Jane Fonda on Her New H&M Campaign, the Legacy of Her Iconic VHS Workout, and Feeling Youthful in Her 80s

Forty years ago, Jane Fonda’s Workout was released on VHS tape. It quickly revolutionized at-home fitness—and ignited a cultural phenomenon. There were Fonda’s campy aerobics routines, catchphrases (“Feel the burn!”), and, of course, her rotation of Rainbow Brite leotards and slouchy knit leg warmers. “An exercise outfit helps because it sets this time apart from the rest of your day and makes it matter more!” wrote Fonda in her 1981 fitness tome of the same name.

Since then, the Oscar-winning actor and activist hasn’t stopped moving. “Every day when I get out of a car, I thank the goddesses that I have strong thighs, that I’ve worked out to keep strong thighs,” Fonda tells me, letting out her signature gravelly laugh. But in all seriousness, Fonda, who will turn 85 later this year, works hard to stay nimble—and she’s passionate about continuing to democratize fitness so that others can too. Her latest act in this spirit? Joining forces with H&M Move, the Swedish clothing brand’s new so-called movewear brand, which aims to make stylish, functional, and technically innovative workout clothes more accessible.

“I like their philosophy of movewear over sportswear because it’s not about sports or being athletic,” explains Fonda, who stars in the H&M Move campaign alongside choreographer JaQuel Knight, the visionary behind Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” and “Formation” dances. “It’s about moving in a way that keeps your body healthy and strong.”

It’s just another way that Fonda wants to shift attitudes about how we all move through life—especially as we age. In a society that continually prioritizes youth, Fonda is an aspirational vision of vitality in older age. As she once said, “You can be really old at 60, and you can be really young at 85”—and she’s living proof.

Ahead of the H&M Move announcement, Vogue spoke with Fonda about holding fast fashion’s “feet to the fire,” the long-lasting impact of Jane Fonda’s Workout, and the secrets to living well and aging powerfully.

Vogue: Congrats on being a part of the H&M Move campaign! To start, what drew you to this collaboration?

Jane Fonda: H&M Move is focused on what they call “getting the whole world moving.” That’s something that I’ve been doing a lot of my own life. It just seems to make sense for me because I’m almost 85. I know better than I did even when I was younger that no matter how old you are or who you are or where you are, keeping moving in a way that’s appropriate for your age is absolutely critical to your healthy lifespan.

As someone who fights against climate change and has vowed not to buy new clothes, how did you ensure this collaboration aligned with your personal morals?

I made a pledge four years ago that I’ve kept: I am not buying new clothes. I just believe there’s too much consumerism and we waste too much and throw away too much. I know that some people, for all kinds of reasons, have to keep buying clothes. So I did agree to do this with H&M, but also because they really are making an effort to become a brand that’s sustainable. They’re committed to creating a planet-positive impact with the full supply chain that ranges from design to production to material innovation to shipments, packaging, who they reach, who’s working in their factories, and what the conditions are. Once they convinced me that they were serious about really taking care of all that, I agreed to collaborate with them because it’s important that a big company like H&M becomes circular. You’ve got to hold their feet to the fire. They’re aiming for a hundred percent of their materials to either be recycled or sourced in a sustainable way by 2030 and to be net-zero by 2040. So I think that’s pretty good.

Since the ’70s and ’80s, you’ve been a movewear style icon. How do you think workout wear has evolved since then?

I came from ballet, so when I went and did the workout, I dressed like a ballet dancer would with leg warmers and stuff. [These days] I don’t see people wearing leg warmers, that’s for sure.

Movement has been a part of your life from a young age. How did you fall in love with it?

It started off with ballet. I lived in New York. I had a boyfriend who was a jazz dancer, and he taught at the Paul Taylor School in New York. So I took a bunch of classes with him, and I realized this is not my thing, jazz dancing, modern dancing. But right across the hall, there was a ballet class. I started there and, oh, boy, that was it. I got hooked. When I took a ballet class, my body would change. So I did ballet almost every day. Then I was making a movie with Michael Douglas, The China Syndrome. I fell toward the end of the movie, and I broke my foot. It was in a cast for a while. Within a month, I had to do a movie where I wore a bikini, California Suite. So I had to do something, and I couldn’t do ballet. So after my foot got better, my stepmother told me about a class taught by a woman named Leni Cazden at the Gilda Marx studio. After a few weeks and my foot got better, I went and took the class and it was basically the workout. Oh, my God, it had a huge impact on me. So that’s what I was doing. Leni and I decided to do a workout studio. Then she got married and was sailing around the world. I went ahead and did it. I was just fascinated with how [people embraced it]. I mean, maybe people started doing it because they wanted to get thin, but women would say to me, “I don’t take insulin anymore for my diabetes,” or, “I stood up to my boss for the first time because I could see the muscles in my arms.” It empowered women in very profound ways. I was really happy about that.

You were really democratizing fitness for women, making aerobics, calisthenics, and dance more accessible. Why was that important to you?

