Jane Fonda defends 'woke' at SAG Awards, rallies Hollywood to 'resist' Trump

Actress and climate change activist Jane Fonda took veiled jabs at President Donald Trump in a politically charged speech at the 31st annual Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards Sunday night and rallied Hollywood to stand up to the new administration.

While accepting the SAG life achievement award, Fonda encouraged her fellow actors to have empathy for those they didn't understand in the current political climate.

"What we [actors] create is empathy," Fonda said. "Our job is to understand another human being so profoundly that we can touch their souls."

She described how actors have to relate to their characters, even unlikable ones who are "bullies" and "misogynists."

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"Thinking Sebastian Stan in 'The Apprentice,'" she continued. "Make no mistake, empathy is not weak or woke. By the way, woke just means you give a damn about other people."

Fonda urged her fellow actors to have empathy for people who would be "really hurt" by the new administration's actions, even if those people "were of a different political persuasion."

"We need to call upon our empathy and not judge but listen from our hearts, and welcome them into our tent. Because we are going to need a big tent to resist successfully what's coming at us," she said.

The 87-year-old actress compared the present moment to other times in recent history when Hollywood fought back against those in power in Washington.

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"I made my first movie in 1958. It was at the tail end of McCarthyism, when so many careers were destroyed," she said. "Today, it's helpful to remember, though, that Hollywood resisted."

The liberal actress rallied her peers to "be brave" because now was their "moment" to make a difference.

"Have any of you ever watched a documentary of one of the great social movements - like Apartheid or our Civil Rights movement or Stonewall - and ask yourself, would you have been brave enough to walk the bridge?" she asked.

"We don't have to wonder anymore because we are in our documentary moment," she continued. "This is it, and it's not a rehearsal!"

"We mustn't for a moment kid ourselves about what's happening. This is big time serious, folks," she said. "So let's be brave."

Fonda concluded her speech by calling on Hollywood to stay in "community," "help the vulnerable" and foster an "inspiring vision of the future" that is "welcoming."