Although she wasn’t born on a set, she’s been in front of cameras for as long as she can remember – with all its pros and cons. At the age of three, he was already filming a commercial, at the age of fourteen he was nominated for an Oscar, at the age of twenty he could not go to university without bodyguards. It’s no wonder that Jodie Foster was reclusive for a long time, and even though she was at one time the most visible lesbian woman in the world, she didn’t become the human rights role model that many wanted, at least not in the early 2000s. (And since then? You can decide after the article.) In the meantime, however, he has changed a lot as an actor, artist, and human being, and today, as the star of Nyad and True Detective , over 60, he has become capable of what he had few opportunities to do before: he can simply relax. And it suits him amazingly well. Written by Domi Milanovich.

The actor was born on November 19, 1962 in Los Angeles as Alicia Christian Foster. Her mother, Evelyn Foster, known to everyone as Brandy (1928–2019), was a press secretary for a film producer, and her marriage ended before the baby girl was born. She raised their four children alone, of which Jodie was the youngest. For a long time, the actor did not really know his father, Lucius Fischer Foster, a rich businessman of German origin, and they did not develop a deeper relationship with each other later (Foster also supported the man suffering from Alzheimer’s disease in his old age, who died at the age of 94). 

Foster attended the Lycée Français de Los Angeles, where he became fluent in French. He also appeared in French films, and even dubbed himself in the French version of most of his English-language films, and he impressed journalists at the Cannes Film Festival when, at the age of 14, he excelled as an interpreter at the Taxi Driver press conference. But let’s not rush too far ahead – because the fact is that by the time he was a teenager, Foster had already had so many roles that, in others, would have exposed an entire oeuvre. 

Six decades in front of cameras

His career actually started when he was three years old. Her mother accompanied Foster’s brother, Buddy, to an audition, and since she had no one to entrust little Jodie with, they took her along. Agents noticed the little girl, who from then on appeared in many commercials and more than 50 TV shows, and in the following years she and Buddy became the breadwinners of the Foster family. Then, already as a child actor, Disney films came, for example, at the age of ten, the movie Napoleon and Samantha (1972), in which Foster played a little girl who befriended a boy and his pet lion. But the animal got loose on the set and grabbed Jodie, traces of which can be seen on the actor’s back ever since.

Scene from Napoleon and Samantha – Source: Buena Vista Distribution
 

From this period, it is also worth mentioning the film Freaky Friday ( 1976), a mother-daughter body-swapping story (later remade with Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis), which has been  in the news again in recent weeks . Indeed, Foster told Jimmy Fallon on the Tonight Show that at the time, she turned down the role of Princess Leia, which was originally offered to her by George Lucas, because she already had a contract for this work and did not want to back out of it.

This is how Princess Leia became the older than Foster, then 19-year-old Carrie Fisher, who played this role several times until her death in 2016. “They did an amazing job, I don’t know how good I would have been,” said Foster, who says he has no regrets about the decision, either for  Star Wars fans or for his own career.

And what was it like growing up with such fame? “There is nothing normal about being a public figure from a young age: it takes a lot of negotiation and thinking to figure out how to be a complete person,  ” the actor explained in a major interview he gave to the Guardian earlier this year. – I think what Hugh Grant once said is very apt.

When you’re young, fame is like being shot with steroids and living with big muscles for the rest of your life. Then you make a decision to no more steroids. After that, you don’t recognize yourself and have no idea who you are. You have to rebuild your whole identity. It’s hard, and I had to learn it late.”

Living in the midst of madness and getting a little ripped 

Although the actor always speaks appreciatively and lovingly of his mother, Brandy Foster had ethically very problematic traits. Worried that his daughter’s career would end once she outgrew child roles, he began “introducing” her to adult audiences. For example, he organized a private photo shoot, at which he and the photographer Emilio Lari’s wife were also present. Indecent images were taken of Foster, then aged 13-16 (the exact date is disputed), and although the private parts of the body remained covered, the representation of the teenage girl’s body was still highly sexualized. 

Foster’s role as a child prostitute at the age of 13-14 in Martin Scorsese’s thriller Taxi Driver (1976), starring Robert De Niro, also served the purpose of moving away from children’s films . Foster took part in a psychological examination before filming, a social worker was constantly by her side, and her sister Connie replaced her in the sex scenes. Foster later described her performance in Taxi Driver as one of the defining experiences of her life , for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. “It was the first time anyone asked me to play a character that wasn’t me. That’s when I realized that acting is not a hobby that I just do,” he recalled . 

Scene from Taxi Driver – Source: Warner Home Video

As a result of the thriller, the actor gained an even bigger fan base, and there were a few people who became obsessively and morbidly attracted to him and harassed him years later. (They include a man named John Hinckley Jr., who assassinated Ronald Reagan in 1981 and wounded three other people in addition to the president. When he was caught, he justified his actions by saying he wanted to impress Jodie.)

