06 November 2019
Newsdesk
Jane Fonda wore multiple layers of clothing ahead of her climate change protest arrest last week in order to make her overnight stay behind bars as comfortable as possible.
The Monster-in-Law star was taken into custody for the fourth time in as many weeks on 1 November (19) after staging her latest environmental demonstration, titled Fire Drill Fridays, in Washington, D.C.
Her arrest occurred a week after she was charged with civil disobedience and given a future court date, and as a result of her latest run-in with the law, she was forced to spend the night locked up.
However, Fonda was well aware of the potential punishment and she made sure to dress appropriately so she would at least be warm in the cell.
"It wasn't a prison and it wasn't a normal... jail, it was a holding (cell) for people awaiting sentencing," she explained on U.S. talk show The View.
Fonda continued, "Conditions weren't great for old bones like mine on a metal slab... They won't let me take anything (into the cell, except for the clothes on her back), but I'm smart; I wore layered (clothing). I wore one sweater which could be a pillow and a coat that could be my mattress and my cover."
The actress and activist was joined for her latest bust by pals Catherine Keener and Rosanna Arquette, following in the footsteps of Ted Danson and Sam Waterston, who had each marched with Fonda and found themselves in handcuffs at previous weekly rallies, and the 81 year old is determined to continue risking arrest with her ongoing demonstrations to draw attention to the urgent nature of climate change.
"Climate activists have been doing this (protesting peacefully) for 40 years," she said. "We've been writing articles, we've been giving speeches, we've been putting the facts out to the American public and politicians, and we've marched and we've rallied peacefully, and the fossil fuel industry is doing more and more and more to harm us and our environment, and our young people's futures, so we have to up the ante and engage in civil disobedience, which means risking getting arrested, because it's gonna require more and more and more people in the streets, demanding (action)..."
Calling on others to follow her lead and lobby politicians to act before it's too late, she concluded, "We have 11 years to avoid catastrophe, and we can't do it unless people mobilise by the millions in the streets..."
Fonda is expected to return to the streets of Washington, D.C. this week to keep fighting the good fight.