When a third-generation Sicilian immigrant from Queens gets named by one of the most celebrated actor-directors of our times, one can hardly object. In 1965, at the age of three, Jodie Foster had already begun her career as a model by appearing in Coppertone Television advertisements. After a brief stint of acting in Disney films, Foster was cast in a supporting role by Martin Scorsese in his 1974 romantic-comedy drama Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. She was a mere 12 years of age, but her future seemed written in the stars.
But the film, which went on to premiere at the 27th Cannes Film Festival and compete for its top honour, the Palme d’Or, was just the beginning of what was already shaping up to be two legendary film careers. Three years later, Scorsese cast Foster in the role of a teenage prostitute opposite the legendary Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver. Today, The movie is counted as one of the essential works of excellence in the American neo-noir genre. It launched its lead actor and director into a lifetime of overnight critical acclaim and international success.
In a conversation with Matt Mueller, Foster credits her mother entirely for this early career choice. “I have to hand it to my mom because she was really forward-thinking,” she says. Recalling fond memories of watching Scorsese’s Mean Streets with her mother when she was just ten, Foster underlines the “vicarious thrill” her mother got from watching her daughter morph into a legacy actor. “She wanted me to be respected; she wasn’t interested in me being a pig-tailed, model-type actress. She wanted me to be up there with Robert De Niro,” adds Foster.
After a series of short films and comedy features that were inspired by the cinematic lexicon of French New Wave and Italian Neo-Realists like Michelangelo Antonioni and Federico Fellini, Mean Streets was Scorsese’s first venture into the crime-drama genre. It also marked the first of his many lifelong collaborations with actor De Niro. Very soon, in a role that defined the larger part of his career as an actor, De Niro was cast as the psychologically troubled, war-veteran turned vigilante Travis Bickle in the auteur’s Taxi Driver.
As a teenage prostitute Bickle befriends in the movie, Foster countered De Niro’s rugged, fractured masculinity with a nubile sense of tarnished innocence that was met with widespread critical acclaim. She counts herself lucky to have had the opportunity to work with someone she considers to be one of America’s greatest directorial legends. “I just feel incredibly lucky. To have come from making Disney movies to working with the greatest director that America’s ever had, except for maybe Frank Capra – how amazing is that?” adds Foster.
Also of Italian descent, Frank Capra won three Academy Awards for his directorial prowess out of a whopping six nominations. Although Scorsese took home Cannes’ top honour in 1976 for his work, it was going to be a while before recognition came his way from the Academy. In 1981, Robert De Niro won the Academy Award for ‘Best Actor’ for his leading role in Scorsese’s Raging Bull, while Foster returned to the silver screen after obtaining a degree in Afro-American Literature from Yale University in 1985. She went on to win the Academy Award for ‘Best Actress’ twice for her leading roles in The Accused and The Silence of the Lambs. In the former, she essays the role of a justice-seeking survivor of rape, and in the latter, the part of a prodigious FBI officer on a mission with a psychopathic criminal.
Foster eventually transitioned into directing feature films as well, with works like The Beaver and Money Monster to her credit. Much like Scorsese, she claims to have a singular aesthetic. “I like films that are lean, meticulously planned and witty, but where I can go back and erase all the seams,” she reveals. It was only as late as 2007 that Scorsese was finally recognised by the Academy for his legacy as one of the standing directors of American cinema, for his critically acclaimed crime-drama The Departed starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson.
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