more important. Every single calorie we put in our mouth, it needs to be whole.
Q: Is it true that old people really have sex? Yuck.
A: I wasn't trying to be shocking, but I go into details, and it seems to have shocked people. Were you shocked? I made a list of things to cover. I'm still sexually active. There are certain things that change as you age, and I wanted to talk about that.
Q: Your Vietnam War protests have come back to haunt you once again with QVC recently canceling your book appearance. Are you surprised that after almost 40 years, people still remember you as "Hanoi Jane"?
A: I'm not surprised at all. There has never been closure on this. Irrespective of me and my controversial trip (to Hanoi in 1972), there is so little understanding about the war and why we were there. Oddly enough, this QVC debacle afforded me a chance to tell my story again. And it offered me an opportunity to have it read by so many more people these days, with people leaving comments on my blog. One man said, "I hated you for 40 years and now I forgive you." There is nothing more healing than forgiveness.
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