Jodie Foster was just 12 years old when she wowed the world with her performance as Iris in ‘Taxi Driver’ (1976). However, in order to give life to the prostitute, the actress had to undergo several psychological tests.

The artist talked about this process in a new interview with OK! Magazine.

She explained that the sessions she had with a psychiatrist at the University of California at Los Angeles assessed whether she was able to play Iris without her mental health taking a hit.

“People thought I was too young to play a prostitute and people – lawyers, really – in the California government wanted to make sure I was psychologically prepared. magazine, according to the Daily Mail.

Jodie Foster and De Niro in Taxi Driver at a table

The Oscar-winning actress was just 12 years old when she portrayed a hooker in the 1976 cult classic.

Speaking on The Graham Norton Show, the actress reminised about her time on the film.

She said: “I was 12 years old and had made more movies than anyone else on the film at that point.

“They were very uncomfortable about my character. Nobody knew how to direct me.

“Scorsese would say something like ‘unzip his fly’ and just start laughing and not know what to do so he would hand it over to Robert De Niro and then Robert would tell me what to do.

“And he was even more ‘Robert De Niro’ then, even quieter and more strange.”

Their main controversial scene together saw De Niro’s character Travis hire Iris, but rather than having sex he tries to persuade her to leave prostitution.

The film earned both actors Oscar nominations in the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress categories.

Foster went on to star in The Silence of The Lambs with Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter.

Speaking on the show, Foster revealed that Hopkins’s cannibal was terrifying.

“The first day we had a read-through and by the end of it I never wanted to talk to him again – I was petrified.

“We got to the end of the movie and really had never had a conversation.

“I actually avoided him but on the last day he came up to me and I said, with tears in my eyes, how scared I was of him and he said, ‘But, I was scared of you!”‘