Up Close and Personal with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin

Netflix’s half-hour show Grace and Frankie stars Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin as friends who come together after their husbands leave them for each other. Their husbands played by Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston are ready to change their own lives, happy to come out to the world, but Grace and Frankie, two women in their 70’s, both have a hard time letting go, after being married to the men for nearly 50 years. But the women get through it, and the first season of the show tells their story brilliantly. (If you haven’t streamed it, now’s the time!)

Season two debuts TODAY on Netflix.

We’ll soon be binging another 13 episodes of Marta Kaufmann and Howard J. Morris’ creation, blending drama, storytelling, great acting and the strength of something very important: Jane and Lily’s real life friendship which goes beyond the camera lens.

I was given the heavenly opportunity to chat with the two legends on the set of the show late last year during filming. The two women together are as much as a spitfire as you’d imagine, and after spending a quality forty-five minutes with the two women (although Jane left to film a scene once or twice), I can honest tell you that any fears I have about getting older and not achieving my potential dissipated. The two women have had amazing careers (9 to 5, Klute, Coming Home, The Electric Horseman, Nashville, The Incredible Shrinking Woman All of Me...the list goes on) behind them, but they also have incredible ones now and in the future, having just both released feature films Youth (Fonda) and Grandma (Tomlin). They are not stopping anytime soon. The love they have for this show is infectious, as is Tomlin’s laugh, which we heard often. They were candid and funny (the word “vagina” was tossed around several times, but I think I left these bites out, only because the conversation was so long and I tried to shorten it for your reading pleasure), real, down to earth and fantastic storytellers.

We chatted sitting in director’s chairs like the one above. We talked about social media (Jane is scared of Instagram, says it’s like haiku), multi-tasking (Lily called Jane “non-stop”), being a woman in Hollywood in 2016 and so much more. Let me tell you these two women are so simpatico that they practically finish each other’s sentences.

Here’s my first post from the experience:

Women and Hollywood: Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin Talk Hollywood Past the Age of 50 and Grace and Frankie Season 2

And my prized photo:

Disclosure: I’m a member of Netflix’s StreamTeam and was flown out to conduct this interview to help promote the show. All opinions are my own, as always, and the experience was an honor.