Jane Fonda was arrested outside the United States Capitol on Friday as part of a climate change protest, a high-profile act of civil disobedience by the Oscar-winning actress and Vietnam War objector, who said that she planned to reprise her role every Friday for the rest of the year.

Ms. Fonda, 81, was among 16 people charged with unlawfully demonstrating on the East Front of the Capitol, a misdemeanor under a Washington law prohibiting protesters from obstructing public building entrances, Capitol Police said.

She had just finished speaking as part of a Fire Drill Fridays protest, the first of a weekly series of planned climate change demonstrations, when she was taken into custody at 11:50 a.m. local time. Ms. Fonda was later released on her own recognizance.

With the Capitol Dome as a backdrop, Ms. Fonda said she wanted to show solidarity with young climate change strikers such as Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenager who sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in an emissions-free yacht to draw attention to global warming. She said she had became inspired after reading the best-selling book “On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal” by Naomi Klein about climate change over the Labor Day weekend.