Foster attended the prestigious Yale University, but he was only able to attend classes by being escorted everywhere by bodyguards. He studied African American literature, graduated magna cum laude, and wrote his thesis on Toni Morrison.

Jodie Foster was considered a reclusive star for a long time, but knowing her above experiences and traumas, it becomes completely understandable where this attitude came from (and also why her “emergence” in 2013 was so clumsy, at least uninspiring, but more on that later ). “When you meet people for the first time, they already know you. They know what your elbow looks like, what your face looks like when you cry or scream. It distorts your experience of people. And I feel—perhaps others do too—that I am too self-conscious to dance. If no one knew who I was or remembered me, I think I might be dancing non-stop!” – he shared his experiences with his colleague, actress Greta Lee, and then added: “I wish I wasn’t so self-conscious.” Obviously, you don’t want those moments when you are the most free to be the most private things in your life!”

He went even further on the subject in his 2021 interview with the New York Times . “For a long time, it was not comfortable to express emotions. I was cautious and suspicious. There was a kind of innocence that I couldn’t find in myself because I grew up like that. I had to overcome this and I’m still working on it. I can convey my emotions through movies, but it’s more difficult in my own life. […]

I have always been able to split and separate. I could decide when to feel and when not to. Some call it a damaged soul.

It’s like I have different boxes inside me, I can decide when to release and when to hold back. But it was useful to plan lectures; to be in and out of the moment. It’s also a good skill for directing,” he pointed out. 

The two different sides: the actor and the director

If I just tried to list in short descriptions what Jodie Foster has played in, that alone would require a long read in the WMN XL column. He is the one who has acted in so many genres, from crime drama to horror and sci-fi to romantic comedy or western. His breakthrough was The Accused (1988), for which he also received an Oscar. In the film, she plays a woman who is gang-raped and subsequently fights for her rights against victim-blaming (unfortunately, it’s still a current story). Not long after came Silence of the Lambs, and with it the iconic role of FBI detective Clarice Starling, also worthy of an Oscar (1991). 

Scene from the movie The Lambs Listen – Source: InterCom

I will also quickly and completely arbitrarily highlight Panic Room (2002), which was originally supposed to be made with Nicole Kidman, but the actress was injured on another shoot, so Foster, who had only a week to prepare for the role, stepped in. In the chilling story, a mother and daughter break into their home, and they hide in the panic room. The child was played by the then 12-year-old Kristen Stewart, for whom, according to her own admission, Foster has had maternal feelings ever since. 

The actor also received an Oscar nomination for his performance in the film Nell, the Hermit (1994), whose title character is a woman who grew up completely isolated from human communities, developed her own language, is wild, impulsive and extremely sensitive. Based on what has been said so far, we can already imagine that this was not an easy task for Jodie, who is intellectual, conscious and prone to self-regulation. “It was the most challenging role I have ever come across. I tried to research but the research didn’t work. Everything I normally do to prepare was useless.  And it was a great experience because I realized that I already knew everything I needed to know for the role. […] But I was afraid. I didn’t become an actor because I’m a vulnerable person who wants to feel all the time,” he recalled .

Scene from the movie Nell, the Hermit – Source: Mokép

In fact, there were legends about Foster’s collection before. He was fourteen years old when the director of the musical Bugsy Malone ,

Alan Parker said of him: “He shows such an intelligent interest in making the film that if I were to get hit by a bus, he’d probably be the only person on the set who could take over directing duties.”

Foster himself said of the duality within him: “I have two different sides, and the director side is much more in line with who I am. I have an opinion on everything. I am a person who thinks about the future and keeps an eye on the big picture. I like to plan. Make lists. I’m a bit hyper-focused, compulsive. And all those things are not really good for acting.”

Moreover, in his statement to Elle , he puts it a little more strongly than this: “I shouldn’t have become an actor. [My introversion] is a gap every time. I had to learn to turn this around in myself to keep my head above water,” he says, and it shows how amazing a performer he is that he solves these tasks essentially against his personality traits. Perhaps less people know about him that he also has a production company, and as a director he has written several films and series, including some episodes of  Orange is the New Black, House of Cards or Black Mirror .

The most visible lesbian right to privacy

Jodie Foster’s “coming out speech” in 2013 , which she gave at the Golden Globe ceremony when she received the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award, was quite controversial.

On the one hand, he tried to make a joke of it – he announced “loudly and proudly” that he was single – and on the other hand, he didn’t understand why he should talk about it in public (his acquaintances had been out for a long time), and he hid in such a way that he didn’t come out after all, at least he didn’t say the words ‘lesbian’ or ‘gay’.

One could go on and on about reanalyzing the entire speech, which was not particularly empowering from the perspective of the LGBTQ community, and I also felt that Jodie Foster did not become the lesbian role model – at that point – that we so desperately wanted. 

