Anne Archer knows something about ’60s icons. Ten years ago, she donned the sexy black slip of college boy seductress Mrs. Robinson for a critically acclaimed turn in the 2001 West End production of The Graduate.

This week the Oscar nominee and Golden Globe winner tackles the woman who went from male fantasy figure to political lightning rod for a generation of Vietnam-era young men in Jane Fonda In the Court of Public Opinion, a workshop production opening October 8 at the Edgemar Center for the Arts in Santa Monica.

Written and directed by Archer’s husband Terry Jastrow, and co-directed by Edgemar’s co-founder/artistic director Michelle Danner, the play focuses on a specific 1988 true-life incident that occurred in Waterbury, Connecticut. A group of war veterans threatened to boycott the making of a Fonda and Robert DeNiro film entitled Iris & Stanley as a protest for her 1972 Vietnam war actions. A meeting between the actress and the angry vets was arranged at a local church in an effort to diffuse escalating tensions.

“She really confronts these vets and boy, they really lay into her,” says Archer prior to a late afternoon rehearsal seated at a table outside the theater. “She has to look at what she did that wasn’t right, and the amount of hurt and pain it cost, and they may have to look at what she did do right because there are two sides to it. There are both elements. So that’s what the play explores.”

What Fonda did to ignite a still festering, decades-long uproar was conduct an anti-war tour of Communist North Vietnam in 1972, during which she was infamously photographed in a gunner’s seat at an anti-aircraft battery wearing a Viet Cong helmet. She also made numerous broadcasts over Radio Hanoi that denounced American political and military leaders as “war criminals.” During her stay, she spoke to a small group of American POWs as a way to show they weren’t being tortured, then brought back messages to their families. Fonda later denounced released POWs as “hypocrites and liars” when actual details of their brutal captivity began to emerge.

Fonda has since publicly apologized to military families for some of those actions, first in a 1988 interview with Barbara Walters and later in her 2005 memoir, My Life So Far. Her Walters remarks came on the heels of the Waterbury incident, which had catapulted the “Hanoi Jane” moniker back into the national consciousness after its 1978 debut. In a 2005 60 Minutes interview, Fonda said while she truly regretted the photo and its use as a propaganda tool, she was proud of her anti-war activities.

“There are hundreds of American delegations that met with the POWs. Both sides were using the POWS for propaganda…It’s not something that I will apologize for.” As for her Radio Hanoi broadcasts, she stated, “Our government was lying to us and men were dying because of it. I felt I had to do anything I could to expose the lies and help end the war.”

But what really happened on Fonda’s trip, and was she used as a propaganda tool by the US government as well? With the publication of the Pentagon Papers plus other investigative reports over the past 40 years, the truth has moved from a black and white debate to a more neutral shade of discourse. Or has it?

This past Monday, Chicago’s Daily Herald ran a column entitled, “Would ‘Hanoi Jane’ be an enemy combatant today?” In it, columnist Chuck Goudie suggests that had she pulled the trigger on the North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun, Fonda might have met the same fate as American terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki who was killed last week by a US airstrike in Yemen. A September 21 headline in London’s Daily Mirror reads, “Still Hanoi Jane at heart: Glamorous Fonda swaps her helmet for a headband.”

In August, shopping network QVC pulled the plug on a segment that would have promoted her new book Prime Time, bowing to pressure from protesting viewers. Fonda blogged on her website that she regretted posing on the Hanoi gun site and in an interview with The Globe and Mail said she apologized to “soldiers and families who don’t understand the war and blame me for the deaths. But there is another segment of well-oiled political operatives who whip people up, based upon lies. So when QVC cancelled my appearance because those people had conducted a campaign against me, I fought back.”

When asked whether she is concerned about being targeted by those with strong opinions about Fonda or who believe the many inaccurate Hanoi Jane myths circulating in cyberspace, Archer is clear.

“I’m not really interested in people who spew opinion without knowledge,” she emphasizes. “People who exaggerate or misrepresent and take no responsibility for it, that’s pretty much what goes on in the internet. So I can’t worry about that. If you cringe because of attacks by people who are not of goodwill or not of high integrity or are misinformed and not interested in becoming informed or are so shut off that they won’t become informed, we would never improve anything in this world.”

Jerry Lembcke, a sociology professor at the College of the Holy Cross, states in his 2010 book Hanoi Jane: War, Sex, and Fantasies of Betrayal, that “the creation of Hanoi Jane as a betrayal figure may derive less from anything the real Jane Fonda did in Hanoi than from the needs of those who constructed the image and kept it alive.’’ According to Lembcke, for some she remains another Mata Hari or Tokyo Rose responsible for America’s military failure.

