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Jane Fonda has broken many barriers in the entertainment industry while collecting a shelf full of trophies for her excellence in acting, leading to her Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2025 SAG Awards.
The two-time Oscar winner, 87, made headlines on Sunday, February 23 for her powerful acceptance speech that touched on her own career milestones while emphasizing her passion for social and political issues. While Fonda's time on stage was "plagued with sound and mic issues," as Variety noted, the most obvious audio mishap was one that she handled with her trademark sense of humor.
After receiving the award from Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the Grace and Frankie alum took the stage in a floor-length, peach-colored Armani gown that was bedazzled with rhinestones and featured a print of black squiggly lines on both the bodice and the skirt of the dress.
During her speech, Fonda spoke out about the importance of empathy in acting, telling the audience of fellow actors that their job is to "understand another human being so profoundly, that we can touch their souls." However, midway through her speech, an overhead announcement unexpectedly cut in.
"We know why they do what they do, we feel their joys and their pain," Fonda preached to the audience before she was interrupted.
"When we return ... here at the 31st ...," the announcer stated.
Fonda, ever the professional, paused and looked around in dramatic fashion amid the announcement.
"And I can conjure up voices," she quipped, to which the audience — including stars like Demi Moore, Jason Segel, Ted Danson and more — clapped and laughed.
The 9 to 5 star was not the only SAG winner on Sunday night to have an awkward audio mishap.
Earlier in the evening — before taking home his first-ever SAG Award for his portrayal of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown — Timothée Chalamet endured an uncomfortable moment of silence after he didn't realize he was supposed to continue with the rest of his speech while introducing the film with his costars.
While Chalamet — along with A Complete Unknown cast mates Maria Barbaro, Elle Fanning and Edward Norton — introduced the biopic that evening, he quoted late director David Lynch's words about Dylan, seemingly unaware that he had more than just one line before the rest of the actors chimed in. What resulted was an awkward pause that left his costars and the audience laughing.
"Shoulda done a rehearsal," he quipped.
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