Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin “Go on” to a new movie and life after “Grace and Frankie” – Toronto Film Festival

Exclusive: One of the hottest titles at this year’s Toronto Film Festival, which kicks off in earnest today, is played by several certified show business legends, both now in their eighties, both constantly at work (mostly together lately), and both. Age verification is just a number.

Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin star in a Netflix comedy series grace and frank Seven seasons later, the longest in the show’s history, and we’re back a week before the cameras show the appropriately titled independent film. in movement Because this couple is doing just that, even in an industry that doesn’t usually exactly celebrate seniors. They seem to work all the time.

I have to say I did this interview on Zoom last week, before Fonda announced via Instagram that she had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and was on a six-month chemotherapy program. She has fortunately noticed that she has been detected and treatable and patients with her condition have an 80% survival rate. That said, she in the interview she looked and sounded absolutely wonderful, full of the enthusiasm and vital energy that she always has. This didn’t seem to slow him down.

The interview has been scheduled because Fonda won’t be able to attend the film’s TIFF premiere on September 13, but Tomlin and director / writer Paul Weitz will. This is the latter couple’s second collaboration since 2015. grandmother A critically acclaimed street comedy in which Tomlin’s character accompanies his niece on an abortion mission (I suggested that, after Roe Wade of the Supreme Court, now would be a good time to revive grandmother and Tomlin agree). I asked how in movement They got together and Tomlin said he simply asked Weitz if he could write a script that he and Jane could have done together.

“Anyway, I called him and, in fact, three months later he sent me the draft. She said “I have an idea” and she told us the idea and it was that maybe Jane killed someone or something. So I said, ‘Okay, okay. Sounds interesting, ‘”Tomlin laughed.

In fact, this is a prerequisite. Claire de Fonda and Evie de Tomlin had been together in college 50 years earlier with another woman, a good friend of Claire’s and a friend who is now dead. They meet again at her funeral, but Fonda’s character has also embarked on a mission of revenge against her ex-roommate’s husband, a real monster played by Malcolm McDowell, to kill him for the sexual trauma he inflicted on Claire during a drunk night. He never dared to tell his friend of him. He’s been hunting her ever since, but now that she’s dead, she asks Tomlin’s character to help her.

Fonda believes it is urgent to address these issues, even in comedy. “It’s important [to have it in there showing] How sexual trauma lasts a lifetime. I think this is something important. Forty-six years later, he’s still ready to kill this boy.

As serious as it is, much of the film is comedic, albeit often obscure, but it gives the stars two juicy roles and Claire a renewed romance decades after breaking up with her ex-boyfriend. In addition to Shaft himself, Richard Roundtree, according to Winda, was a pleasure to work with him.

So what got Fonda excited about the role?

“I spent a lot of time with Lily, both in Los Angeles and at Sundance. Grandmother it came out and I fell in love with it Grandmother. I loved the sensitivity Grandmother And I love Paul’s work. Her mother is Susan Connery, by the way, who went to elementary school with me, “she said of the Oscar-nominated actress for the 1959 classic. imitation of life “However, the idea of ​​working with Paul and the idea of ​​working with Lily were completely different. I love that there is no breathing room. grace and frank here. I think we really did it. You know, it’s a part that I haven’t seen people in a long time, so I was really happy about it. “

Fonda is very happy with the result. “It’s a really good movie and it’s relatively short (85 minutes) and it goes by quickly, and it has a lot of unexpected things that will keep people interested, I think,” she said. Of course, she also has Tomlin, which is why Fonda explained why they have such great chemistry 40 years after first working together in the 1980s. from 9 to 5.

“Well, I’m kind of a stable, quiet, mediocre talent, so it’s very easy for me to get along with his one-of-a-kind cosmic genius. It is very difficult. He is capricious. It is difficult to communicate with him. “So they’re the perfect match for him because I’m so relaxed,” Fonda said with a smile, to which Tomlin shrewdly replied that she could play Fonda. agni club. Fonda then suggested that he could also play his part. grace and frank That could change parts.

“Let’s do it all over again,” Tomlin suggested.

This begs the obvious question: is this a full summary of the show, or it can be grace and frank Never film, meeting?

“I don’t know, but you’re right, it’s sad,” Fonda said. “I have just returned from two and a half months in Italy and many people have approached me and expressed their sadness that it is over. It’s a shame and who knows what Netflix will do with the movie starring Grace and Frank.

The reason he was in Italy this summer was to shoot the aforementioned 2018 sequel. Ignition club, which was a huge success that attracted an older audience often overlooked in the days leading up to the pandemic. He anticipates that the next cast reunion of Candice Bergen, Diane Keaton and Mary Steenburgen will be just as important.

In addition to this and to move on There is another film in the can: 80 for Brady, Also starring Fonda and Tomlin, this time with Sally Field and Rita Moreno as the group of angry old Tom Brady fans who set out to meet him.

“Well, you know, both of them book club 2 Y 80 for Brady Produced by Endeavor Content, who really intend to make a fuss about older women, “Fonda said.” It’s smart because, as Lily says, it’s a huge demographic … older women are the fastest growing demographic in the world. world”.

Well, what about the second sequel? from 9 to 5? They talked for years, but nothing came of it. However, a documentary related to the film, I still work from 9 to 5 premiered at SXSW this year, it will be released in limited theaters next week and stars Fonda and Tomlin. But could there be another movie? Fonda says it’s difficult.

“Keep going? We couldn’t get the script. One of the reasons, aside from the fact that it was so funny and entertaining, the first was about what was real in the workplace at the time. So for this to work, a sequel has to be. realistic for today’s workplace, which is very, very, very different, and we haven’t been able to find a writer who can do that, “he said.

In fact, Tomlin reveals in this document that he tried to leave the film and had real doubts about it. “That’s how it is. That’s all I could do from 9 to 5 Because I made sure we were hired employees to make this industrial employee film. That’s the only reason I could do it, “she confirms.

Fonda says she’s used to it from her co-star. “It’s always like that with him. Fortunately, when you complete a seven-year stint in his three and more feature films, you realize that, well, yes. This is your trial. He did the same. in movement. ‘I do not know. I don’t know if I can do it. I think I can’t do it. “

Luckily for us, Tomlin “does it” every time and throws him out of the park, as does Fonda.

UTA Independent Film Group handles worldwide sales to move on which will have its world premiere in Toronto on Tuesday 13 September.