Jane Fonda used “Monster-in-Law” to identify herself in jail: 'Couldn't have cared less who I was'

Fonda said other women in jail with her, who had "far more important things to think about," didn't know who she was — until she mentioned the JLo rom-com.

Jane Fonda's role in the 2005 Jennifer Lopez rom-com Monster-in-Law not only served as her big-screen comeback in the early aughts, but it also helped identify her to other women she spent a night in jail with back in 2019.

After the Hollywood icon was arrested five years ago at a climate change protest in Washington, D.C., she was taken into custody — and she recalled her time in jail on a recent episode of Ted Danson and Woody Harrelson's Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast.

Fonda revealed that a familiarity with Monster-in-Law helped the other women in jail realize who she was, after Danson — who was also arrested at the same 2019 protest — inquired about the incident on the episode.

"We're white and we're famous and we will never really know what it's like to be Black in this country or brown," Fonda reflected, maintaining that there's "something very liberating about engaging in civil disobedience" on behalf of an important cause. Still, she acknowledged that her identity often leads to unfair, privileged treatment in jail, and acknowledged that she didn't take lightly the fact that she was "the only white person there" at the time.

"I ended up being put some place else with a lot of other prisoners, Black women, and it was, you know, it was really interesting. They couldn't have cared less who I was. They had far more important things to think about," she said. "None of them had seen any of my movies. Jennifer Lopez. Yeah. They had seen Monster-in-Law. I pulled that card and they were mildly impressed, but not really. They went right back and talked about what they were dealing with, which was survival issues. It was an eye-opener, I'll tell you."

Fonda, now 86, said the experience wasn't her first in jail, as she was previously arrested in 1970 in Cleveland after she said she was accused by Richard Nixon of smuggling drugs. "That was not good," she remembered "I got roughed up a little, but, you know, we get off easy."

Speaking on her 2019 arrest, Fonda again pointed out an issue with the American prison system, recalling hearing "psychotic breaks" happening all around her, which involved "screaming and banging on the doors."

She continued: "You realize they should be in another kind of place, like a mental health place. They shouldn't be in jail."

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Related: Jane Fonda says Jennifer Lopez 'never apologized' for cutting her face in Monster-in-Law slap scene

Outside of her career as one of the most esteemed actresses of all time, Fonda has regularly used her platform to raise awareness about political and social issues, dating as far back as the 1960s, when Fonda strongly opposed the Vietnam War. Currently, she often speaks out against conservative agendas, including during a 2022 appearance on The View that saw her urge Americans to "fight like hell" against abortion restrictions.

Released in 2005, Monster-in-Law — also starring Wanda Sykes and Adam Scott — marked Fonda's return from a multi-year screen hiatus, and became a global success at the box office with $155 million in ticket sales. Fonda later reunited with Lopez with a small role in the latter's 2024 music film This Is Me... Now: A Love Story.

Listen to Fonda discuss her experience in jail in the Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast clip above.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.