Fonda, 79, a long-time
outspoken advocate of women's rights, said it had taken her years to stand up
for herself in Hollywood on issue such as pay and the roles she took.
"I’ve been raped,
I’ve been sexually abused as a child and I’ve been fired because I wouldn’t
sleep with my boss and I always thought it was my fault; that I didn’t do or
say the right thing," Fonda told fellow actress Brie Larson in a conversation
for the March 2 edition of Net-a-Porter magazine.
Fonda gave no details
of the assaults.
"I know young
girls who’ve been raped and didn’t even know it was rape," she said.
"They think, 'It must have been because I said ‘no’ the wrong way.' One of
the great things the women’s movement has done is to make us realize that (rape
and abuse is) not our fault. We were violated and it’s not right."
Fonda, who won Oscars
for "Klute" and "Coming Home" in the 1970s, was a leading
Hollywood activist at that time, opposing the Vietnam War and supporting the
emerging women's movement. For years she was known as "Hanoi Jane"
for her left-wing views and visiting North Vietnam.
Jane Fonda participates at a protest against
US President Donald Trump's executive order to allow the Keystone XL and
Dakota Access pipelines in New York City, US on Jan 24, 2017. Reuters
But in other areas of
her life, such as the Hollywood pay gap where women are often paid less than
male stars, Fonda was far from militant.
At the height of her
career in the 1970s and 1980s, "I never got paid a huge amount of money –
I never thought I was worth it," she said.
"For me, it was
just the way things were. Guys earned more. I am so glad people are feeling
righteous anger about it now."
Fonda said it took her
60 years to "learn how to say no."
"If anyone
offered me anything I would say yes. I took parts I wasn’t right for and I was
taken advantage of," she said. "I didn’t know how to stand up for
myself."
Fonda currently stars
in the Netflix TV series "Grace and Frankie" about two women who have
to fend for themselves after their husbands come out as gay.
