Golden Globes 2021: Jane Fonda pushes for representation while receiving Cecil B. DeMille Award

Jane Fonda pushed for representation as she received the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement at the 78th Golden Globe awards

Fonda accepted her award by calling on Hollywood to work harder to increase diversity.

“There’s a story we’ve been afraid to hear about ourselves in this industry. Let’s all of us, including the groups who decide who gets recognized, let’s all of us make an effort,” she said. “Let’s all of us make an effort to expand that tent so that everyone rises, so everyone’s story has a chance to be heard. Let’s be leaders.”

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"We are a community of storytellers. Storytelling has always been essential. They can help us see each other, have empathy. For all our diversity, we are human first,” Fonda said.

She mentioned 'Judas and the Black Messiah,' 'One Night in Miami,' 'I May Destroy You' and 'Minari' as works that inspired her in the past year. Interestingly, theses are the names that invoked the diversity controversy at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

 

Kerry Washington, Laverne Cox, and Brie Larson were among those who paid tribute to Fonda in the intro to her speech.

The honor, which has gone to entertainers including Oprah Winfrey, Jodie Foster, Meryl Streep, and Tom Hanks, pays tribute to Fonda’s work in film and television. From classics like 'Coming Home,' 'Klute' and '9 to 5' to her current Netflix series 'Grace & Frankie,' Fonda’s career onscreen has spanned more than half a century.

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She was stirred when she first heard she had been selected for the award, “Actually, I shed a few tears,” she told Variety. “I was totally taken aback. And I was very moved.”

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Fonda also recognised the work of the HFPA in contributing to film restoration, including reviving the “lost” documentary “F.T.A.” about her work protesting the Vietnam War. The film documents the time she spent performing at military bases with Donald Sutherland.

Hollywood's awards season kicked off at a very different-looking Golden Globes, with winners tuning in remotely to a ceremony that battled through technical glitches and a few awkward moments as the stars doled out prizes and confronted controversy over a lack of diversity in the organisation that conducts the awards.