Jane Fonda called for Hollywood to "be leaders" in diversity at the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday (28.02.21).
Jane Fonda
The 83-year-old actress was honoured with the Cecil B. DeMille Award - which she received in recognition of both her lengthy career and her activism - at this year's event and delivered a powerful acceptance speech in which she addressed the need for varied storytelling.
She said: "You know, I have seen a lot of diversity in my long life, and at times I have been challenged to understand some of the people I’ve met, but inevitably, if my heart is open and I look beneath the surface, I feel kinship.
, "Stories, they can really change people. But there's a story we’ve been afraid to see and hear about ourselves in this industry, a story about which voices we respect and elevate and which we tune out, a story about who is offered a seat at the table and who is kept out of the rooms where decisions are made."
She went on to call on "all of us, including all the groups that decide who gets hired and what gets made and who wins awards" to "expand that tent" to allow more stories to be told.
She added: "After all, art has always been not just in step with history but has led the way, so let’s be leaders. Okay?"
Jane went on to single out work she has enjoyed this year, including 'Judas and the Black Messiah', 'Small Axe', and 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom', which she said have "deepened my empathy for what being Black has meant" before reminding the audience of the power of storytelling, particularly during difficult times.
She said: "We are a community of storytellers, aren’t we? And in turbulent, crisis-torn times like these, storytelling has always been essential.
"You see, stories have a way... they can change our hearts and our minds, they can help us see each other in a new light, to have empathy, to recognise that for all our diversity, we are humans first."
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