It’s fitting that the name of Jodie Foster’s latest flick is The Brave One. In the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly, the Oscar-winning action heroine laughs in the face of Hollywood stereotypes — and talks about how she forged her own path in the industry.
I can feel a little grossed out by L.A. but, hey, it’s nice to feel superior! Clearly you have to wear a lot of rubber to get through this town. I make movies with real technicians who wake up at four in the morning and wear Patagonia everything. I don’t make them with wives of executives who have fake lips. I was never the ingénue or the pretty girlfriend of Tom Cruise in a movie. I didn’t have that career, so I don’t have to compete on that level.
So did she ever want more of a shot at playing the cute get?
No, but there were other things I wanted. Like, I got insecure because I made this conscious choice when I was 18 and 19 not to do any of those coming of age devirginization movies, to be a part of any kind of Brat Pack. They were the hot items here in L.A. and I was living in Connecticut and going to college. I knew some of those guys so I did feel like a bit like a loser. ‘What are you guys doing tonight? I’m studying for this French test.’
Going against the “Pack,” so to speak, is a familiar move for Foster. Case in point, she was actually encouraged to not take the role of Clarice Starling in Silence of the Lambs — a role that later gave her a second Oscar win.
Everybody was like ‘Why are you going to do that movie? It’s a total second fiddle. Anthony Hopkins got the good part and you are just quick and don’t speak in contradictions. You could do a juicy part!’ I was like, ‘That’s who she is, and that’s how I’m going to play her. I’m not going to try and compete with him.’ And I won an Oscar for that. So much for them second-guessing whose part was better.
Clearly, Foster’s instinct and choices in movies — both past and present — have never hindered her success. In fact, unlike other child actors, Foster has been able to escape the pitfalls of early stardom.
Everybody tells you as a child actor that by the time you’re 18, it’ll be over, so you need to be prepared. I knew that. My mom got me real nice and prepared for that. It’s a weird business. It’s a weird thing for a child to be doing. And it’s a really, really weird thing for an adolescent to be doing. When you have pimples and you feel bad about yourself and you’re kind of overweight, you should not be a public figure. That’s just mean.
But one child star Foster believes is well on her way to carving a similar path as her own — Dakota Fanning, who like Foster (in Taxi Driver) had a graphic rape scene at a tender age in the movie Hounddog.
Taxi Driver was the best thing that ever happened to me, and I didn’t become a weirdo or squawk like a chicken… She [Dakota] is spectacular [with] a brave, brave performance that she should be very, very proud of. That’s why Dakota Fanning is going to end up being a real actress. It was a wonderful movie for her and it’s setting her up to not be a Disney bimbo. I think the [uproar] was just a bunch of Christians who didn’t see the movie.
Stemming from that last comment, what are Foster’s thoughts on organized religion?
I’m an atheist. But I absolutely love religions, and I love the rituals. Even though I don’t believe in God. Pretty much every religion we celebrate in our family with the kids. They love it and when they say “Are we Jewish?” or “Are we Catholic?” I say “Well, I’m not, but you can choose when you’re 18. But isn’t this fun that we do Seders and advent calendar?”
So how does Foster feel about her Maverick costar Mel Gibson’s anti-Semitic rant last year?
I love him. I knew the minute I met him that he was going to be my friend for the rest of my life. I don’t often feel that way and I certainly never feel that way about actors. I know Mel extremely well, and anybody who has even remotely met him knows what a severe alcohol problem he’s had his entire life. This is a man who almost died. He’s not some guy who went to rehab because he got a traffic ticket.
Loading ...
So sad that she doesn’t believe in God. Good acting is not everything in this whorld Jodie…
It’s not sad. Being a believer, on non-believer doesn’t make you a good or bad person. There’s plenty of crappy Christians, and plenty of decent God doubters (hello, Mother Theresa).
[...] get the distinct impression that Jodie Foster used her interview with Entertainment Weekly to disparage Lindsay Lohan. Wait a minute… disparage? Is it even possible to disparage [...]
The 1980 teen movie Foxes is Jodie Foster’s version of Mean Girls.
I agree with Jamie. I think she sounds like an awesome and very intelligent person. She’s not one of those hypocrites who goes out there preaching their beliefs to others or trying to convert people. Or someone like Senator Craig, gay priests, and gay televangelists who hide behind their religion to do the same things they say are immoral to their followers. I think the way she teaches her children at least allows her children to grow up open-minded, accepting of other cultures and religions, and allows them to decide on their own whether they want to be Catholic, Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Athiest, etc. I don’t see anything wrong with that. Even religious people should accept Jodie’s lifestyle. She’s not harming anyone and she is a talented actor who gives to charitable and political causes. She sounds like a respectable person who is probably more sane and moral than many other people in society who believe in God or go to church every weekend.
Jodie Foster is ingenious, and deep.
I think she truly grows with each roll by challenging her own private character. She is level headed and balanced. She has certainly been a good role model for me from growing up and still to this day. I think she is for many young people in this generation as well.
Ms. Foster knows how to just be who she is. She lives life deliberately. All the best to Ms. Foster and to all the areas of this world that have been and are being made a better place because of her courage. She is a brave one!
Jodie Foster: “just a bunch of Christians…”, “brave, brave performance”, “‘Taxi Driver’ was the best thing that ever happened to me”.
Miss Foster’s memory is either flawed or deliberately slanted. Obviously, she doesn’t “remember” the emotional difficulties she suffered after that movie and how she quit Hollywood for school to resolve them. And, incredibly, she ignores the perveted stalkers who resultingly plagued her- one of whom tried to assassinate a president to gain her attention.
