Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin: Netflix' Stars of Grace and Frankie Define DVO

This time of year, Jane Fonda is usually at the Cannes Film Festival, but this year she is working back home. After a screening of the first two episodes of the second season of Netflix’ Grace and Frankie, part of a new Tribeca Talks series at the SVA Theater for the Tribeca Film Festival, the iconic stars Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin took the stage for a panel moderated by Gayle King. Chatting, bickering, japing, with one another, the stars fielded questions on aging, women in the industry, careers, and lovers. “This is how it is on the set,” they assured a packed audience. In the fall, Fonda was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role as an aging actress in Youth. She said, she’s just happy to be working. With Grace and Frankie now filming their third season, she and Tomlin will be working for a long time.

The episodes screened featured the two women coping with Martin Sheen’s character having a heart attack on the eve of his wedding to Sam Waterston’s character. To catch you up, the two men had been married to Grace and Frankie, so they’re all family, so to speak. Episode two features a pre-op wedding officiated by none other than Frankie. Speaking about how they got this going, show runners came and asked them how they felt about working with each other. After all, they co-starred in 9 to 5. There was no script. They wrote the script after. “We live the scripts,” said Tomlin. “If it says we get friendly, we get friendly.”

“I didn’t get it at first,” said Jane. “Yeah, she thought Grace was going to be an aging Barbarella,” quipped Lily, and so it went for the next hour. “Grace could not have ended up with someone as perfect as what she needed as Frankie,” said Jane. “What about age?” asked Gayle King (61). Jane said, “Those of us who have celebrity should just say our age. I’m 78,” to which Lily countered, “I’m 76. We’re on the dark side of 70. You get to play love scenes. I don’t get to have a love scene. We get to have DVO.” Huh, what’s that? “Deep Vaginal Orgasm,” she replied.

Regina Weinreich

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