>> work out? >> i try. it's what i called a british workout where can you do it carrying on eating and drinking. and what she says about her life now. >> i've never been happier. and i'm not being could i. >> this is "piers morgan tonight." if i could talk to just one hollywood star, that star would very probably be jane fonda. the stories this woman can tell, in fact does tell from her beginnings in one of the first families in movies to her grand breaking roles of poll tex and multi-million dollar businesses, even her life with the man who created cnn. but she's not resting on her laurels. her latest book is "primetime" and she's here with me now. >> thank you very much. glad to you with you. >> when you look at the extraordinary life that you led wlrk do you think that your prime time was? >> i think it started at about 62 when i became single for the third time. and it's continued. i can honestly say that i've never been happier. but i've worked hard for it. >> i read a recent interview did you and you suggested that despite all these amazing men that you had relationships with, you actually never felt proper intimacy, which i thought was an extraordinary thing to say. what do you mean by that? >> well, to really bring all of yourself, including the not always very attractive and perhaps not loveable parts of yourself to the table in a relationship makes you very, very vulnerable. and if you have addictions of any kind or suffer from depression or things like that, it's very hard to do it. and, you know, for -- in my first marriages i think that i chose men -- i agree with katherine hepburn be, it's the women who choose the men, i chose men who like me really weren't able to show up 100% and it took me time to get over that and be open to a relationship that was intimate. i'm not talking about sex. i'm talking about soulful, emotional, psychological intimacy. >> and how much of that was down to you with the husbands you've had and how much was down to them or it was both? >> well, it was definitely me. i mean, i sometimes wonder did a man cross my path who could have really showed up a hundred percent? who knows. but i didn't -- if he did, i would have run the other direction, you know. it's like if you grow up surrounded by chaos and someone is offers peace and calm, you're going to be terrified. so, you know, i had to grow out of that and it took me -- i'm a late starter. >> what have you learned about yourself? >> that i'm resilient, that i'm brave, that i'm honest and i guess the most important thing that i continue to be curious. i feel like i learn something every day. i think that it's one of the things that keeps us young and interesting, remaining interested in life in people and learning things. i was a college dropout. i'm a great student now. i study. one of the reasons that i love writing books is because it forces me to study and i do. and i'm just very involved in life and i'm very happy. >> you've always been very active politically and everyone knows you for that. what do you make of what's going on with politics in america at the moment? >> i am -- i'm scared. i'm scared. anybody who's been to a third world country where there's no middle class, you know, where there's a very narrow layer of people who are very rich and powerful and privileged and then everyone else is kind of struggling, barely making it, not able to have what they have dreamed of, that's a country that's not stable and i hate to think that this wonderful country of ours is not going to be able to be stable. but we're headed in that direction and i -- i -- we still have time. i hope we can turn it around. we have to do something about the greed in high places i think. >> why has america got itself into this awful position economically? because it was the great super power of the world. it remains so statistically if no other way but there's clearly something wrong with the soul of america and everyone is debating this. you've been at the forefront of america politics and society for a long, long time. when you look at it, what do you think went wrong? >> i can't answer the question. i have not been in the forefront of politics. i came to politics, you know, in my 30s and my politics are around issues and the issues that i understand are not economic. you know, i work with young people, i work with adolescents, i work on issues of violence against women. it would be clumsy for me right now to try to give my opinion about what went wrong in this country economically. i mean, one thing that comes to mind is you can't wage a war for as long as we did in iraq and not tax it. we're paying for it without taxing it so that people would swallow that bitter pill. that was one thing that went wrong and that really messed up the economy. but i'm -- i have a hard time understanding the economic situation. i try. i look at wonderful documentaries like "too big to fail" and things like that. i find it very confusing and disturbing. all i know is that when you have soldiers coming back from war, when you have people graduating with high degrees and none of them can find jobs in a country that promises that if you play by the rules, that you're going to be able to own a house and send your children to college and do okay, this is going to cause real deep problems in our country. and, you know, year going to have to stop trying to be objective and start telling the truth and it has to start with the media in my opinion. >> are you blaming me there, jane? >> i don't know you well enough. i might. >> how far do you think the media has been come police snit. >> i think it's been quite complicit. there's such an effort to be objective rather than really looking at underlying truths and telling them even if it might affect the ratings, you know, everyone's worried about the short term. you know, if only, only, only we could become a country where people who influence our consciousness and influence or politics and the politicians themselves stop thinking short term and began thinking long term, i wish that we had those kind of human beings in office. and there are some but not enough. we need more long-term thinkers. >> when you look at the republican race and you see these debates with all the candidates and so on, what do you make of the intellectual level of those debates? who impresses you and who scares you? >> they all scare me frankly. i'm -- i'm -- i get depressed and scared when you look at the republican debates. >> i mean, even someone like a newt gingrich or a mitt romney? do they scare you? >> i'm worried about anybody getting elected to office who says