Exclusive | Jane Fonda at Cannes 2026: 'There is Elegance and Beauty in How French Women Accept Age'

Among the many avenues Jane Fonda is known and celebrated for—films, activism, or her powerfully humane presence in any interview—beauty and healthy ageing are an inextricable part of that list.

“French women aren’t afraid of getting old,” she says with a slight nod when asked about how her relationship with beauty has evolved. Having called France home for nine years, this statement comes as much from an unshakeable sense of confidence in her own skin, as it does from observing how gracefully French women have always understood ageing and beauty.

“For me it was like oh! Wow," she says, reflecting on the moment she grasped the different sentiments women hold around ageing, and how French women embrace it so effortlessly. “There is such an elegance and beauty in French women’s way of accepting age, not being afraid of it,” adds the L’Oréal Paris ambassador, also crediting the company for encouraging that stance around beauty.

When asked about the kind of messaging she wants to put out when she walks the Cannes red carpet, Fonda says, “It doesn’t come naturally to me, being on the red carpet..I have to rehearse. I watch other women and what they do."

Asked if there is a “Jane Fonda mantra” that she lives by, she pauses for a moment, props herself upright and responds with the same simplicity she brings to viewing beauty–“just remain curious and be kind.”