Jane Fonda Delivers Defense Of ‘Woke’ Accepting SAG Awards Lifetime Achievement Prize: ‘It Just Means Giving A Damn About Other People’

Iconic actress and activist Jane Fonda, 87, received a Lifetime Achievement award at the 2025 SAG Awards on Sunday night. Fonda’s six-decade acting career has seen her win two Oscars, an Emmy and seven Golden Globes, in addition to a life achievement award from multiple organizations like the AFI and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and numerous nominations across the board.

Fonda was diagnosed with cancer in 2022 and is the 60th honoree.

In addition to her extensive on-screen career, Fonda is known for her political activism over the years as she has been a fierce advocate for women’s rights and the environment. A pioneer of the second-wave feminist movement in the 1970s, Fonda founded the Women’s Media Center with Gloria Steinem and Robin Morgan in 2005. In 2019, she was arrested five times for protesting outside the United States Capitol for the reduction of fossil fuels.

Speaking to the audience about her experience as an actress growing up in the 40s and 50s, Fonda recounted, “Women weren’t supposed to have opinions and get angry.”

Fonda expressed her pride for her career and thanked SAG-AFTRA for the honor, but used the majority of her speech to address the country’s current political climate and advocate for resistance and change. Speaking to the star-studded room about the experience of playing all kinds of characters, Fonda said, “What we, actors, create is empathy. Our job is to understand another human being so profoundly that we can touch their souls. And make no mistake, empathy is not weak or woke.”

She added, “By the way, ‘Woke’ just means you give a damn about other people.” This quote quickly garnered attention online.

Fonda’s speech did not directly name President Donald Trump or any political events, but rather made blunt, pointed references to the major government changes the country is undergoing. 

“A whole lot of people are going to be really hurt by what is happening,” she emphasized, “Even if they’re of a different political persuasion, we need to not judge but listen from our hearts.”

Fonda asked the audience, “Have any of you ever watched a documentary of one of the great social movements – apartheid or civil rights or Stonewall – and asked yourself, would you have been brave enough to walk the bridge? We don’t have to wonder anymore. We are in our documentary moment. This is it, and it’s not a rehearsal.”

SAG-AFTRA’s life achievement award stands to honor “an actor who fosters the finest ideals of the acting profession.”