Jane Fonda and Joaquin Phoenix Bring the ‘Drill’ Home

Two-time Academy Award winner Jane Fonda used her fame during the 1960s and 1970s to oppose the Vietnam War. Now she’s bringing the “drill” home to California—“Fire Drill Fridays,” that is. 

After staging fourteen climate crisis protests—and getting arrested five times—in Washington, D.C., the activist/actor is back in Los Angeles, seeking to spark the civil disobedience movement in the Golden State, where Fonda worked in the movie industry and is currently co-starring in the Netflix TV series Grace and Frankie.

Media and supporters encircled the platform, listening to the well-informed, eloquent Fonda reminding Californians that beyond its image as “a climate leader,” the state has thousands of oil and gas wells—many in Los Angeles itself.

On Friday, February 7, about 1,000 people gathered in front of City Hall in downtown Los Angeles for the first West Coast version of Fire Drill Fridays. Fonda used her star power and organizer smarts to generate the mass turnout, spurred by a coalition of celebrity advocates as part of a grassroots campaign to, as Fonda put it, “represent the people on the frontlines, suffering the effects of fossil fuel and fighting against it.”

The show-biz contingent included Joaquin Phoenix, Norman Lear, Catherine Keener, Rooney Mara, Kate Mara, Rosanna Arquette, Bonnie Wright, Rainn Wilson, Paul Scheer, longtime environmentalist Ed Begley Jr., Fonda’s Grace and Frankie co-stars June Diane Raphael and Brooklyn Decker, plus tree-sitter John Quigley. The organizations included Greenpeace, Last Chance Alliance (an environmental justice network of 750 groups), and Code Pink, which was there to “support and spread the message ‘war is not green,’ ” according to Carley Towne, a member of the peace organization.

Wearing a red coat and hat, Fonda addressed the throng from a specially built stage behind a metal bar barricade, with a large “Fire Drill Fridays” banner forming a backdrop. Media and supporters encircled the platform, listening to the well-informed, eloquent Fonda reminding Californians that beyond its image as “a climate leader,” the state has thousands of oil and gas wells—many in Los Angeles itself.

The one-time antiwar firebrand who’d insisted that President Nixon stop bombing Vietnam demanded that California Governor Gavin Newsom halt drilling for new wells and fracking, as well as impose mandatory 2,500-foot setbacks between wells and homes, schools, and hospitals.

She compared her eco-approach to “two blades of a scissor: Phase out fossil fuels and go for a sustainable energy future.” Fonda said the move to renewable energy “must be a just transition that leaves no workers behind. Unions, workers, and communities must be at the table. It can’t be an afterthought.”

Fonda, in addition to lobbying the governor, described a phone call she had with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, asking him to support Last Chance Alliance’s “climate emergency agenda”— to which, according to Fonda, “the mayor said ‘Absolutely!’” 

Who says you can’t fight City Hall? You can, if Barbarella’s on your side!

Throughout the two-hour rally, the Hollywood talents introduced crusading speakers from communities adversely affected by environmental racism. Fonda—who two days later would present the prestigious Best Picture award at the Oscars—acted as emcee. She introduced Gloria Arellanes, a Gabrieleno/Tongva tribe member who, from a wheelchair, praised “homegrown gardening” and advocated “growing your own food.” 

A number of indigenous women participated in the protest, harkening back to Fonda’s 1969 support of the American Indian Movement’s occupation of Alcatraz. Lydia Ponce, who said she belonged to AIM, wore a red bandana emblazoned with the slogan “Free Red Fawn!” (a Standing Rock political prisoner) and a red sweatshirt bearing Emiliano Zapata’s image, burned herbs, and chanted onstage.

Norman Lear, who created topical 1970s sitcoms like All in the Family and Maude, drew laughter at the podium when he noted, “At ninety-seven, I have been enjoying and living off of the planet longer than anybody here. . . . I want a safe planet for the six kids that brighten my life, and the four grandchildren behind them.” He said he did not have a hero more important to him than Jane Fonda.

Speaker Alicia Rivera of Communities for a Better Environment also showered praise on Fonda: “Growing up in El Salvador, I first became aware of Jane due to her opposition to the Vietnam War. I always have you in my heart. When celebrities speak, people listen.”

Rivera proceeded to lament the grim health situation in Wilmington, a poor, predominantly Latino neighborhood in Los Angeles beset by oil wells “and a refinery spewing smoke daily that’s nauseating and smells like sulfur and rotten eggs. From cradle to grave, we suffer from the fossil-fuel industry.” 

Onstage, The Office’s Rainn Wilson quipped, “Let’s face it, 99 percent of celebrities are idiots, including myself. But we’re here to honor the people on the ground that do the grassroots work, the change-makers in the system.” Wilson introduced Cesar Aguirre, from the Central California Environmental Justice Network, who called Kern County residents “targets,” with “refineries next to homes and pesticides next to clinics,” causing “birth defects.” 

Other representatives from communities victimized by Big Oil also spoke at the rally. The most moving was Nalleli Cobo, a nineteen-year-old South Los Angeles resident who told the crowd that she has cancer and is unable to bear children. Introduced by Joaquin Phoenix, who on Sunday won the Best Actor Oscar for his role in Joker, Cobo said she “grew up 30 feet from an oil well,” which turned her into “a fighter for environmental justice against racism since the age of nine.” She added that she plans to “run for President in 2036.” 

“We have marched, we have petitioned, we have written, we have lobbied—and they haven’t listened. But we’re going to have to become bigger and bigger and become an army that shuts the government down if needed.”

When Fonda retook the stage, she announced immediate direct action against a fossil fuel company. “I don’t know if anyone is going to be arrested. But civil disobedience has to become the new normal,” Fonda said. “We have marched, we have petitioned, we have written, we have lobbied—and they haven’t listened. But we’re going to have to become bigger and bigger and become an army that shuts the government down if needed.”

Hundreds of demonstrators marched through downtown Los Angeles to Paul Hastings Tower (formerly “Arco Tower”), where Houston-based Maverick Natural Resources (which operates oil and gas wells in SoCal and California’s Central Valley) has offices. Around twenty-five occupiers carried out a sit-in in the lobby, displaying a large banner demanding: “Maverick: Stop Fueling Climate Crisis.” 

Security guards reportedly locked the doors, so outside the glass tower, Fonda communicated with her hand, waving, making peace signs and a fist to those inside the lobby, including Annie Leonard, executive director of Greenpeace USA. Police were present but, according to Greenpeace, the civil disobedience ended without any arrests. 

On receiving his Best Actor Oscar on Sunday, Phoenix used his acceptance speech to make an environmental statement, poignantly speaking out for animal rights. And before presenting the night Best Picture Oscar, Fonda told millions of viewers, “There’s nothing more important than raising awareness.”

Jane Fonda, at eighty-two, is still raising hell. At the City Hall demo, the veteran dissident vowed to continue to spread Fire Drill Fridays throughout California and across America.