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SINGAPORE: Who is Peter Fonda? Is he the least famous member of the revered Fonda acting dynasty? Or the outspoken, brash and long-haired nonconformist who got arrested in the 1966 anti-war Sunset Strip riot which was forcefully ended by the Los Angeles Police?
Or perhaps he’s the unconventional Hollywood leading man who uttered the words “I know what it’s like to be dead” while partying with The Beatles back in 1965, thus inspiring their song She Said She Said, which appeared in their 1966 album Revolver?
Peter Fonda — icon of ’60s western counter-culture, writer-producer-actor of cinematic masterpiece Easy Rider, son of legendary actor Henry, brother of Jane and father of Bridget — is all of that and more. A lot more.
In town this weekend to present the Best Film award (Singapore Film Category) at the 22nd Singapore International Film Festival Silver Screen Awards tonight and for a public question-and-answer session Saturday at LASALLE, the 69-year-old nature- and music-lover was happy to tell animated stories about... Well, just about everything.
Chatting with Fonda over iced tea at the Amara Sanctuary Resort Sentosa, we learnt how the two-time Oscar nominee never suffers from jetlag when he’s in our neck of the woods because of the pull of being so close to the equator.
And that this is actually his second visit to our “beautiful island” because “back in 1982, the plane made an unscheduled landing and I spent eight hours in your airport but they wouldn’t let us come into town”.
One topic Fonda was quite happy to stay on, however, was Easy Rider. He recounted how he and Dennis Hopper (who co-starred, co-wrote and directed the film) initially didn’t really want Jack Nicholson in the movie but eventually changed their minds.
“We already had the audience who believed in our (counter) culture and I knew he’d bring in the fringe audience. And he did.”
It’s been 40 years since Fonda, Hopper and Nicholson kick-started a mini pop-cultural revolution astride a Harley Davidson with that film. Does the man, who was last seen beside Russell Crowe and Christian Bale in 3:10 to Yuma, ever get tired of talking about the movie?
“It used to annoy me that people kept asking me to talk about Easy Rider. And then I realised I shouldn’t be annoyed. I should be gracious to know that there are so many people from so many walks of life, of different cultures and different countries to whom the movie touched. And that makes me very happy.”
In Conversation with Peter Fonda will be held at LASALLE College Of The Arts, Singapore Airlines Theatre (Basement 1), 1 McNally Street on Sat (April 25) at 2pm. Tickets at S$9.50 (not inclusiveof Sistic fee) from Sistic.
- TODAY/yb
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