Celebs Who Took Activism To The Next Level

We're living in unprecedented times — and it's exhausting. For some of us, it's hard to stay silent as an endless wave of hate, intolerance, and injustice unfolds in front us. We can feel the ache in our bones to not just speak out but do something that will ideally evoke change for the better. While some may choose to ignore those feelings, others simply can't turn a blind eye. These are activists. 

Activism is an essential part of a democracy and an avenue toward progress. On August 3, 1857, abolitionist Frederick Douglass gave his "West India Emancipation" speech in Canandaigua, New York in which he spoke to the importance of fighting for what's right. "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will," he said. "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." In other words, activism makes a difference — even if the results aren't immediate.

Although celebrities get a lot of flak for taking a genuine political stance or fighting for a cause tooth and nail, a person's profession shouldn't negate their say in the country they live. While there are many celebrities who have been vocal about a whole slew of issues, some of them have taken their activism next-level. And we love them for that.

It was the Vietnam War that turned Jane Fonda into the activist we know today. She became so outspoken against the conflict that she earned the nickname "Hanoi Jane." During this time, Fonda was hosting fundraisers for the Black Panthers, visiting fellow protesters who had been jailed, and had become an advocate for Native Americans who were losing more and more of their land. The actress became such a thorn in the side of President Richard Nixon that she was not only constantly under surveillance by the government but also arrested (for the first time) in 1970 while on an anti-Vietnam War speaking tour. The charges? Drug possession. But when the alleged drugs turned out to just be vitamins, the charges were dropped, much to Nixon's dismay.

Fonda has continued to be at the forefront of injustices and has fearlessly brought her activism into the spotlight time and again. As a fierce advocate for reproductive rights, Fonda opened The Jane Fonda Center for Adolescent Reproductive Health in 2000, and more recently she's involved herself in the fight against climate change. In October 2019, she was arrested five times during the Fire Drill Friday Protests. "This is an ongoing action to draw attention and a sense of urgency to the climate crisis," Fonda said on October 18, 2019 before one of her arrests (via Reuters). "Make no mistake, change is coming, whether we like it or not. Change is coming by disaster, or change is coming by design." Fonda's arrests didn't end the climate change crisis, but they brought more attention to it, opening the eyes of those who didn't understand the gravity of the situation. 

Although Hunter Schafer has been an advocate for trans rights, the LGBTQ+ community, and especially the importance of transgender inclusivity, she's also taken a stand in regards to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. While many celebrities have spoken up and expressed their concern for the Palestinians living in the region, Schafer didn't just keep her thoughts to social media like many do. Instead, she got out there to demand a ceasefire by protesting in New York City. 

In February 2024, Schafer partook in an act of civil disobedience by attending the Jewish Voice for Peace demonstration inside 30 Rockefeller Center. The group, which was holding a sign that read "the whole world is watching," was there to demand a ceasefire while President Biden was upstairs on "Late Night with Seth Meyers." Although Schafer hasn't mentioned the incident, a spokesperson for the Jewish Voice for Peace told USA Today that she was one of 50 people arrested that day. 

"We commend her commitment to Palestinian freedom and to a future of justice for everyone," the spokesperson said. Schafer, like everyone else who was arrested, was given a summons for trespassing and was released. It wasn't until January 19, 2025 that a ceasefire went go into effect. However, not long after, Hamas accused Israel of violating the terms of the ceasefire and announced that they will stop releasing hostages. 

In 2016, the Dakota Access Pipeline became a source of concern for many people — especially for the Indigenous Americans people who didn't live far from it. There was anger that the pipeline, which carries crude oil from North Dakota to Illinois (1,172 miles), would disrupt burial sites and other sacred locations of the Native American people. There was also fear that the Missouri River could possibly be contaminated should something go wrong with the channel. Because of this, hundreds of tribes and thousands of others descended upon the Sioux Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota to oppose the building of the pipeline. Shailene Woodley was one of those protesters, and she was arrested in October 2016 because of it.

In September 2017, Woodley spoke to Marie Claire UK about her participation in the protests. "The only way to address climate change and these radical, detrimental policies is for us, as citizens, to shift our lifestyles," she told the magazine."People are too comfortable. We're complacent in many ways. We need to be willing to get uncomfortable." Woodley also shared the details of being strip-searched after her arrest and what it felt like to be tossed in a cell. "When you're in a jail cell and they shut that door, you realize no one can save you," she said. "If there's a fire and they decide not to open the door, you'll die. You are a caged animal." Despite all the protests, the Dakota Access Pipeline was completed in spring 2017, becoming operational in June of that year. 

In April 2016, Rosario Dawson was among the members of Democracy Spring who participated in a pro-democracy sit-in on Capitol Hill, which resulted in her arrest. Best part? She was rocking a Bernie Sanders jacket when she was apprehended. "I wanted personally to be in solidarity with the other folks who put themselves on the line and really just to bring attention to this because I think that's just vitally important," Dawson told The Guardian shortly after her arrest, adding that she'd been warned many times by police that they were going to arrest her. "The police were really great with us, really lovely. I have to say that is not the case for so many people: Dreamers, Black Lives Matter activists, so many people are not seeing this kind of courageousness." Dawson didn't see the inside of a jail cell and was instead fined $50.

This wasn't the first time Dawson had a run-in with the law in the name of activism. In 2004, while filming "The Revolution," she and its director, Stephen Marshall, were arrested for protesting the Republican National Convention. Both Dawson and Marshall were charged with obstruction and disorderly conduct. That same year, she was a regular protester of the Dakota Access Pipeline, but unlike Shailene Woodley, she was never arrested. 

Similar to her character Miranda Hobbs on "Sex and the City," Cynthia Nixon always speaks her mind and advocates for others. Nixon has used her platform to fight for gender equality, LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive rights, justice for Palestinians, and has fought for better public education. It's the latter that resulted in her being arrested.

In 2002, Nixon was among hundreds who demanded more funding for public schools in New York City. "We marched on up, sat down and blocked the entrance," Nixon told The New York Times in 2013. "The police very politely asked us to move, and we declined. They pulled up the police van and put us in." In a June 2018 Instagram post, Nixon explained what she learned from her 2002 arrest: "It was then that I joined the Alliance for Quality Education. After rallies, protests, civil disobedience, and countless meetings with legislators that fall, winter and spring, we stopped almost $400 million in budget cuts and I've been fighting for education reform in New York ever since. I've learned that when we come together and stand up and fight for all our children, we become a force to be reckoned with."

Having seen that activism really does work, Nixon has continued to fight for what's right, even going so far as to run for governor of New York in 2018. Ultimately, Nixon lost to incumbent Governor Andrew Cuomo, but she's remained a vocal supporter of several political issues.