On the other hand, it is a particularly beautiful part of the speech when he says: “It is impossible that I could ever stand here without mentioning one of the deepest loves of my life, my heroic co-parent, my ex-partner, my true soulmate, my confessor, my skiing partner, my advisor, for 20 years the my best friend Cydney Bernard. Thank you, Cyd. I am so proud of our modern family.” The gesture is especially touching in light of the fact that by that time she and Bernard had not been a couple for 5 years, but they raised their two sons together, who are now adults in their twenties. 

When they were young, Foster hid from them that he was an actor, he recently told me that the oldest child, Charlie, thought for a while that his mother was a construction worker. It just so happened that Foster took him to a set, bought him a toy tool belt, and showed him the set, and the boy came to this conclusion. Understandably, the actor took special care to protect the children’s private life, whose education was also attended by photographer-actor Alexandra Hedison, one of the stars of the cult L Word series, Foster’s wife. 

She was lost as a woman in her fifties

In the life of an actor, especially if she is a woman, coming of age is a dangerous time when it is easy to become jaded. Just as Jodie Foster struggled with the transition from child acting to adult roles, her fifties also brought difficult experiences. “My mom kept telling me that I have to work now as much as I can because by the time I’m 40 it will be over. I’m over 60 now and I’ve never been so busy.

The fifties are awkward, especially for an actress. People don’t know what to do with you, and you don’t know what to do with yourself. You are confused about what your significance is in the world. You’re just trying to compete with your past and who you once were.

Then something perfect happens: at the age of sixty , you suddenly realize that you are no longer interested in the things that interested you in your fifties,” he told W magazine. 

And he continued to the Icelandair portal : “I’m happier with acting than ever. Because I realized that this is no longer my time. It’s other people’s time, and being there to support them and bring them the knowledge and wisdom I’ve gained over the years and apply it together, helping a team, is a lot more fun. It’s more fun being part of a team than being alone.” 

And what is the wisdom that Foster has learned over the past decades? Of course, first of all, a lot of expertise and skill, but also – perhaps this can serve as an eternal warning to yourself (and for that matter, to me) – that “[as an actor] you don’t have to worry so much and try hard. It’s all about relaxation. Part of the achievement is just not getting in your own way,” he said to Time magazine . And he told the Guardian :

“[As a director], I believe in casting well and then just letting something happen on the screen, and if you do your job quickly enough, the actors don’t overthink themselves.”

2020s: the big acting comeback

Would this really be the opening of the thing, are we to believe Foster? Given his work ethic, hardly. In any case, it seems that over 60 he is more liberated than ever. He hasn’t danced yet, but he’s bold enough to make a statement. Sometimes he says that yes, he thinks that Generation Z can be a bit annoying as a colleague , and sometimes that he hopes that people will now have enough of superhero movies. Other times, she’ll say how she doesn’t go on social media, what she cares about, what a guy in pajamas thinks about what she, I mean, Jodie Foster, should do with her life. 

And we also see that he really plays in a team recently. For example, she visited the star of The Last of Us , Bella Ramsey, whom she admires, although she probably doesn’t understand her colleague’s nonbinary yet, at least she spoke about Ramsey in the Guardian : “There is another way to be a woman, and it’s very important that people let them see this.”  But there is also the movie Nyad , in which the long-distance swimmer, played by Annette Bening, plays Bonnie Stoll, the coach of long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad, for which she was again nominated for an Oscar after 30 years! I wrote HERE about how Foster’s charm comes to us from a supporting role, through the strange shorts with side pockets and horrible sunglasses he wears . (Let’s not forget: Foster already received a Golden Globe in 2021 for the film The Mauritanian .)

And more recently, there is the fourth season of True Detective , Night Country , which came out 10 years after the series’ iconic first season, and which replaces the golden desert heat and white machoness with eternal night, deadly cold, blue, women’s replaced it with detectives and the indigenous perspective. After only two episodes, speculations began about what motifs there are and will be between the two seasons (the strange sign, the person of Travis Cohle or the Tuttle family, the details were summarized by 444 ), and the investigation is also becoming more and more exciting after the mysterious disappearance from the arctic research station In the case of 8 scientists.

A fictional small town in Alaska, the world created by the creators is very mystical, spiritual and depressing at the same time, as one of the characters, Rose, puts it: “I think the world is getting older, and Ennis is the place where the fabric of things starts to come apart at the seams. “

It sounds ominous, and what makes the series even more special is the inclusion of Kali Reis, who plays Agent Navarro, who is herself an indigenous person and became known as a professional world champion boxer. Foster considers his colleague an extraordinary actor and believes Navarro’s journey is central to the story. “My job was to support this journey and let the indigenous voice shape the series,” commented sympathetically Jodie Foster, who found herself again in a new position as a filmmaker, in strengthening and supporting others. And not anyway!