Jane Fonda Skewers Trump in Satirical 'Rush Hour' Audition Video
The new skit, posted Friday, stars jane fonda in a satirical take on Hollywood content decisions and the reported influence of President Donald Trump over studio greenlights.
Jane Fonda's Committee stages 'Rush Hour' auditions
The Committee for the First Amendment released an Instagram video titled "Auditions in a World Where Corporations Let the President Dictate Their Content Decisions, " with jane fonda joined by Ed Begley Jr., Yvette Nicole Brown, Kirsten Vangsness, Jodie Sweetin and Anthony Roy Davis. In one exchange, an unseen casting director asks, "How's work been?" Begley replies, "It's been slow. You know, there's only the 'Rush Hour' movies. It's just that one flavor. " Fonda then quips, "I can't get any of the movies that I want made. I'm hoping that 'Rush Hour'... will please the right people and maybe I'll get a job. "
Video riffs on Ellisons' studio moves and a Netflix withdrawal
The skit references business moves that have reshaped the studio landscape: Larry and David Ellison's purchases of Paramount and Warner Brothers Discovery after Netflix dropped a competing bid following a White House meeting. The video also nods to reports that Trump reportedly asked studios to fast-track a new "Rush Hour" sequel and has pressed studios about personnel decisions at cable news outlets. The Instagram caption for the video said, "Media companies that make content decisions as political favors to the president (repayable in approved merger deals!) should be embarrassed about their surrender to a corrupt administration set on destroying free expression. "
Committee relaunch and the cast backing the parody
The Committee for the First Amendment was originally co-founded by Fonda's father, Henry, during the McCarthy era, and the group was relaunched in October 2025. The relaunch included over 550 entertainment figures — Barbra Streisand, Ben Stiller, Billy Crystal, Ethan Hawke, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Julianne Moore, Natalie Portman, Nicolas Cage, Olivia Wilde, Sam Waterston, Susan Sarandon, Viola Davis, Whoopi Goldberg and Winona Ryder are among the names listed in the relaunch statement — and the skit carries that coalition's tone of alarm about political influence on content decisions.
The parody uses casting-room banter to lampoon the idea that studios might narrow their output to please a political patron, and it draws on specific accounts about the Ellisons' ties to the White House and the reported fast-tracking of the "Rush Hour" project as its comic premise.
The video's release came one day after Netflix officially bowed out of the race to acquire Warner Bros., a development that commentators say cleared a path for Paramount's bid and helped frame the skit's critique of corporate consolidation and political favors.
Paramount's prospective control of Warner Bros. and the fallout from Netflix's withdrawal remain the immediate business developments tied to the video's message, and the Committee's post echoes its relaunch statement calling for a defense of free expression in the face of those corporate and political shifts.