Eventually, she went on to a successful adult career. But at what price? Her outlook and life is insular Hollywood right down the line. She typically calls Dakota Fanning’s role in “Hounddog” “brave”- this being the common cinema euphemism for utter self-degradation. What she ignores is that, despicable as “Taxi Driver” was in it’s use of her as a child actress, she still never had to directly enact erotic scenes or was exposed to the ultimate levels of depraved concepts. Dakota did and was… and at the same age of twelve!
Far better for this child if she HAD become a “Disney bimbo” instead of the real thing, as Foster has. A Hollywood freakout, living in an unreal environment, incapable of solid relationships, etc. Little wonder Miss Foster’s also a confirmed atheist. You don’t have to look far beyond her nude cover shot to see all this!
Dear Dakota: Please carefully read the words of Jodie Foster, here. I know you were led to admire her career; no doubt by someone who had a “Taxi Driver/Hounddog” role in mind for your future from the beginning. You’re now 13 and you’ve seen your good name tarnished, the loss of your peer-aged fanbase and have been humiliated at Sundance by your exploiters before the entire world. Is this what you expected when you followed your dreams to Hollywood? Is this really where you want your life to go?
May God bless you and grant you His grace.
Steven Mark, first of all you are a moron. Read the article again. Then read your comment again. What’s that I’ve read somewhere about not casting stones? (Sarcasm Intended). Your condemnation and judgement seeps from the screen. What a bitter, sad, man you are with a lot to learn about faith. Secondly, next time check your facts before you get on that soapbox. Jodie never took time off for emotional reasons. She went to COLLEGE. Then tried to pick the interesting roles for her age, which apart from brat pack, darling-type roles, were scarce. Third, as a strong willed person, she decided to not give Hinckley the benefit of tainting her life, so she decided to learn from it, put in in her PAST and move on. Fourth, since when is speculating that becoming a Disney bimbo a GOOD thing?? (If you ask me, any kind of bimbo is not good.) Oh wait-I know what you meant-Britany Spears was a Disney bimbo and she is SUCH a positive role model.
I am so glad that your God grants forgiveness over and over again. You need forgiveness for breaking his commandments (idle gossip, right?). So since you consider yourself of a higher authority and to act as mediator for God’s giving of grace and blessings I will not wish the same for you. Your already getting it, right? Pontificator?
Jodie Foster is more serious than Lindsay Lohan! Foster had switched to adult roles at age 18 (or 17) in a coming of age. Not compared to Lohan, Jodie Foster doesn’t have many boyfriends except with that psycho guy named John Hinckley who wanted to make love with her.
Dear CB:
Like most militant non-Christians, you take bits and pieces from the Bible to present false conclusions. Likewise, you skim over relavent details to put forth a politically correct interpretation that you had pre-ordained from the beginning. When you do that, you can use ANY reference to justify anything at all. The boundaries are set forth only by your imagination and amorality.
I might point out that Jodie Foster herself admitted to emotional problems and it was a major factor in her leaving Hollywood to go to a selective East Coast college. She was the target of perverted stalkers (of which Hinckley was but one) who pursued her there. Brook Shields’ experience parallels her’s in many ways.
When you sexualize children in the popular culture, you initiate crimes against them and do them spiritual harm. Not just the little actors and models, but all the other children who follow them. To deny this is, bluntly, to outrageously break a certain rule about “bearing false witness”. Forgive me if I pontificate here!
By the way, that sneering bit about “Disney bimbos” was incorrectly aimed at me. It did not originate the term. “Read the article again”. I reject the concept- just as I do that which contends that children who are perversely degraded on a film set are somehow better than those who’ve eschewed such roles. That a few, highly-publicized ex-Disney kids have brought infamy on themselves as adults is to insult the very many who went on to lead decent lives.
Look to the corruptiveness of Hollywood as a whole- a corruptiveness illustrated by the ongoing and expanding exploitation of child actors. It didn’t begin with “Taxi Driver”. Regrettably, it’s not liable to end with “Hounddog”- the child porn film that Miss Foster helped to make possible and now upholds. And may God (yes, MY God, CB!) help our kids and forgive those who threaten them in this manner.
I agree with Mo. Jodie strikes me as someone who is totally true to herself. She learned early that when anyone has an audience there will be millions of interpretations. My question is, for people like Steven, why follow the career and then even visit a webblog for someone he despises and judges so harshly? It’s like the guy that goes to the abortion clinic to stir up trouble and be an asshole.
I’m totally following you CB. That SMP guy sounds like he really needs to look in the mirror.
I can’t wait to see the brave one! JODIE POWER!
Jodie ! I don’t think you well ever read this.We are the same age.I think you are little crazy having Little one at your age. I have kids but my are all grown and I’m a grandma.We live in to diffrent worlds Your a city chick and counrty girl. I’m just a custodial worker.You can do what you want I don’t have a chocie .flip are worlds and live in my I don’t think I can live in yours I’m not Public person.Well maybe you couldn’t live in my.
Dear Mark: I don’t hate her. I do, however, take to task public figures who use their celebrityship to uphold immoral conduct- especially with children. If this is your idea of being “true to herself” and “bravery”- and if you can equate this with your obvious support of unfettered baby killing in abortion clinics- then I really suggest that you look in that mirror yourself… if you dare. Your values and dialogue are as twisted as Foster’s are. And it stems from your common disregard for children’s hearts, souls… and their very lives.
Dear Posters: Jodie Foster will be on the Letterman show tonight. It could be interesting!