Jane Fonda’s new co-star is … Tom Brady? NFL GOAT goes Hollywood with liberal icon
Did anyone see a feature film career in Brady's future, or that he'd work with someone like Fonda, who's still regarded as a public enemy by the ex-NFL quarterback's more conservative fans?
When people imagined what Tom Brady would do in in his retirement from the NFL, they probably didn’t see him making a movie with Jane Fonda.
But it’s happening: Brady will produce and appear in a football-themed road trip movie titled “80 for Brady.” His co-stars will be Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Sally Field and Rita Moreno, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The news of Brady teaming up with Fonda still comes as a surprise. First of all, did anyone see a feature film career in Brady’s future? More than that, Brady’s new project has him working with Fonda, an icon of liberal Hollywood activism who still is regarded as a public enemy to the seven-time Super Bowl champion’s politically conservative fans.
They’ve never forgiven the 84-year-old Fonda, who they labeled “Hanoi Jane,” for her protesting the Vietnam War and traveling to Vietnam to see how the bombing was affecting civilians. She was photographed sitting on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun, a move that outraged many Americans. Fonda has repeatedly apologized for participating in the photo.
Meanwhile, Brady’s most high-profile fan was once former President Donald Trump, who reportedly thought the former New England Patriots quarterback should date his daughter, Ivanka Trump. Brady long considered Trump to be a “good friend” but wavered when it came to saying whether he supported his 2016 run for president.
Always trying to avoid being publicly political, Brady opted not to attend celebrations at Trump’s White House for the Patriots’ Super Bowl wins in 2017 and 2019, and also didn’t attend when Barack Obama was president in 2014. However, Brady and his Super Bowl-winning Tampa Bay Buccaneers made the trip to Joe Biden’s White House last summer, where he made a thinly veiled swiped at Trump’s false claims of election fraud in 2020.
Meanwhile, Fonda was never a fan of Trump. In 2019, she said his actions on climate change were “criminal.”
“I don’t hate him. I feel sad for him,” Fonda said of Trump on CNN. “And what he’s doing to the world … is just criminal. It’s just criminal. It’s terrible. But there’s more of us, and we can make a difference.”
It sounds like there is nothing at all political about Brady and Fonda’s project together. She, Tomlin, Field and Moreno play four best friends and New England Patriots fans who “take a life-changing trip” to the 2017 Super Bowl LI to see Brady, their quarterback hero.
The premise sounds like Fonda’s 2018 hit comedy, “Book Club,” where she played best friends with Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen. They have a “life-changing” adventure of sorts when they try to spice of their lives by reading “50 Shades of Grey” in their monthly book club.
Paramount, the studio behind “Book Club,” found success with it and other recent films featuring actress ensembles. Paramount also is producing “80 for Brady.”