Latest / Mic Drop Comedy / Jane Fonda - _Rise Up_ Sing Out_ A Concert for the First Amendment_ _ The Daily Show

Transcript

Jane Fonda - _Rise Up_ Sing Out_ A Concert for the First Amendment_ _ The Daily Show · Mic Drop Comedy

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Jane Fonda.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: How are you? I'm great, thanks.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: It's so, so lovely.
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: I have not met you before, and it's a pleasure
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: and an honor.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Thank you for being here.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: It's an honor for me, too. I've never been on
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: the show. Thank you for having me.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Oh, wonderful. Tell me about this concert. Oh, it's going
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: to be great. What is this about? This is for
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: the First Amendment.
• 0:42
  Speaker 4: It's, yes, it's about, and we're doing it at this
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: historic town hall.
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: What is that, like 44th Street or something like that?
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Sixth Avenue, somewhere.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Somewhere. It's on Broadway.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: There you go.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: It's considered Broadway.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: It is considered Broadway. Long history. You've made it.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: I've finally made it.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Well done.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: Patty Smith, Rufus Wainwright. Bette Midler.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: Fantastic.
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: We have, not only is it going on in the theater,
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: but we have thousands of, I think over 5,000 registered
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: viewing parties around the country in red states and purple
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: states and blue states.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: So like a simulcast. It's going to go out at
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: the same time?
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: And then when they register for a viewing party, they
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: get song sheets, so it's a sing-along. And, you know,
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: music has always been part of movements, of resistance movements,
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: of civil rights movements.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: I mean, all the way back in the.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: You know, what else has always been a part of
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: some great movements? Jane Fonda. You've been doing this a
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: long time. You've been.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Vietnam, no nukes, LGBTQ rights. I mean, issue after issue,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: you've stepped up.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: You know, I was about.
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: I think I was about 33 when I became an
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: activist in 1970.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: And before then... I wasn't involved in anything. I was
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: kind of hedonistic.
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: I kind of knew if I really get involved, my
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: life is going to change.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: And I kind of stayed away.
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: And then it was American soldiers that got me to
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: understand the Vietnam War. And my whole life changed. And then,
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: because I lived in France, I moved back here and
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: Because it was soldiers that had opened my eyes, I
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: became part of the GI movement. But it was the
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: people that I met. They were different than people I
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: had ever met before. I'd always been, I'd grown up
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: in a world where everybody was judged how you looked.
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: Are you thin enough? Are you this enough? Are you,
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: oh God, there was so much pressure. And suddenly it
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: was like, what kind.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: Of a person are you? It wasn't like what you
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: looked like.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 3:10
  Speaker 4: It was like looking through a keyhole at the world
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: we were fighting for. And so, you know, we're the
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: entertainment industry writ large. We create the dreams, we write
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: the stories, we can show people, we can make them
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: feel across differences, and we can.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: Show them how it could be.
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: There's an alternative. This is not inevitable, what we're going
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: through right now. entertainers, well, you know, you're being attacked.
• 3:41
  Speaker 4: Comics first, because tyranny and comics don't go together, you know.
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: You're the ones that can point out there's no clothes
• 3:48
  Speaker 4: and all that kind of, yeah.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: So, comics go first, you know.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Wait, what? I thought, wait, how did I get involved
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: in this? I'm out first? Son of a bitch.
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: But what was so great is that when Kimmel, when
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: they said that Kimmel was going to be taken off
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: the air and millions of Americans canceled their Disney subscriptions
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: or threatened to cancel.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: So, this is... It's called non-cooperation, and that's what we
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: have to do. Non-cooperation? The Committee for the First Amendment,
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: it existed before. We want to organize the entertainment industry
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: to not cooperate with what's happening because our democracy is
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: being destroyed. Our rights are being taken away.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Tell me about the perspective on that, because you bring
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: up an interesting point.
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: This committee existed in the past, and it really was
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: in the 50s, was it not?
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: The House Un-Americans Activities.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: It started, it first was created, it was called the
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: Committee for the First Amendment.
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: Hollywood Strikes Back in 1947 against the House Un-American Activities Committee.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: My dad was a member, that's how I knew about it. Really?
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: Fantastic.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: And then, yeah, I'm my dad's daughter. It just took
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: me a while.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: It's such an interesting thing.
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: Do you recall watching him go through standing up for
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: things and being criticized?
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Did that make you fearful of that?
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: What was your experience with it? When I stood up finally,
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: it made him fearful. He was worried.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Really? For you?
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Well, you took.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: He'd seen.
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: Careers and lives destroyed.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: Right. And it's happening now. But the.
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: I don't know if people are aware enough about what's happening.
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: You know, books are being banned. The funding of arts
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: councils are being taken away. Television shows where there's a
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: black wife of this guy.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: No, no, no, you can't do that. Cancel it.
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: No, you can't have an LGBTQ, you know, they're just
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: being canceled.
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's almost like people are acquiescing to it because
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: I think what the government understands is corporations don't want friction.
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: They basically, they don't have any moral stand to take
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: on it. They just don't want the friction. And so
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: if people can create friction to the corporation, then they'll
