So, as all us award-winning actors know: sometimes, you’re too busy being an award-winning actor to collect your awards for being one. A vicious circle! That’s ok – thankfully, there exist provisions for just that. At the annual BAFTA Britannia Awards, for instance, it’s customary to send in a video message if you can’t be there in person; as such, when the legend that is Jane Fonda couldn’t make it to the Beverly Hilton to pick up the Stanley Kubrick award for Excellence in Film last week, she made sure the organisers had a clip of her to play instead.
Oh, you bet she did. In what must be a first for the academy, Fonda accepted the prestigious accolade while being arrested – and then lead way by police – for her part in the ongoing wave of climate change protests sweeping the globe. She was among 17 protestors (including Ted Danson!) arrested that day on charges of ‘unlawful demonstration’, which for Fonda marked her third arrest in two weeks. Inspired towards civil disobedience by wunderkind Greta Thunberg, Fonda reportedly plans to be arrested every Friday while the activism continues in Washington DC – where she’s recently moved in order to be closer to the heart of the fight for our environment.
Footage shows Fonda shouting to be heard above the crowd: ‘BAFTA, thank you! Thank you […] I’m sorry I’m not there’, she adds, brandishing her handcuffs and calling ‘I’m very honoured’, before being led away by police – who, by the way, she’s described as ‘extremely nice and professional’.
You’d hope as much, for officers entrusted with escorting a star (exit stage left) at such a moment in their career: Fonda joins the likes of Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep and George Clooney in receiving the Stanley Kubrick accolade. Keep fighting the good fight, Jane – not to mention the millions of (less famous, equally admirable) protestors across the world. See you next week for the hat-trick.
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