“There’s something to learn here,” says Archer of the play’s dual perspective. “Let’s all learn something, then maybe we can elevate the awareness level of the society and with that have people take more responsibility. People are only irresponsible out of a complete ignorance. As you become more aware, you can become responsible. That’s really what brought us to this.”

Retracing Fonda’s steps

Terry Jastrow is a seven-time Emmy-winning producer/director of such milestone events as the Olympic Games, Super Bowl, Indianapolis 500 and the U.S. Open. He and Archer married in 1978. Jastrow developed, produced and co-starred with her in the 1982 film Waltz Across Texas. Long associated with the Beverly Hills Playhouse, his local theater credits include penning The Vaginal Lock produced at the Skylight Theatre, directing the 1985 LA premiere of A Couple of White Chicks Sitting Around Talking starring Archer and Elizabeth Ashley, plus the world premiere of As If It Matters at the BH Playhouse.

Archer says Jastrow became interested in the continuing hostility toward Fonda several years ago. He began looking at the issue of what responsibility does a citizen have for the actions of their government. During the Vietnam war era, Jastrow was a college student who then started to work for ABC Sports, becoming its youngest sports producer at 23.  He didn’t pay much attention to the war at the time or the decisions the US government was making in Vietnam.

Fast forward to the new millennium and the current Jane Fonda debate. Following her 2001 divorce from Ted Turner, Fonda reemerged in the public eye to make movies again, publish her memoir, appear on talk shows and, toward the end of the decade, Broadway and the Ahmanson Theatre. With the new exposure came renewed Hanoi Jane vitriol. Jastrow began to wonder why and what was the truth behind it.  After six months of research, he traveled to Hanoi in 2007 to retrace the anti-war activist’s steps. He hired Fonda’s same guides and toured everywhere she went in 1972 including the infamous gun site.

“Terry would talk to at least three different people separately to get their exact version of each event,” Archer explains. “‘So, she was at the gun site. Well, take me through it. Where did she walk and what happened in that moment?’ ‘She walked here.’ ‘And then, what happened after that?’ By doing it that way, you’ve got a much better chance of landing on what actually occurred. So what he’s done throughout the play is not rely on what one person says or another person says.”

Upon his return, Jastrow interviewed several dozen Vietnam veterans over a three-year period including some who were at the Waterbury incident. “Terry wanted to tell a fair and balanced story,” she emphasizes. “Let’s present both points of view and allow the audience to come to whatever conclusion they wanted to come to.”

Jastrow initially envisioned the story as a film and spoke to his attorney who by pure coincidence represented Fonda as well. The attorney suggested he write her a letter about the proposed project. “She said you have no idea what you are getting into,” offers Archer, adding that Fonda is not connected to the current production in any way.

When Jastrow finished the screenplay, they did a reading at their home. Archer wasn’t cast because the film version aged Fonda from 30 to her 50s. Despite a positive response, Jastrow came to realize that getting the movie made would be a tough sell because Fonda was both very much alive and still a controversial figure.  He decided the story would have a better chance of success as a play à la Frost/Nixon.

“It’s also a very smart topic and theatergoers are more willing to really listen, absorb and understand,” Archer states. “You can do things in the theater that are much harder to do on film. And if it really resonates as a play, then a film might be made of it. So he adapted it to the stage and set it in Waterbury. He had a number of readings and I read it for him. But now, [in 1988] Jane’s in her 50s and the age range began to work for me.”

In 2009, Grammy Awards and Broadway producer John Cossette (Million Dollar Quartet) became involved with the project and suggested they do a reading at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia. (Eric Schaeffer, artistic director/co-founder of Signature, directed MDQ’s Chicago and Broadway productions). Jastrow proceeded to direct one there that September. The Signature considered the play for nearly a year before deciding it wasn’t the right fit for its 2010 season.

Archer and Jastrow decided to mount the show back in LA with Cossette’s financial backing, when he unexpectedly died in April at 54. “It was very sad,” admits Archer. New plans were now needed. “We had a friend, Gary Imhoff, who was directing Sylvia at the Edgemar. We came to see the play and just loved the space. So we talked to Alexandra [Guarnieri, Edgemar’s co-founder and managing director] about workshopping it here. She was very interested and that’s how this came to be.”

In addition to Archer, the cast includes Terrence Beasor, Robert Foster, Mark Gadbois, James Giordano, Jonathan Kells Phillips, Chauntae Pink, Ben Shields, Don Swayze, Jim Tooey and Steve Voldseth. All are contributing to their characters and conducting research as well, she says. “Terry’s doing the rewriting, but they have ideas and we learn new facts that we then verify because that’s part of the workshop experience. We are really a troupe of actors who are all working together to make this great. It’s definitely not just me. Each one of these guys is carrying their own weight and they’re doing a terrific job.”