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: listen to them.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: But for now, they're just fearful of the government.
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: Well, what's happening in the entertainment industry, people who got rich,
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: guys who got rich on other kinds of businesses are
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: trying to take over the entertainment industry and... Bend it to,
• 6:34
  Speaker 4: you know, bring us to our knees so that we
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: will support what they're doing.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: And they're taking.
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: Away our rights, the stories that are nuanced and complicated
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: and represent diversity.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: You're talking about the mergers and such.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: I'm talking about the mergers. They're canceling things.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: Right, the people who own.
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: They're trying to control a business that they didn't even
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: build up. You know, they're just coming out from some
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: greedy place to try.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: To control us.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Well, that's all the time we have for tonight.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: LAUGHTER It's probably a good idea they're doing that. But listen, people...
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: What are you trying to pull here?
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: Either come to the town hall on June 14th when
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: we're going to do the.
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: the music that gets people to rise up and speak out.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: You know, now is the time. This is the time, guys.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: In your experience, Anne, and I think people are really
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: thirsty for it.
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: And if they can't actually come to the play, they
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: can register and view it at home.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: And have a house party.
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: And you'll be mailed out gummies, and you can watch
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: it for that. In your experience with this, have you
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: learned lessons of what effective activism looks like, what less
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: effective activism? Were there certain movements that you were really
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: appreciative of how they went about, whether it was the
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: No Nukes movement you.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: Were involved in or Vietnam?
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: What can you tell people about the most effective ways
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: to get involved and how you've seen that play out
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: over time?
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: Listen to people talk.
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: Young people, because they have these phones now, they can
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: get thousands of people to come out overnight. That's not organizing.
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: Organizing takes time. You have to talk to people. You
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: have to understand where they're coming from.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: You have to... I don't know.
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: I think we have to become living ambassadors to an
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: irresistible future where everybody will be seen and respected by
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: their government.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: Where everybody feels taken care of. You know what?
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: Can I tell you something crazy?
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: Huh?
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Can I tell you something crazy? I believe you.
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: Like, watching this animate you, watching your passion for it,
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: you seem.
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: You seem like you really believe this can change and
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: go in the right direction. This is not something you
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: play at. You believe it in your soul, it appears.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're gonna move the needle. We're gonna change things, absolutely.
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: And so, you know, one of the most important things
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: is community. This is what we've learned from Minneapolis, right?
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: They take care of each other. You have to know
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: your neighbor. You have to be willing to take care
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: of people who are hurting. You know, I know it's
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: called woke. It's so beautiful. It means you've got a
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: big heart. It means that you care.
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: It means you're an upstander, not a bystander who kind
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: of just walks fast when you see somebody that hurts.
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: You know, I am not a religious person, and yet
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: I really feel like saying amen right now.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: I don't know why. I'm not even sure I know
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: what it means.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: Sing it. Amen. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Now, are you going to get up there and do... Amen, amen.
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: If I may, if I may, I didn't need all that.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: It's exciting, though.
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: And right now, is it the First Amendment stuff that's
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: really animating what you're moving towards?
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: Well, it's the bedrock. It's the first for a reason.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: It's the bedrock of it all.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: The bedrock of our democracy.
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: And especially as artists, we can't function if we don't
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: have freedom of expression, all of the freedoms that we've
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: been guaranteed in our Constitution.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: And journalists as well. They need to be able to
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: stand up through it.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: And journalists are part of the Committee for the First Amendment.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: We're... When did you reanimate this? When did this start?
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: October 1st. You just started this?
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah. You already booked Town Hall.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: Oh, and we had a big thing in front of
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: the Kennedy Center. I mean, we're changing the zeitgeist.
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: His name came off today. Off the burger?
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Did they really take it off? Did they really take
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: it off? You see how thirsty they are? His name
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: came off a building. Yeah, but he put it on
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: 20 others.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: People are thirsty.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: What can we do? That's what it is.
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: People are thirsty for it. And I commend you for
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: the passion that you bring to it.
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: It's fun.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: The dedication that you bring to it.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: The resilience.
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: Where can people go to get art? I'm assuming this
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: is probably sold out. So just have them go and register.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: Is that the idea? Well, then you can watch it
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: at home or you could have a viewing party and
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: you get songbooks and you can sing along and you
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: get calls to action. Yeah.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: All those great things.
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: Well, Jane Fonda, it's an absolute pleasure.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: Thank you, John.
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: To meet you and to just be swept up in
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: your enthusiasm and your passion.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: Thank you. It's good to meet you finally.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: I know. We've never met for that long.
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: For more information and tickets to the live show in
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: New York City on June 14th, riseupandsingout.com.
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: Jane Fonda.
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: Thank you.