Fonda: Character Based On Turner

When you see Jane Fonda on the big screen for the first time in 15 years as Jennifer Lopez's mother-in-law from hell in "Monster-In-Law," think Ted Turner.

In her second Early Show interview in a month, Fonda tells co-anchor Hannah Storm she actually got some inspiration for her character from her former husband.

"He's over the top," Fonda says, "And I think spending these wonderful 10 years with him gave me a new sense of what over-the-top means. It sort of gave me the courage to be over-the-top with Viola.

"Besides, Viola does a lot of pretend crying in the movie. And Ted can get sad, but he doesn't really cry, but he does this kind of pretend cry. So I used his pretend cry in the movie - to great effect, I might add."

Fonda says she also received acting tips from her son, Golden Globe nominee Troy Garity, who accompanied her on the set.

"When he was doing 'Bandits' with Bruce Willis, I gave him tips. I came to the set," Fonda says. "When I was doing this, he'd come on to the set and in between shots say, 'Mom, why don't you...' He's such a good actor, that the advice was really fun."

It was assumed that Fonda had quit show business 15 years ago because of her marriage to Ted Turner, but she tells Storm he only made it possible for her not to have to act anymore.

"I was miserable. I hated it. I wanted out," Fonda says. "I was at a place in my life where it was just agony. All the creativity had kind of leaked out of me, and I didn't enjoy it anymore. I wanted to quit and then I met Ted, and then I could."

So what motivated her to come back? "I'm a real different person than I was then," she says. "I wondered if I could have fun again doing this. Besides, I wanted money; half of my salary went to endow the work that I do in Georgia. And it was a part I'd never played before. So I decided to go for it."

Fonda plays Viola, a recently fired national news anchor who is afraid she will lose her son, the way she has just lost her career. And so she is determined to scare off her son's new fiancée by becoming the world's worst mother-in-law.

"We had such a good time," Fonda says about working with Lopez, "She's professional, smart and talented and very busy."

Also a delight was working with Wanda Sykes, who plays Viola's assistant. "We adore each other. I'm crazy about her. I like to improvise. She's good at improvising. Obviously, she's a stand-up comic. We got along great," Fonda says.

Asked what it was like to exercise those acting muscles again, Fonda says laughing, "It's like sex. It comes right back." But notes she has enever been bitten by the acting bug.

She says, "I don't have the bug, but I had such a good time - especially with this character. I'd love to do her again or something like her, if it was fun. My life is too full and I'm too happy. I don't especially want to have a new career."

About Jane Fonda:

• Born in New York, N.Y., on Dec. 21, 1937.
  The daughter of film legend Henry Fonda (and sister of Peter) parlayed the family name into a modeling career, followed rapidly by a movie debut in "Tall Story."
• In 1962, she was in Josh Logan's "Tall Story" and George Cukor's "The Chapman Report."
• In 1965, her title role in "Cat Ballou" confirmed her as a full-fledged Hollywood princess, just as she was metamorphosing into the '60s sex kitten embodied in then-husband Roger Vadim's "Barbarella" in 1968.
• In 1966, Fonda showed glimpses of maturity in Arthur Penn's "The Chase," and added to her range in movies like Otto Preminger's "Hurry Sundown," also in 1966, and Gene Saks' adaptation of the Neil Simon play, "Barefoot in the Park," in 1967, opposite Robert Redford.
• By 1969, she was the hard-as-nails babe in Sydney Pollack's "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" She earned her first Best Actress Oscar nomination for the role.
• In 1971, Fonda built on her previous roles and won a Best Actress Oscar for a complex study of an emotionally unstable professional prostitute in Alan J Pakula's "Klute."
• In 1972, her visit to Hanoi in 1972 earned her the lasting enmity of many veterans, who dubbed her "Hanoi Jane."
• After a period in which she dabbled in writing, directing and, for the first time, producing, Fonda returned to mainstream success with her portrayal of Lillian Hellman in the biopic "Julia" in 1976.
• In 1978, "California Suite" teamed her with Alan Alda, another scion of a showbiz family, and allowed the actress to show off her new exercise-fit body as a precursor to her reign as workout guru. "Coming Home," also in 1978, won her a second Best Actress Oscar. She was also becoming the queen of the exercise video.
• In 1979, IPC would produce "The China Syndrome," fortuitously released at a time when it could cash in on the hysteria over a nuclear power plant accident at Three Mile Island.
• Though she helped with second husband Tom Hayden's political career, she simultaneously produced films like "Coming Home" in 1978 and "9 to 5" in 1981. The comedy about working women grossed more than $100 million.
• She also finally got the chance to act with her father for the first time on film in "On Golden Pond," in 1981, which gave Henry Fonda a long overdue Best Actor Oscar and enabled dad and daughter to work out some things in their relationship for posterity, leaving nary a dry eye on the set or in the house.
• Also in 1981, she was in "Rollover," with Alan J. Pakula as director. In 1985, she portrayed a psychiatrist in "Agnes of God," but it was in 1986 that "The Morning After" earned her another Best Actress Oscar nomination.
• In 1991, she worked with Robert De Niro in the romantic drama "Stanley & Iris."

• On Dec. 21, 1991, after marrying Ted Turner, Fonda retired from films, distancing herself from the Hollywood community. In January of 2000, she announced her separation from Turner.