She is a Hollywood heavyweight who has picked up two Academy awards during her glittering 50 year career.

And Jodie Foster has opened up her early start in showbusiness, supporting her family from the age of seven and her ‘wonderful and fraught’ relationship with her mother in a new interview with PorterEdit.

The Silence of the Lambs actress, 55, who appeared in first film Napoleon and Samantha at the age of seven said the pressure of being a child star impacted on her relationship with her mother Evelyn.

Candid: Jodie Foster has opened up her early start in showbusiness, supporting her family from the age of seven and her ‘wonderful and fraught’ relationship with her mother in a new interview with PorterEdit

She said: ‘I was bred to be [my mother’s] partner. My whole life was with my mom, traveling on the road together, going to see French movies and German movies, and talking about why they worked and why they didn’t.

‘She made me do the things she couldn’t do well. It was an interesting relationship that was fraught – wonderful but painful, too.

‘When I was young, I didn’t choose my own roles. My mom chose my roles. I mean she would talk to me a little bit about it, but sometimes I didn’t read the script – I would just read my part.’

The Accused actress said becoming the family breadwinner at such a young age combined with her desire to succeed stemmed from a fear of being abandoned by her parents.

Acclaimed: The Silence of the Lambs actress, 55, who appeared in first film Napoleon and Samantha at the age of seven said the pressure of being a child star impacted on her relationship with her mother Evelyn

Early start: The Accused actress said becoming the family breadwinner at such a young age combined with her desire to succeed stemmed from a fear of being abandoned by her parents (pictured above, aged 13 in 1976’s Taxi Driver)

She broke through into the mainstream with her role as a teenage prostitute in 1976’s Taxi Driver, aged 13.

She said: ‘You operate on this primordial thing: ‘If [Mom] goes crazy, or is in a heap on the floor, or if she doesn’t have any money, she is going to leave me.

‘That’s always having to get straight A’s, to be the best at everything, checking every single box, so my mom won’t leave me. I still feel that now, which is weird, because my mom has dementia, she is very down the path…’

The mother of two said that becoming a seasoned child performer at such a young age, along with the responsibilities it entails, helped protect her from harassment and abuse within showbusiness.

She said: ‘The weird cauldron that made me – working from the time I was three, supporting my family by the time that I was seven, super-strong mom, over-confident personality, celebrity young enough that I learned to be stand-offish…

Chilling: Jodie is widely regarded as one of the greatest actresses as her generation, picking up the Best Actress Oscar in 1991 for her performance as FBI rookie Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs

‘I think there’s a whole bunch of reasons why I didn’t have the same path as someone who came to Hollywood at 22, with two cents in her pocket, and just wanted more than anything else to be an actor; it’s just a different life.’

Jodie is widely regarded as one of the greatest actresses as her generation, picking up the Best Actress Oscar in 1988 for her performance as rape victim Sarah Tobias in The Accused, and again in 1991 for her turn as FBI rookie Clarice Starling in The Silence of The Lambs.

Speaking about the momentum of the international #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and abuse, the Panic Room star said she was moved by the power and reach of the movement, though her focus is now on what comes next.

She said: ‘This is a transitional period, and it’s just so painful. You really have to have a plan for truth and reconciliation. We can’t put every man over 30 in jail.

Powerful: She won her first Best Actress Oscar in 1988 for her performance as rape victim Sarah Tobias in The Accused

‘We have to love our brothers and fathers and come to an understanding about how we got here and who we are going to be together.’

She added that women are questioning past behaviours in the wake of the global movement, saying: ‘Not only is our culture evolving, but we are, too. I don’t think there is a woman I know, who doesn’t look back on when they were 15, 16, 17 or 18, who doesn’t put their hand on their head and say: ‘Why did I do that? Why was I like that?

‘Why wasn’t I confident? Why didn’t I say no?’

The star shares two sons Charles, 19, and Kit, 16, who she shares with former partner Cydney Bernard. The former couple were together from 1993-2008.

Complex relationship: Jodie revealed that her mother picked all her roles in her early days of showbusiness (pictured in 2007)

Jodie is now married to photographer and actress Alexandra Hedison. The star revealed her sexuality during a powerful speech at the 2013 Golden Globes and told the magazine ‘every day is gay-pride day for me.’

The star spoke about raising her children among shifting gender politics and keeping her celebrity status from them when they were younger.

She said: ‘At least my kids’ schools are supporting the right programs. These kids are really grilled about consent from the second they do middle school.

She added of her children: ‘I didn’t want them to know about my celebrity at all. I remember when my son was about four, he thought I was a construction worker.’

Out now: The full interview with Jodie can be found in this week’s edition of Porter Edit

Jodie also spoke about how she helps fellow Hollywood stars with her own experiences of growing up in the industry.

‘I don’t feel that I am a spokesperson for anything. It’s just not my personality. I do serve – I just serve in a different way. I do reach out sometimes to women in the industry’, she said.

‘And men, too, who I can see would benefit from the experience I have had about surviving intact. If there’s anything that I have to be a role model about, it is prioritizing my own self-worth and psychological health above all.

‘And if not, I don’t know where I would be today. I mean, there is a carpet of ex-child actors who did not make it.’

Jodie returns to film screens in upcoming flick Hotel Artemis.

The movie, based in a riot-torn Los Angeles, follows Jodie as a nurse, who runs a members only hospital for criminals that is disguised as a hotel.

The crime thriller co-stars Sofia Boutella, Jeff Goldblum and Sterling K. Brown, and is slated to hit cinemas on June 8.

She revealed she had to persuade film bosses she was right for the role, saying: ‘[The filmmakers were] not very sure, especially after the makeup test. I had to flex my muscles.

‘I have gone through this a million times with people making their first movie. They make a choice, then get scared of that choice. You have to go with the instinct you initially had for the character.

‘And I wouldn’t be doing it if I just wanted to play me again.’

Talented: Jodie played Tallulah in 1976 gangster drama Bugsy Malone