Even her approach to individual roles showed how seriously she took acting.
While discussing Single White Female, Fonda admitted the production had taken an emotional toll.
“It was kind of hard; it was scary,” she said. “It was a tough summer emotionally.”
She described the experience as emotionally draining because the material forced her to confront fear for an extended period.
Still, she felt she understood the character from the beginning.
The same interview produced an unexpectedly strange real-life story.
Asked whether she had ever encountered anyone resembling the dangerous roommate in the movie, Fonda initially explained that she had been fortunate.
Her own roommate had been a childhood best friend whom she trusted completely.
But she then revealed that someone she knew had once impersonated her.
According to Fonda, she was unexpectedly summoned to court over a traffic violation she knew nothing about.
When she examined the paperwork, she realized the description did not match her.
The woman described had brown hair and brown eyes.
Even stranger, Fonda recognized the handwriting on the signature.
Someone she knew had apparently given Bridget Fonda’s identity.
She ultimately obtained a warrant in connection with the incident but said she did not aggressively pursue the woman because she did not believe she represented a serious danger.
The story sounded almost like something taken from one of Fonda’s own thrillers.
That same period also revealed another very ordinary side of the actress.
Asked about computers because they played a role in Single White Female, Fonda admitted that technology intimidated her.
“I know very little about computers,” she said.
She described them as fascinating but also slightly frightening, especially the idea of computer viruses.
She joked that machines sometimes seemed to have minds of their own.
Her knowledge, she said, was essentially limited to writing and printing an essay.
It was a small admission, but one that made the glamorous star seem far more relatable.
Another revealing moment came after Fonda experienced a difficult emotional period in 1997.
She later described going through what she called an “outrageous depression” during an illness.
At one point, even the brightness of the daylight outside her home overwhelmed her emotionally.
She turned to her mother for help.
Her mother gave her advice that, in retrospect, seems almost prophetic.
“Oh god, Bridget, you get that from me,” she told her.
Then came the lesson.
“It’s that thing that happens to you at a certain time in life, when you realise that life isn’t going to happen to you. It’s not for you to discover. You actually have to make your life.”
