Jane Fonda visits John Allaire, a retired environmental engineer and Southwest Louisiana resident, who has been battling the expansion of liquefied natural gas exports near him. Tim Aubry/Greenpeace Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment Jane Fonda's latest role is one she's been playing for over half a century: Activist. In Gaslit, a new documentary premiering Thursday at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, the actress explores the environmental toll of the liquefied natural gas boom in Texas and Louisiana. The film, which was financed and produced by the environmental group Greenpeace, tracks the consequences of the in-demand fuel, sometimes called LNG, on local communities and environments. The export of liquefied natural gas has been linked to high greenhouse gas emissions and health risks for nearby communities. Related Stories Movies Santa Barbara Film Fest: Four of Five Best Director Oscar Nominees Set for Tribute (Exclusive) TV Skylar Neese Murder Docuseries Set at Hulu (Exclusive) On a prolonged road trip, Fonda joins two self-described "methane hunters" in West Texas to observe otherwise invisible emissions with an optical gas imaging camera. She meets with a cattle rancher who sold a property that had been in his family for generations after he claims nearby oil extraction polluted its water. She chats with community organizers who argue that cancer rates have skyrocketed in their areas due to nearby industry. Actress Connie Britton and musician Maggie Rogers appear at certain stops, lending their incredulity to what they're seeing. It's just the latest example of environmental advocacy from Fonda, who in 2019 launched regular climate change protests in Washington called "Fire Drill Fridays" - an event series at which she was arrested several times. In 2022 she founded a Political Action Committee (PAC) dedicated to defeating candidates who are allied with the fossil fuel industry. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the actress discussed why the film homed in on liquefied natural gas, the effect that President Donald Trump's Environmental Protection Agency has had on communities she covered and how celebrities can be effective as activists in 2026. How did you become involved with this film? I've been a climate activist for quite a number of years, and in 2019 I joined up with Greenpeace to do what we called Fire Drill Fridays. It was starting in 2019, with Greenpeace's help, that I became aware of the fact that the most climate damaging work was happening on the Gulf of Texas. It was potentially the greatest concentration of substances that would damage the atmosphere - what they called [a] "carbon bomb." And it was happening because of fracking that was going on in the Permian Basin. The fracking, which began under [former President] Obama, it's very destructive. It pollutes the ground, the water and the air and releases a huge amount of methane. This is then piped down to the Gulf where it is turned into liquid, frozen to [less than] minus 200 degrees Fahrenheit and then put into ships. And all along that way there's leaking and then it's shipped to places around the world. It's destroying local communities and it's destroying the atmosphere and it's the number one problem in the world right now. We managed to pressure Biden into calling for a pause in the export [approvals] of this LNG, liquified natural gas. Do you remember when Trump had a gathering of fossil fuel CEOs at Mar-a-Lago before he was reelected? He [reportedly] said, if you give me a billion dollars, I will remove all the regulations. The number one thing they wanted was to remove the pause on the export of liquified natural gas. This is what they are all for, this is where they're going to make their money, at the expense of Americans. So we decided to do a film to explain to people what is going on. You've been a climate activist for quite some time. Did anything particularly surprise while making this film? I learned so much. I mean, starting at the very beginning, the extent to which methane is leaking absolutely rocked me. I had no idea. There's this activist named Sharon Wilson who has a camera that you can look through and you can see what the naked eye can't see, like gas. When I went down there, Sharon took me out to where there were these huge tanks. You look at the tanks and it's like, what's the problem? No problem: Sunny day, beautiful blue sky. And then you look through the camera [and there are] hundreds of feet high billowing clouds of methane. Now methane, [advocates] said, well, methane doesn't last as long as carbon dioxide and stuff, no, but it's 80 percent more damaging to the climate over a 20-year period. So in terms of the climate crisis, 20 years is important. We don't have a lot of time to try t