Jodie Foster doesn’t think her characters in the new “True Detective” and the cult thriller have anything in common. “I hope Clarice never became so cynical,” says the actress, who we’ve been watching on screen for… 55 years.

Jodie Foster in "True Detective". Comparisons to "Silence of the Lambs" abound “Clarice is ethical, quiet and reserved and always does the right thing, and that’s not Danvers. I hope Clarice never becomes that cynical,” Foster said when asked how much the two detectives have in common.

The fourth season of the popular series is set in the fictional town of Ennis, Alaska, and its main character is Liz Danvers, who investigates the disappearances of eight men from a research station. One wonders if viewers will be as fascinated by her as they were by the young FBI agent Clarice Starling, assigned to work with Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a former psychiatrist and cannibal serial killer. Three decades ago, Foster won an Oscar for Best Actress for this role.

Jodie Foster – The Beginnings

Jodie Foster has been in front of the camera since she was 3. She started with a sunscreen commercial, then came real productions, including Taxi Driver, when she was just 12. “Robert De Niro picked me up from my hotel—I was staying at the Essex House in New York. We were supposed to go to a coffee shop because he wanted to rehearse. But he wasn’t himself, he was Travis Bickle,” she recalled in an interview with The Rolling Stone.

He couldn’t talk to me or connect with me. And then he came back and did it three more times, and then he took me outside. The third time I thought, ‘This is so boring.'”

— she added.

Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster

Although she didn’t fully understand De Niro’s method at the time, she later came to understand that it allowed him to improvise and immerse himself in the acting. Whether he gave Jodie advice on how to handle fame is unclear, but she has this to say to young actors years later:

They need to learn to relax and find their own way to overthink everything. (…) I’d be happy to help them. I often reach out to girls who are just starting out. I feel responsible for them because I know very well that it can be difficult.

An appeal to young actors

Asked recently if she could imagine starting out in the industry and showing up to a gala in a suit like Bella Ramsey, she said no. “Because we weren’t free. We didn’t have the right to be ourselves. And hopefully that’s what the vector of authenticity that’s happening offers — the possibility of true freedom,” she said.

But she feels she did what she could for her generation. “I was very busy figuring out where I fit in and where I wanted to be in terms of feminism. But my lens wasn’t wide enough. I was living in an incredibly segregated world,” she said.

On the other hand, she can be irritated by Generation Z. “They’re really annoying on set. They’re like, ‘No, I’m not feeling it today. I’ll be there at 10:30.’ Or they’re being mean in emails and I have to correct them,” Foster admitted, adding that actors are not the center of the universe.

When you’re a public figure, you live in a bubble. You don’t know that people think you’re a jerk because they’re so indulgent. Those are hard lessons to learn. Hugh Grant once said something really good: being famous at a young age is like being on steroids and you live with these big muscles your whole life and then one day they cut you off.

You don’t recognize yourself and you have no idea who you are. And you have to rebuild your whole identity. It can be hard and that’s something I learned quite late in life,” she told The Guardian.