Los Angeles, Feb 24 (PTI) Veteran actor Jane Fonda urged actors to embrace empathy amid the current political climate in her acceptance speech at the 31st Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards where she was given a Lifetime Achievement honour.

The actor-activist, 87, briefly touched upon her career and spoke up about growing up in the '40s and '50s "when women weren't supposed to have opinions and get angry". In her speech on Sunday, she said acting gave her a chance to play these women.

Also Read | Bangladesh: Miscreants Attack Air Force Base in Cox’s Bazar, 1 Person Killed (Watch Videos).

Fonda said she was a big believer in unions at a time when workers' power is being attacked and community is being weakened, obliquely referring to President Donald Trump's cost-cutting chief, Elon Musk's mail to Federal employees to explain their recent accomplishments or risk losing jobs.

Also Read | Elon Musk's Starlink Faces Rising Competition From China's SpaceSail and Hongqing Technology, Bezos's Project Kuiper, Canada's Telesat in Satellite Internet Race.

"SAG-AFTRA is different than most other unions. Us, the workers, we actors, we don't manufacture anything tangible, what we create is empathy. Our job is to understand another human being so profoundly that we can touch their souls, we know why they do what they do, we can feel their joy and their pain. Make no mistake, empathy is not weak or woke and by the way, woke just means you give a damn about other people," the actor said.

Fonda said a whole lot of people are "going to be really hurt by" what is happening.

"And even if they're 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 added.

Known for "Klute", "The China Syndrome", "Julia" and "9 to 5", Fonda said she made her first film during “the tail end of McCarthyism” as Hollywood resisted.

She then asked the gathering whether they had ever watched a documentary about a great social movement and wondered what they would do in that situation.

“We don't have to wonder anymore because we are in our documentary moment, this is it and it's not a rehearsal. This is it, and we mustn't for a moment kid ourselves about what's happening. This is big time serious folks, so let's be brave.

"This is a good time for a little Norma Rae or Karen Silkwood or Tom Joad. We must not isolate. We must stay in community. We must help the vulnerable. We must find ways to project an inspiring vision of the future,” she said referring to working class protagonists in movies "Norma Rae", "Silkwood" and "The Grapes of Wrath", where her father Henry Fonda played Tom Joad.

The 31st Screen Actors Guild Awards 2025 took place at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)