This month’s birthdays contd., BRIDGET FONDA

 

Bridget Fonda on her "Jackie Brown" (1997) character, the pot-head beach bunny, Melanie: “My character is pretty raunchy. She’s Sam Jackson’s kept woman and her ambition is to lay around and smoke dope and watch cartoons all day. But she has to scheme to accomplish that. It was a very pleasant experience getting into her head." 

“The toughest part was learning to walk around in platform shoes, a bikini top, and short shorts. I’ve done nude parts, and this was harder. I wouldn’t say I’m modest, but I’m a really shy person and I have a tendency to want to hide. I don’t like feeling exposed. The part of Melanie was exciting and sort of frightening at the same time. I have stage fright, which is part of the same group of neuroses, I’m sure. But I had to reach down and find that extroverted side of me to do Melanie.” 

“Between action and cut I’m in this stimulated state. It’s the equivalent of a state of arousal. Not strictly sexual, but that animal state of arousal. I won’t take a role that’s boring. I never want to get complacent when I act, so I’m never quite sure if I can do it. The adrenaline jacks everything up.” (Moviemaker)

N.B. much has been written about photographs of Fonda recently and I will not dwell on her weight change. Enough has been said and judged about her decision to stop acting and what that has done for her appearance and I for one still think she looks fine and she will always be an interesting woman and I would have enjoyed whatever she went on to do. If she so chooses to no longer act then it is up to her, I am saddened as it is our loss but I stand by her . . . . . 

Happy Birthday, Bridget Fonda!

Famous Muses, Partners, Girlfriends and Wives & in the arts :: BRIDGET FONDA

 

Famous Muses; Partners Girlfriends and Wives in Art 

MUSE: Bridget Fonda (full name Bridget Jane Fonda)

Bridget was born on January 27th, 1964 in Hollywood, CA into the Fonda family acting dynasty. Her father is film actor and producer Peter Fonda, and her mother is artist Susan Brewer. Her grandfather was Oscar winning movie star Henry Fonda and her aunt is two-time Oscar winning actress Jane Fonda. Bridget is named after actress Margaret Sullavan’s (Henry’s first wife) daughter, and Bridget’s middle name is a reference to both her aunt and mom (Susan’s middle name is also Jane). She has one brother, Justin and a stepbrother, Thomas McGuane, Jr. (!!). Bridget and Justin were raised in Los Angeles for the first half of their childhoods until their parents divorced in 1974, when Peter and his second wife Portia Crockett moved with the kids to Paradise Valley, MT. Bridget graduated from Westlake School for Girls and the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute of NYU. 

Bridget didn’t start acting professionally until she was done with college, but she can be quickly seen in Peter’s and Dennis Hopper’s classic film, Easy Rider (1969). In the hippie commune scene, during the long, pan shot of the local residents, the little girl sitting on Wyatt’s (Peter’s) lap is 4-year-old Bridget. Her breakthrough movie role was in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather Part III (1990), which then followed with substantial parts in the cult hits Drop Dead Fred (1991), Doc Hollywood (1991), Single White Female (1992), Army of Darkness (1992) and Point of No Return (1993). She also co-starred with Nicolas Cage in the popular romantic comedy It Could Happen to You in 1994. Bridget’s most acclaimed performances are as hippie-stoner Melanie in Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown (1997) and as Billy Bob Thornton’s nagging mid-western wife Sarah in Sam Raimi’s A Simple Plan (1998). Journalist-turned-filmmaker Cameron Crowe wrote the script of his romantic comedy Singles (1992) specifically with Bridget in mind, where she played grungy Seattleite Janet. 

This is another one of these entries where Bridget could fit into either the film muses/gfs section or the music muses/groupies. But I decided to go with the music one since I don’t think she was ever involved with a writer, producer or director romantically. In Bridget’s personal life she was in her first high-profile relationship with fellow actor Eric Stoltz from 1990 to 1998. They collaborated together in the flop Bodies, Rest & Motion (1993), and also attended the Academy Awards in ’98. The following year Bridget began dating country music artist and movie actor Dwight Yoakum from 1999-2002, and the two were regularly photographed at Hollywood parties. On February 27th, 2003, Bridget experienced a bizarre car crash which resulted in her fracturing her vertebra. The same month she started dating Oingo Boingo frontman-turned-film composer Danny Elfman, and only a month later they announced their engagement in March. The couple married in November ’03 and despite the seemingly rushed origins, Bridget and Danny are still together to this day. They have one son, Oliver, born sometime in January 2005.…No offence to these dudes, but they must’ve felt way out of their leagues being with Bridget. 

The weird thing about Bridget is that she completely disappeared from the public eye right after she got with Danny, with no explanation. A lot of people theorise that the car accident was so serious, that it caused permanent damage physically or mentally. But if you look at her resume, her last completed film was The Snow Queen (2002), which finished shooting over a year before the crash. Plus she’s attended a handful of events with Danny since 2009, where she appears to be behaving normally and looks fine. So like, IDK. Maybe she was just over it and burnt out on show business? Especially with the crazy shit in her family’s history. Whatever the reason, good for her living her best life outside of the spotlight (even though we miss her!).

Pooneil Corners

Revamped profile of Bridget over at the Pooneil blog/newsletter

On February 27, 2003, she suffered a serious car crash in Los Angeles that caused a fracture in a vertebra. In March of the same year, she became engaged to film composer and former Oingo Boingo frontman Danny Elfman, and they married in November that year

Fonda retired from her film career back in 2000 to bring up her family and nothing wrong with that and in fact any man doing the same it becomes interesting when such folk as Daniel Day-Lewis decided to step away from a film or artistic career. She has been seen lately and reported in the press especially in the States largely (sic) because of her notable weight gain. I for one find her still as lovely and fascinating as ever and that she should take this course in life makes her even more fascinating. Fat shaming is anathema to me and is a feminist issue isn't it after all. . . . . . . . . 

 Photos of the Week

Largely musicians and classic modern art photographers I have admired . . . . . . 

Joel Meyerowitz - New York 1971

Fiona Apple  Lionel Deluy, 2012

Peter Gabriel 1972, by Clive Arrowsmith

Eric Clapton and late sixties French girlfriend Charlotte Martin

Brownie McGhee and Sister Rosetta Tharpe in Manchester UK

Bridget Fonda and Samuel L Jackson in publicity shot for Jackie Brown