Jane Fonda may be famed for her fitness DVDs, but the 79-year-old has also made a name for herself as a woman’s activist. Now, in a new interview with Brie Larson, Fonda has opened up about the moment she became a feminist – and addressed why women need to stand up for their rights more than ever before.

Speaking with The Edit magazine, she said: “I grew up in the ’50s and it took me a long time to apply feminism to my life.

“The men in my life were wonderful, but victims of a [patriarchal] belief system. I felt diminished. Eventually I decided I wasn’t going to give up who I was in order to please the man I was with. I became an embodied feminist when I was single and saw Eve Ensler perform The Vagina Monologues.

“While I was laughing, my feminism carried from my head into my DNA.”

She added: “It took a long time, though, because I was brought up with the disease to please.”

“The disease to please”: Jane Fonda nails the problem with the patriarchy