Actress and activist Jane Fonda did more than just release a strongly worded statement against a potential Warner Bros. Discovery merger — she made a full parody video.
Fonda channels Nicole Kidman’s infamous AMC Theatres ads in a new video produced by Fonda’s Committee for the First Amendment group, in collaboration with the Groundlings comedy troupe, and it’s pretty great.
“We come to this place for mergers,” a self-serious voiceover from Fonda begins as she walks into a theater, mirroring the construction of Kidman’s ad campaign that went viral.
“We stream to self-silence, to censor, to slop,” she continues. “Where content is chosen by the best billionaires. Dazzling, focus-grouped, predigested content that lets your brain not do too much thinky-thinky.”
Then the kicker: “Somehow corporate greed feels good in a place like this. Somehow, mergers feel good in a place like this.”
The video comes days after Fonda slammed Netflix’s planned Warner Bros. acquisition as an “alarming escalation of the consolidation that threatens the entire entertainment industry, the democratic public it serves and the First Amendment.”
She continued: “Make no mistake, this is not just a catastrophic business deal that could destroy our creative industry. It is a constitutional crisis exacerbated by the administration’s demonstrated disregard for the law.”
Fonda called on Trump’s Department of Justice to refrain from extracting favors in exchange for pushing a deal with Netflix or Paramount through. She also took aim directly at Netflix, saying the company — at which she made seven seasons of the sitcom “Grace and Frankie” — has a “responsibility to defend our rights, not trade them away to pad your pockets. We know there will be enormous pressure to acquiesce, it is critical you stay strong.”
Netflix announced on Friday its planned acquisition of Warner Bros., news that was met with a mix of caution and pure terror from Hollywood. Then on Monday, Paramount mounted a hostile takeover attempt, with Warner Bros. Discovery caught in the middle.
