Jane Fonda had a powerful message for her Hollywood peers during her acceptance speech at this year’s SAG Awards.

During Sunday night’s ceremony, the two-time Oscar winner and activist was awarded the Lifetime Achievement prize, and took a moment to reflect on her career and time in the spotlight during her acceptance speech.

She also looked ahead to the future, calling on her fellow actors to encourage “empathy” in the current political climate.

“What we, actors, create is empathy. Our job is to understand another human being so profoundly that we can touch their souls,” she said.

“And make no mistake, empathy is not weak or ‘woke’.”

Pausing, she added: “By the way, ‘woke’ just means you give a damn about other people.”

See more of Jane’s speech for yourself in the video below:

The term “woke” was first used in the early 20th century in the African American community, where it was used to describe being aware and alert to social injustices.

As it became more popular in the 2010s, aided by the Childish Gambino song Redbone (which uses the phrase “stay woke” in its chorus), the word was co-opted and misappropriated by right-wing critics, who began using it to describe performative and insincere activism.

The SAG Awards recognise achievements in both film and TV across the last year, with the epic historical drama Shōgun coming out on top in the latter categories on Sunday night.

As for the movie awards, there was no clear frontrunner, although there were one or two surprising wins during this year’s ceremony, which took place exactly one week before the Oscars.