Jane Fonda reveals she was raped as a child in bombshell interview

Jane Fonda got candid about her childhood in a new interview.

The 79-year-old actress revealed that she was raped as a child while speaking to fellow actress Brie Larson for The EDIT magazine.

"To show you the extent to which a patriarchy takes a toll on females; I've been raped, I've been sexually abused as a child and I've been fired because I wouldn't sleep with my boss and I always thought it was my fault; that I didn't do or say the right thing," said the Hollywood legend.

The "Frankie and Grace" star went on, disclosing the harsh reality of sexual abuse in society.

"I know young girls who've been raped and didn't even know it was rape. They think, 'It must have been because I said 'no' the wrong way,'" Fonda said. "One of the great things the women's movement has done is to make us realize that [rape and abuse is] not our fault. We were violated and it's not right."

The mother-of-two and the star of the "Room" also shared their frustrations of being an actress in Hollywood.

"I've learned the only power I have in my career is the word no," Larson declared. "I couldn't choose the jobs I got, but I could say no to jobs that weren't right for me."

Jane, who rose to fame decades before Larson's career began, contrasted the statement, revealing it took her "60 years to learn to say no."

She continued: "If anyone offered me anything I would say yes. I took parts I wasn't right for and I was taken advantage of."

But after years in the business, she's learned to stand up for herself -- and the mother-of-three regrets she hadn't done so sooner.

"Now, I would say, 'No. This is a piece of s--t. I don't like the way you're treating me,' and leave. If only I had known then what I do now."

The two also discussed the pressures of keeping up their appearances as women in the industry.

"'If someone had asked me back when I started, 'What are you wearing?' I'd have thought they were crazy. Julie Christie made her own goddam dress when she won an Oscar for 'Darling,'" Fonda declared. "I grew up in the '50s and it took me a long time to apply feminism to my life. The men in my life were wonderful, but victims of a [patriarchal] belief system. I felt diminished."

Jane then later revealed the turning point in her career.

"Eventually I decided I wasn't going to give up who I was in order to please the man I was with," she added. "I became an embodied feminist when I was single and saw Eve Ensler perform The Vagina Monologues. While I was laughing, my feminism carried from my head into my DNA. It took a long time, though, because I was brought up with the disease to please."

At one point the, who said she didn't fully become an activist until she was 31, thought about leaving her Hollywood life behind.

"When I found out what was really happening in Vietnam I didn't care if I ever worked again; I considered leaving the business to become a full-time activist."

Since then, Fonda has become actively involved in controversial issues such as the Iraq War, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and global warming, to name a few.

The Hollywood icon has three grown-up children, Mary Luana Williams, 49, Vanessa Vadim, 48, and Troy Garity, 43. She is currently dating Richard Perry for eight years after three divorces.