we have to do away with or privatize social security, we have to reduce medical insurance, health insurance, we have to not raise taxes. i don't think that we can get out of the -- and, oh, there's no problem with the environment. you know, this is all made up by the left, the scientists don't really know what they're talking about. this worries me. i think this is an example, you know, especially i'm thinking about the environment now, of people not -- people becoming idea logical rather than understanding that there are some people who are experts and there's a lot of them and they're saying we are in dire trouble, this is our life support system, this planet. and if we don't do something about clean air -- i'm unhappy with the democrats, too. it's not just the republicans. but this should be a top priority. so they all worry me because i don't think that they're really telling the truth or maybe they just don't see the truth about what's happening to us. we have to tax the rich, we have to help people who are, you know, who are struggling. we have to do everything we can to create jobs for the people who are able to work. we have to help children become educated so that we have a workforce that's going to be productive in the future and we have to do everything we can to save the planet. >> what do you think of barack obama? >> i hope he gets re-elected. i wish that he would be stronger. i think he will be in his second term. i think he's going to be re-elected. i think that he's -- i think he's a good man but i wish that he was tougher on the issues that i care about and that a lot of people care about. >> a lot of people say about president obama that he's, you know, he's a very nice guy, people like him, he's clearly intelligent, he's a great figure head for america abroad. there's no question about that. i've seen that it and jibli in europe. what they say he wants to get on with being a nice guy when politics isn't like that. he should have flattened them early on and forced on what he really believes in. >> if he's able to. i'm old enough to remember the time when people were friends across aisles, especially during lyndon johnson's administration. they would play cards and drink together and they were friends and they would compromise. there was a civility in the body politic. and that seems to be gone. and, you know, i think that obama has tried to reach out and i think that the other side is really intransient. i don't know whether there's anything he could have done differently. i hope that i'm wrong but we feel like we're at some kind of a terrible, terrible impasse. i don't know how to open the log jam but it needs to happen and it needs to happen soon. >> it seems there he's very disconnect now between washington and the regular american on the street. when you watch the occupy wall street protesters, what they're really protesting about is a general malaise about the way the political process is stifling their lives and nothing's getting done for their lives. >> they're protesting greed. greed is poisoning our country. >> but with why? why has that happened? >> i don't know why. >> americans didn't used to be associated with greed. it want part of the culture. >> i can't answer the question. >> what do your suspicions tell you? >> i don't know. you know, i -- i really -- i'm not going to go us there i don't know how to answer. i don't know how to answer the question of why greed has risen to this level in the last several decades. i don't know -- i don't know what it is that has caused a very, very extreme right wing to be able to -- because i think that they're responsible for the impasse. i don't entirely understand why it's true but, you know, your original question was am i scared? i'm scared. i'm scared. yes, i am. >> let's try to lighten the load a little bit of your terror. >> i didn't say i'm terrified. >> all right, your moderate disquiet. let's talk movies after the break. at bank of america, we're lending and investing in communities across the country, from helping to revitalize a neighborhood in brooklyn to financing industries that are creating jobs in boston or providing funding for the expansion of a local business serving a diverse seattle community and supporting training programs for tomorrow's workforce in los angeles. because the more we can do in local neighborhoods and communities, the more we can help make opportunity possible. couldn't we do it your way? i don't want to change your traditions. >> i'm not a savage. >> my -- >> that was a clip from the >> that was a clip from the 1968 film that cemented jane fonda as a world wide sex symbol. >> i think it's a time youngmen had their first experiences looking at the film. i'm kind of glad about that. i think it's kind of cool that i aroused a lot of young men at that certain time. it's pretty tame compared to what we see now but it's got a lot of charm. we did it before there were any great special effects. we invented them. we, my then husband, roger vedin, came up with all these ideas of how to create special effects and no one had done it before. it was kind of fun. >> when you say it's not very sexy, you realize there are millions of men who would race to disassociate themselves from that comment. >> they remember from when they were very young but looking at it now, it doesn't seem so sexy. but i'd like it remake it. i would, i would. maybe i will one day. >> i was going to say, there's nothing to stop you. i was going to say did you like being a sex symbol but you've remained a sex symbol. i look at you now and you've looked as glamorous as you've ever looked. >> thank you very much. i don't think of myself as a sex symbol. it was fun. i like to work and i'm glad i went ton to make movies like "cloout" and "coming home" and "on golden pond." i'm glad i didn't get stuck in the barbarella mode. >> why wouldn't you be that keen to be a sex symbol? >> i'm 74 years old. i think it would be inappropriate. >> i don't mean now. when you look back to that period of your life, you don't seem that happy that you were this global sex figure if you'd like, the idol of millions of men. >> if you want it know, i wouldn't. it did not do well at the box office. it's become a cult film but it was not a big deal at the time and, you know, i came back and pretty soon after i did "they shoot horses don't they" so that window of time when one could have slotted me into sex symbol didn't really last because at heart i'm a serious actress who much preferred being in "they short horses doesn't they" and shortly after that "clute" because being stuck with a label