I know that the world is full of women who can’t afford to go to a gym or feel self-conscious about being in a gym or can’t go to a gym because they have a young child. So doing it in the privacy of their home was an answer for that. I’d like to claim that I’m a brilliant, strategic businesswoman. If people wanted it, I didn’t know it, [but] I provided it and at a time, it was just perfect. [Founder of Karl Video Corp.] Stuart Karl’s wife read my first workout book and said to her husband, “This could be a video.” He was sort of the king of home videos, which didn’t mean much at the time because nobody had a VCR. I didn’t even know what a VCR was. Literally nobody I knew had a VCR. He made the first do-it-yourself home-improvement videos. So he came to me and pitched the idea of doing a workout video. I said no. I just didn’t get it. But then the money was going to a political organization that my then-husband, Tom Hayden, and I had founded called the Campaign for Economic Democracy. Stuart Karl kept coming back and kept coming back. Finally, I realized maybe this could make money. So I said, “Okay, let’s try it.” I mean, we spent no money on it. I wrote the script myself on a hotel-room floor. We did our own makeup. It was spit and a prayer. Eventually the video came out, and of course it remains the number one selling home video of all time. Nobody’s ever broken that record!

I love hearing all these behind-the-scenes details and just how scrappy it was in the beginning. I think the best things are made that way sometimes.

I mean, the later ones were better produced and everything, but when I was casting it, it was very important to me that it be diverse, racially diverse, gender diverse. There were men in it, there were older people in it, younger people, and that was always a part of the workout videos. I’m proud of that.

Of course fitness does wonders for a person physically, but what attracts you to it in terms of the mind? How does it promote mindfulness and positivity, particularly in today’s almost apocalyptic landscape?

I come from a long line of depressed people. One of the ways that I avoid depression is through exercise. When I move, when I walk, when I exercise, the depression lifts. That and activism are the two best anecdotes for depression as far as I’m concerned. I mean, unless you have chronic depression, which is a different thing.

In terms of wellness, what other things besides movement keep you feeling good, mind and body?

Well, the most important thing for me is sleep. I sleep eight or nine hours every night. I eat a fairly healthy diet. I’m not rigid. I have cut way back on red meat. I’ve cut back on fish because fish supplies are dwindling. I eat vegetables. I eat salads. I eat fresh food. I’m just careful about what I eat. I don’t eat a lot of sugar, except lately I have. I was in Italy for two and a half months making the sequel to Book Club and ate gelato and pasta every single day while I was there. But I never gained weight. I would get up at six in the morning before the heat hit and walk for an hour, hour and a half, two hours on days when the work permitted me to do that. I walk a lot, and that helps me. I didn’t realize when I was young, the young never realize how important it is to keep your body strong because there’s nothing wrong with them. Their body works. They take it for granted. As you get older, you realize the importance of it. I mean, every day when I get out of a car, I thank the goddesses that I have strong thighs, that I’ve worked out to keep strong thighs. When I’m backing a car up and I have to look over my shoulder, I’m thankful that I’ve kept flexible and I can turn my head and it doesn’t hurt. Just basic things like that you take for granted when you’re younger but can’t do anymore when you’re older unless you have remained strong and flexible. My motto now is not for the burn. It’s slow down. Everything is very slow. Jimmy Fallon asked me, “What music do you use now for your workouts?” I said, “There’s no music slow enough to use for my workout.”

From your dedication to fitness to your on-the-ground activism to your work on Grace and Frankie, you’re really demonstrating a new kind of attitude and approach to aging. How do you hope that impacts people?

Well, for one thing, I want young people to stop being afraid about getting older. What matters isn’t age, isn’t that chronological number. What matters is your health. My dad died six years younger than I am now. He seemed so old because he was ill. He had a heart disease. I’m not ill. So I’m almost 85, but I don’t seem that old. So getting young people to stop being afraid of being old, helping people realize that just because you’re a certain age doesn’t mean you have to give up on life, give up on having fun, give up on having boyfriends or girlfriends, making new friends, or whatever you want to do. It’s still in the realm of life possibilities for you. I think that Grace and Frankie gives people, especially women, a lot of hope. That’s why I always tell people what my age is because I want them to realize it. Now as those words are coming out of my mouth, what I’m thinking with the second part of my brain is, Yeah, Fonda. You have money. You can afford a trainer. You can afford plastic surgery. You can afford facials. You can afford the things that help make you continue to look young. That is true. Money does help. Good genes and a lot of money, as somebody once said. But then as I’m saying that, I’m thinking we all know a lot of women who are wealthy who’ve had all kinds of facelifts and things like that and they look terrible. I had a facelift and I stopped because I don’t want to look distorted. I’m not proud of the fact that I had [one].

Now, I don’t know if I had it to do over if I would do it. But I did it. I admit it, and then I just say, okay, you can get addicted. Don’t keep doing it. A lot of women, I don’t know, they’re addicted to it. I don’t do a lot of facials. I don’t spend a lot of money on face creams or anything like that, but I stay moisturized, I sleep, I move, I stay out of the sun, and I have good friends who make me laugh. Laughter is a good thing too.