Playing an Icon

It’s one thing to play a fictional character or a distant historical figure and completely another to tackle someone appearing daily on talk shows or traveling the national book tour circuit, as Fonda did this summer touting her new tome. Patricia Bosworth‘s 10-years-in-the-making biography, Jane Fonda: The Private Life of a Public Woman, was also just published August 30.  How does Archer feel about trying on Fonda’s very visible skin?

“It’s quite a challenge,” she says and is working with a voice teacher. “The play is set in 1988, so we know exactly what she wore and what she looked like on that day. I’m trying to establish the cadence of her voice. She obviously had a lot of voice training when she was young because she still speaks in a very articulate way. Very in-your-face and yet totally feminine at the same time. She has a way of making her points and she has a certain rhythm.” Archer segues into a quite credible facsimile of Fonda’s style of speaking.

“That’s why this is a workshop, because this doesn’t happen overnight. We’re constantly writing and re-writing. I’m building up to be able to deliver a truer and truer Fonda, just like in Frost/Nixon. Frank Langella didn’t do Nixon exactly. Yet he captured so much of his physical behavior and so much of him that you completely bought him as Nixon. It has to be that kind of a thing. I can’t do Fonda’s voice. I’m not that person, but I think I can capture her essence and the way she physically moves. I don’t know how ready it will be at the opening, but by the time we finish, I hope I really nailed it.”

Before this project, Archer confesses she had little experience with the play’s title character. “I don’t think I really thought much about Jane Fonda, and I don’t mean that in a derogatory way. It’s just that there’s never been a reason or context for me to do that. The first way I got to know her was by reading her first book, My Life So Far, which I loved. I thought it was really well written. I found her fascinating, the book insightful and I really enjoyed it. That’s when I became a fan. I also read a fair amount of Prime Time. I think Jane doesn’t just let life happen to her; she makes life happen. ‘So here I am at this age, what am I going to do with it?’ She’s really always looking for the answers and how to expand herself.”

The play also appeals to her both artistically and philosophically. “Human rights is a big freaking deal for me,” Archer elaborates. “It always has been. I have an organization called Artists for Human Rights that I started. The responsibility one needs to take to improve things in the world, I feel now at this point in my life. I can’t say I did when I was young. I was too involved in wanting to be a successful actress I think, but your world broadens as the years go on and you start looking at more than just me, me, me. You look at the bigger picture.”

Not that she’s making a political statement. “I’m playing hers, so of course, I’m on her side in the play but I’m not taking a political stance.”

From White Chicks to the West End

Archer is best known for her Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominated role as Beth Gallagher in 1987’s Fatal Attraction and for playing Harrison Ford’s wife in Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger in the ’90s. She earned a Golden Globe as part of Robert Altman’s gifted ensemble cast in 1993’s Short Cuts. Most recently Archer was seen playing Laurel Limoges on the CW series, Privileged.

Her theater roots runs deep. She is the daughter of longtime Broadway veterans Marjorie Lord and John Archer, who met while in a stage production of The Male Animal. Lord gained TV fame on The Danny Thomas Show, but continued to act as well as direct on both coasts and tour the country. Her father also was the voice of radio’s The Shadow and played opposite Jimmy Cagney in White Heat.

Archer studied theater arts at Claremont’s Pitzer College and performed in college plays including the outdoor Ramona pageant. She fondly remembers touring in summer stock with Ann Sothern. “Theater was kind of what I knew and film was like a dream.”

The dream became a reality when Archer made her 1972 film debut in the western Honkers starring James Colburn. More films like Lifeguard, Hero at Large and Raise the Titanic would follow, plus a TV sitcom of the film Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, before she made her 1981 Off-Broadway stage debut in John Ford Noonan’s A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking.

“I remember thinking, I need to do some theater,” she recalls. “My agents told me that the play had been running and they were looking for the next cast, so I said I’ll go do that.” White Chicks debuted in 1980 starring Susan Sarandon and Eileen Brennan and quickly became a long-running sensation. JoBeth Williams and Louise Lasser took the reins next, followed by Archer as Maude Mix and Susan Tyrrell as Hannah Mae Bindler.

Four years later, husband Jastrow directed her and Elizabeth Ashley in a Los Angeles remounting at the Hollywood Playhouse and Café. When told the two were personally witnessed “acting their asses off” during a mid-run weeknight performance despite the house being half full, Archer laughs. “Yes. That would be me!”

She next played La Presidente de Tourvel in the Williamstown Theatre Festival’s August 1988 production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, directed by John Rubinstein and starring Dianne Wiest as La Marquise de Merteuil. Angelenos would not see her again on stage until the Mark Taper Forum’s 2000 world premiere production of L.A.-based playwright Robert Glaudini’s The Poison Tree, which the Los Angeles Times critically dubbed “Glaudini’s oddly flat La Jolla-set exercise in an oddly flat production.”

