Jane Fonda is still red hot at 74! (George Pimentel/WireImage)Jane Fonda's iconic workout videos were an essential part of the 1980s and became so popular that they are credited for giving birth to a new industry. Now almost 75, the actress is still sculpting and toning — and has a new DVD. However, she's also had some surgical help to stay looking camera ready.
Thirty years after releasing "Jane Fonda's Workout," which has sold over 17 million copies, "The Butler" star is back with "Jane Fonda Prime Time: AM/PM Yoga for Beginners." But don't expect to see her sporting those trademark leotards and leg warmers! The exercise routine is created for the baby boomer generation and older, and though Fonda still looks incredible, she is dressed in more modest workout gear on the DVD cover while doing the prayer hands pose.
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Fonda's first video back in 1982 — and her latest, which is on sale now.
"What motivates me [about exercise] is how good I feel afterwards," Fonda, who has made over 20 fitness videos, told CNN on Tuesday. "I don't wake up saying, 'Oh goody, I am going to work out.' But I do it because of how it makes me feel when it's over. … If I've felt depressed or down at all, it picks me up and makes me feel great." However, because she is older and she's had hip and knee replacement surgeries, she realizes she can't push herself too hard. "I can't do what I used to do," she acknowledged. "My body just wouldn't tolerate [it]. The mistake that so many people make is that if they can't do what they once did, then they don't do anything. Big mistake. It's important just to do something."
Another memorable Fonda fitness video — from 1993.While Fonda can certainly credit her fitness regime for helping her look great on the red carpet — at the Cannes Film Festival in May, the septuagenarian stole the spotlight from actresses half her age — she also admits she's had some help along with way. During an interview with "Access Hollywood" on Tuesday, she was asked what — in addition to exercise — kept her looking so good, and she confessed, "I've had plastic surgery. I don't like hypocrisy… I made sure that they kept my lines. I didn't want to lose my wrinkles, I just wanted to lose the bags under my eyes. I don't like it when it's over done, but we do live in a time when, if you can afford a good doctor, you can have subtle plastic surgery, which probably bought me five more years as an actor when I could be in movies."
[Related: Jane Fonda defies age on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival]
The actress, who has earned two Academy Awards for her acting work, never expected to have a second career as a fitness guru, which has spanned three decades. "I thought, What's the harm? No one is going to see it anyway," she said to "Access" about making her first video in 1982. "So I did it and we did it with a spit and a prayer. We did our own hair and makeup and had one camera. I wrote the script on the floor of a hotel room. Lo and behold it sells 17 million copies and it remains the biggest selling video of all time. I had no idea. And, certainly in some ways, I became better known for that than I did for making movies."
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