Exclusive | Jane Fonda at Cannes 2026: 'I Went to India By Myself... It Really Changed Me'

Jane Fonda has spent decades dominating screens and captivating audiences. With a career so dynamic and iconic, she barely needs an introduction. However, only few would know that the story behind one of the most defining parts of her life that millions know her for–activism–traces back to a single trip to India.

In an exclusive conversation with Anupama Chopra for the Hollywood Reporter India at the 79^th Cannes Film Festival, Fonda is taken back to her solo journey across India and how the country “posed a choice” for her–one that would later birth her identity as an activist.  

“It really changed me,” says Fonda with an insightful expression on her face that suggests deep reflection and fondness of memory. “I traveled all through India alone, on bus, and I also went into Nepal and Sikkim,” she adds, with subtle but evident enthusiasm.

She further reveals that she had “never seen poverty before,” and how the many Americans visiting ashrams and smoking weed wanted her to come along too. For Fonda, however, it was in that moment she realized she had a choice. “India posed a choice to me,” she says, that she would either become a hippie and go to an ashram as she had seen others do, or become an activist herself and work toward poverty. And her choice was clear. “That’s when I became an activist,” she recalled.