“I was hanging on for dear life in the short rehearsal period just to absorb all the lines and everything I had to do,” Archer admits. “I had no perspective on that play. I liked a lot of his writing. I knew it wasn’t working and I didn’t know why. I wasn’t sophisticated enough in theater production to really have analyzed it enough.”

She had no idea she would soon trade La Jolla for London. In 2001, the producers of the West End’s juggernaut The Graduate came calling. The show opened April 5, 2000 starring Kathleen Turner and quickly gained notoriety for the succession of star actresses willing to briefly bare all during its highly lucrative 21-month run. At 53, Archer was the oldest at the time to disrobe after Turner (45), Jerry Hall (47) and Amanda Donohoe (39). (Dallas’ Linda Gray (60) later took over the moniker). Expectations ran high as the show reached the 500th performance mark and surpassed £7.5 million in sales.

“Probably my strong suit was my naïveté,” Archer admits, when asked about the pressure. “I had no idea and I really wasn’t interested. For me it was, ‘Do this part well, stick to your diet, exercise every day and bring the best of your sexuality to this play.’ I didn’t have any evaluation of others or how people were comparing — I didn’t have time for that. I just had to get in there and be good. I think that’s the best thing for an actor.”

She needn’t have worried. As one reviewer wrote: “Well, for my money, Archer is the sexiest Mrs. Robinson yet. At 54, she may be the oldest woman to take on the role, but she’s got a body that makes a 30-something more positively green with envy. In fact, I’d wager that most gym-fixated 20-something gals would suck in their stomachs at the sight of Archer’s sculpted midriff, let alone her seemingly unending legs…She is thin, elegant, seductive, and through her great features, produces a beautiful world weariness.”

Upon hearing the remark, Archer actually blushes and then laughs. “Well, I certainly never saw that! That was pretty good. My god!”

She admits to being initially scared to accept the role “because of the nudity. So I flew to London and saw Amanda in the play. She was very good. That was a little intimidating! I loved her performance. But I saw how tastefully it was done and I thought, ‘I can do this.’ It was the right part at the right time in my life. It was just perfect.”

Sensual at 64

At 64, Archer still exudes the same alluring mix of sophistication and sexuality that landed her on lists of film’s, television’s or the world’s sexiest women. Clad in a short white jacket over a white t-shirt, blue jeans and red flats, her trademark throaty voice and face still captivating, she admits her on-camera persona has changed in recent years. The stage now offers her a riper platform.

“While I was doing The Graduate, it was a nice moment in time in that I was leaving the obviously sexual part of my life as an image on screen. To have an opportunity to play that at that moment in my life made me feel good. I realized what incredible shape I could get in very easily and that I can have all those things Jane talks about in her last book. I care about taking care of myself and remaining as attractive as possible.”

So why didn’t she do more theater after coming off that obvious London high 10 years ago?

“I didn’t know how to actively go about pursuing it. I’ve always had film agents, and film agents don’t actively pursue theater because there’s no money in it. I think there were times during that period when we talked about some shows and nothing that came about. I would love to do more theater.”

Besides, she says, there isn’t much available in film past a certain age. “There are so few roles that the stars in my age bracket who are better known than I am get those parts before I do. It’s always a game, but actors could all spend their time on could’ve and should’ve. It’s a complete waste of time. I love acting. I’ve always loved acting. It’s the number one thing I love to do. It makes me the happiest. I want to do it as long as I can. And yes, there are dry periods but I’ll keep trying.”

When asked if there were any classic stage roles she’d always wanted to perform at this age, Archer says she’d much rather do new works like the Fonda play.

“I tend to want to do undiscovered material and create my own character. Not that I wouldn’t be honored and thrilled to perform in a classic with a wonderful director and a good cast. I would be lucky; that would be a privilege. But what would get me more excited would be to create a new part. That’s why I like this play because I’m doing something nobody else is doing.

“I really care about what she talks about. I feel it viscerally. It goes very deep inside me. When you look for something you want to put in that much time and energy, you better have that kind of commitment to it.”

Jane Fonda in the Court of Public Opinion, a workshop production produced by Terry Jastrow and Alexandra Guarnieri. Presented by Edgemar Center for the Arts. Previews Oct. 5-7 at 8pm. Opens Oct 8. Plays Fri.-Sat. 8 pm; Sun. 2 pm and 7 pm. Through Oct. 30. Tickets: $35. Edgemar Center for the Arts, 2437 Main St., Santa Monica. Call 310-392-7327 or visit www.edgemarcenter.org.

***All Jane Fonda in the Court of Public Opinion production photos by Ed Krieger