Fonda once told reporters, “When I first saw the script, I didn’t understand why the mother was so awful.” “So I had to find her backstory.” “I learned some of my over-the-top behavior from Ted,” he added, noting that Viola had many on-screen tantrums and a flair for drama.
She also told Liveabout: “He’s the only person I know who has had to apologize more than me. He’s a real jerk, he’s outrageous, he has a total lack of self-censorship, and he’s also a very lovable person. “So when I got the opportunity to play Viola, I felt like I was allowed to be on top of it because I knew what it was like.”
“Just because he’s called Monster-in-Law doesn’t mean he’s a monster,” she continued. “I love the guy. I really adore him and we’re best friends.”
According to Fonda’s 2005 memoir, My Life So Far, she and Turner remained friends, although Turner was a serial cheater. Still, “It was really hard to quit. I was 62 years old and I didn’t have a career anymore,” Fonda recalled to The New Yorker in 2018. “I didn’t have to work, I was taken care of, but I knew that if I stayed here, I would never be who I was meant to be as a human being, a really authentic human being. And I tried to explain that to him, but he didn’t really understand.”
