Jane Fonda Completely Reimagined '9 to 5' After Meeting Lily Tomlin
Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin's friendship is the gold standard.
Their chemistry on Netflix's Grace and Frankie is electric, and Lily credits it to her real-life friendship with the show's other leading lady, none other than 2021's Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille award recipient Jane Fonda. "People say we have a lot of chemistry. That's because you can sense that Jane and I have been friends for so long. We have a soft spot for each other," Lily told Oprah.com shortly after the Netflix show premiered.
That "long" friendship that she's talking about spans decades, dating all the way back to the late 1970s. Just a few years before they worked together on 9 to 5, Jane saw Lily performing in her one-woman Broadway show, Appearing Nitely, and knew then and there, that she wanted to write Lily into her new movie. "I just could not believe that so many people live inside of this amazing body," Jane recalled during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. "I totally changed the idea for 9 to 5 because of her. I said, 'I don't want to make a movie about secretaries if she's not in it.'"
At the time, the movie was penned as a drama, but Jane feared that it would be viewed as "too preachy, too much of a feminist line." But once she witnessed Lily's sheer comedic genius in action, two things became clear to Jane: "I couldn't make 9 to 5 without Lily Tomlin, and two, it had to be a comedy," she said while honoring Lily at the Kennedy Center Honors in 2014.
Even though Lily was a fan of Jane's (She told The Washington Post that she had the "Klute hairdo" for two years following Jane's 1971 thriller.), she was apprehensive about starring in a "cheap comedy." After a year of convincing, she signed on play Violet Newstead — only for her to quit one week into filming. "She asked my producing partner to let her go and she’d give the week’s money back," Jane said during an interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. After reviewing some of the unedited footage, Lily changed her mind and "begged" Jane to take her back — and the rest is movie history.
But for Lily and Jane, the movie's success went beyond box office records and Golden Globe nominations; it was the foundation of their lifelong friendship. "We’ve been friends ever since. We’re friends because I just love her. I know Jane has my back whenever she can," Lily told The Washington Post.
So, when they were offered the opportunity to work together on a Netflix show nearly four decades later, they immediately said yes — no questions asked. Now in its seventh and final season, Grace and Frankie tells the story of two former rivals who become each other's biggest support system after their husbands fall in love with one another. When asked what they love most about starring in Grace and Frankie during a BUILD interview, Jane cut straight to the point, "I love working with her [Lily]. I love this woman and I admire her."
Over the years, they have become an example of strong female friendship, even leading them to host a TED Talk centered around this very subject in 2015. When they aren't on set together, they always find their way back to one another. Lily often joins Jane, a longtime activist, at marches and protests around the country. In December 2019, they were famously arrested at one of Jane's "Fire Drill Friday" protests, urging politicians to focus on the growing climate crisis.
Rest assured, even when their time on Grace and Frankie comes to an end, they will enjoy their time together without any lights or cameras. "I miss her when I'm not with her," Jane said of Lily during an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live. "She does and I miss her," Lily quipped.
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