like sex symbol could be very limiting. if a man i care about finds me sex eep, that's great. but i don't want to be labelled anything. i do a lot of different things. >> who was the sexiest of all the stars you've ever seen? >> ava gardner as a woman. redford i guess is my favorite. i made three movies with him. >> i introduced -- interviewed robert redford lately and heap exsuedes it. you two should make a movie together. you could do barbarella 2. >> i wouldn't do it with him. i would do it with angelina jolie. if i had a baby, i'd lay an egg. i won't tell you anymore because maybe i'll do it one day. >> tell me about acting, though. if you were to tell me what really has excited your passions in life, on a chart list of top three, where would acting fall? >> there have been moments in some films when it feels transcendent, when it is the most wonderful feeling when you have entered someone else's reality and you know you're there. part of you knows that it's not real and yet you are living inside another human being and it's meaningful and it works. and when that happens in the context of a film that you produced and conceived of and that is carrying a message that is something meaningful to you, that is very -- that is beautiful. it happened in "on golden pond," which i produced for my father. it happened in "in coming home ", which i was instrumental in getting done, and it happened in "9 to 5," which was my idea. it's happened a few times. when all those things come together, when what you're saying through art is something that you're passionate about and you love the character and inhabit the character so deeply that it's transformative, that's really, really exciting. there's also -- i've been fortunate enough to have done this evenings in my life that have -- people tell me have helped them, have made them happier, better, more clear about their own lives, helped them move forward in their lives. that is profoundly rewarding and, you know, i -- about five years ago when i had written my memoirs and i was on a road tour promoting my memoirs and especially women would line up to get me to sign their books and one would come along and say remember that march in san diego in '71 when we marched together against the war? and the next woman would come and say, oh, "cat blue," wonderful movie, it saved my life when i was depressed and another woman would say that video you did, it saved my life. and i realize i've bt i interacted with people in many ways overs course of my life and it feels good, it really does. >> which is a movie that if you could be remembered for one you would choose? >> i think the one i'll be remembered for is "coming home" because it was such a beautiful movie and such a universal -- so many girls have fathers that had a hard time loving them and people really identified with that movie. and i think it really, you know, a lot of people said to me men and women but mostly women, i saw the movie and then i brought my father to see it and it changed our relationship. but that's a movie that's been very meaningful to people. but it hard to pick a -- "the doll make are," which a won an emmy for, it's hard to pick. it's like saying which is your favorite child. >> i've got a favorite. it's "on golden pond." i want to come back after break and talk to you specifically about that and about your father and your extraordinary family. maybe you and i should have the kind of relationship that we're supposed to have. >> what kind of relationship is that? >> well, you know, like a father and a daughter. >> just in the nick of time, huh? worried about the will, are you? well, i'm leaving everything to you except what i'm taking with me. >> just stop it. >> jane fonda and her father henry fonda in 1981 "on golden pond." there are very few, i guess, fathers and daughters perform together, let alone oscar winning ones. when you look back on that, jane, what was the experience like for you working so closely with your father? >> i feel so blessed, piers, to have been able to have that experience. he died five months later. i bought the play, i made the movie because i wanted to work with him. we knew he was dying. but to have found a play in which the father/daughter characters so mirrored our own real life relationship was -- it was amazing. and to have been able to say those words to him and to have the resolution at the end of the movie, i mean, i -- it's hard for me to look at the movie even now. >> yeah, i can see you looking away actually. i understood that because for us you're both movie stars but for you you're watching your father there and this is shortly before he died. >> yeah. i miss him so much. i feel him so present in my life all the time and that makes me very happy. >> what kind of man was he? i've read a lot of reports over the years that he could be prone to being cold and detached, that it wasn't always easy as a father/daughter relationship. but what would you say? what would the honest portrayal be as your father as a father? >> well, let's start with the man. as a man, he was a man of profound integrity. he was a good man, he had good values. he had problems in the relationship department. he had problems with emotions, which is interesting for an actor, a hard time expressing emotions and being around someone who was emotional. it was absolutely terrifying to him. you know, he was -- he was difficult. but he did his best. he did the best he could. and i was able to tell him that before he died. and, you know, if there had been prozac then, i think probably our lives would have been very different. but he did the best that he could, and i'm so grateful to him. and grateful -- whatever he didn't say to me he communicated through his movies, "12 angry men," "young abe lincoln" "the wrong man," "grapes of wrath." these were the movies that meant something to him. these were the values that he held close to him and i knew that. and i think some of that seeped into me. the need for justice and equality and fairness and standing up for the underdog, that's what he represented. and i'm proud that in some small way i'm his daughter. >> people said to me when i said i was interviewing you, you got to be careful with jane fonda, she's feisty. she'll be challenging, she'll be on you. but i was like i've watched interviews you've been before. i would describe it as more challenging and passionate and you take things seriously because you're driven passionate that i always assumed you got from your father and your family. if you were watching yourself, how would you describe your character? >> i don't see myself p