Jodie Foster on red carpet© Lionel Hahn/Getty Images

Jodie Foster has had some iconic roles, from playing Clarice Starling in the “Silence of the Lambs” to Iris in “Taxi Driver.” These have all been incredible roles, but there’s one in particular that Foster can’t escape. Long before she was an Oscar-winning actress, she had a legendary part in a Coppertone commercial.

Chances are, if you have ever come across the sunscreen aisle in a store, you have probably seen the brand Coppertone. Coppertone is known for having an image of a little girl walking in front of a dog who is pulling down her bathing suit on a majority of their sunscreen products. Buyers were able to put a face to the little girl on the bottle when Foster starred as the Coppertone girl in a 1965 commercial. The commercial shows a mom putting sunscreen on a young Foster on a boat as they pass a billboard with the Coppertone logo. Foster, who was three, then stands in front of the billboard recreating the brand’s look with her dog. The memorable commercial dubbed Foster the “Coppertone girl.”

While appearing on “The Late Show with Jay Leno” in 1993, Foster seemed a bit embarrassed by Leno playing the commercial. Although she never mentioned exactly how she feels about it, Foster can’t escape the love people have for her playing the Coppertone girl. Even with decades passing, she is still tied to the role, and the actor is revealing how she feels about it all now.

Jodie Foster Wasn’t Going To Do Anything She Didn’t Want To Do In The Coppertone Commercial

When Jodie Foster starred in the Coppertone commercial in 1965, she probably had no idea that this one ad would stick with her for the rest of her life.

When breaking down her career with Vanity Fair in 2018, Foster addressed the Coppertone ad and how she feels about it years later. The former child star explained, “Yes, I was three years old, and I was the Coppertone girl in a Coppertone commercial. It was on a boat in Sacramento, and I was wearing only a bikini.” Unlike the original ad, people on set wanted Foster to wear a bikini top alongside her bikini bottoms, but Foster refused. She said, “I was gonna be made to do things that I didn’t wanna do, like wear a bikini top. I said no and I didn’t have to wear one. There you go.” A three-year-old Foster got her way; if you take a look at the commercial now, you can see that the “Taxi” star didn’t have to wear a top and fit perfectly with the original drawing of the ad.

While many may think that Foster was the inspiration for the logo, the image was created nearly ten years before she starred in the commercial, per Destination Hollywood. Foster just happened to fit the brand perfectly, but believe it or not, she almost didn’t get the gig.

Jodie Foster Accidentally Got The Coppertone Ad

Jodie Foster was never supposed to be in the Coppertone commercial, but fate struck. The actor revealed in an interview with W magazine that her brother was the one who had auditioned for the ad. She explained, “I was supposed to stay in the car, but my mom thought it was not a good idea to leave a three-year-old in the car, so she brought me in. It was my brother’s interview.” The moment she walked into the audition room, Foster stole the show with her outgoing personality. She said, “For some reason, they hired me instead of my brother, and I became the Coppertone girl.” After landing the commercial, Foster’s life changed forever.

The “Silence of the Lambs” actor went on to do more commercials before eventually moving to television. She explained her career trajectory on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” saying, “I did a lot of commercials as a child … I think I quit commercials when I was about eight or nine. I did television from the time I was six on and some movies, and then I kind of quit television at 11 or 12.” It’s a good thing her career played out the way it did, because Foster catapulted into the film industry not long after quitting television.