Activist and actress Jane Fonda is trying to rebrand the word “woke,” insisting it’s not a negative descriptor. 
The 87-year-old made her plea during her speech at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday night after being honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
&#8220;This means the world to me,&#8221; Fonda said. &#8220;And your enthusiasm makes it seem less like a late twilight of my life and more like a &#8216;Go, girl. Kick ass,&#8217; which is good because I&#8217;m not done.&#8221;
After discussing her love of acting, the leftist, sometimes called “Hanoi Jane” referencing her 1972 visit to North Vietnam, started spouting off her opinions on current events, saying at one point, “Make no mistake, empathy is not weak or &#8216;woke.&#8217; And by the way, &#8216;woke&#8217; just means you give a damn about other people. Back to empathy.”
Critics on social media hit back, saying Fonda, of all people, should think about her words. “Hey Hanoi Jane, did you &#8216;give a damn&#8217; about the American servicemen you betrayed in Vietnam? Woke is just communist propaganda, so I&#8217;m not surprised that Jane proudly identifies with it,” one person <a href="https://x.com/scarlett4kids/status/1893888851627651238">wrote</a>. 
&#8220;I&#8217;m a big believer in unions. They have our backs,&#8221; the star said during her lengthy <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/movies/2025/02/23/jane-fonda-sag-awards-speech-trump/79899116007/">speech</a>. &#8220;Community means power, and this is really important right now when workers&#8217; power is being attacked, and community is being weakened.&#8221;
“But SAG-AFTRA is different than most other unions because us the workers, we actors, we don&#8217;t manufacture anything tangible. What we create is empathy. Our job is to understand another human being so profoundly that we can touch their souls. We know why they do what they do. We feel their joy and their pain.”
Fonda continued by criticizing President Donald Trump without saying his name. 
“And I&#8217;m sure many of you guys have played bullies and misogynists, and you can pretty much know that probably their father bullied them and called men that he felt were weak &#8216;losers&#8217; … And while you may hate the behavior of your character, you have to understand and empathize with the traumatized person you&#8217;re playing, right? I&#8217;m thinking Sebastian Stan in &#8216;The Apprentice,&#8217;” she said, referring to the actor who played Donald Trump in the 2024 movie. 
“I made my first movie in 1958. It was at the tail end of McCarthyism, when so many careers were destroyed,” Fonda went on. “Today, it’s helpful to remember, though, that Hollywood resisted.”
She then asked the crowd: “Have any of you ever watched a documentary of one of the great social movements — apartheid or civil rights or Stonewall — and ask 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!”
Fonda concluded her speech by telling the audience, “There will still be love, there will still be beauty, and there will be an ocean of truth for us to swim in.”

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‘Hanoi Jane’ Tries To Defend Being ‘Woke’ During SAG Awards Speech

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‘Hanoi Jane’ Tries To Defend Being ‘Woke’ During SAG Awards Speech