Jodie Foster
Some people are famous for 15 minutes, others are famous to 15 people but it's only a chosen few who get to be legends of the Silver Screen. Each month, Jo Mama selects a star and celebrates their life and work. This month: Jodie Foster West. Illustration by Leonie Woods.
When Jodie Foster recently starred as Nancy Hollander in the political legal drama, The Mauritanian, Tatler magazine described Foster’s performance as being “impeccable”. The dictionary definition of “impeccable” is, “in accordance with the highest standards; faultless” I genuinely can't think of an example of a performance by Foster that wasn’t impeccable, she always gives 100% and never lets her fans down, she really is faultless.
Jodie Foster was born in Los Angeles in 1962 — her real first name is Alicia. Her brother Buddy was a child actor. From a young age, Jodie wore her brother Buddy’s clothes and that the only doll Jodie had been interested in was of a G.I. Joe. According to legend, because her mother couldn’t get a baby sitter she took Jodie along to one of Buddy’s acting auditions. The 3-year-old Jodie impressed everyone and got to appear in an ad for Sun Tan lotion. The offers kept coming and soon she was the family bread winner. Her breakthrough movie was Taxi Driver (directed by Martin Scorsese in ‘76) in which Jodie played a child prostitute called Iris. Melanie Griffith was originally offered the role, but her mother Tippi Hedren made her turn it down. Taxi Driver is a controversial film, but speaking to Kate Erbland in an interview for Indie Wire in 2018 Foster said:
“I would do that movie over a thousand times ... I think it’s just an extraordinary film. I think it was really seminal for our time, for that particular time in history. What was America after Vietnam? I felt like Travis Bickle really articulated that. Yeah, I’m super proud of it. I don’t think I would change a thing.”
In the same year she played Iris in Taxi Driver she was sensational as Tallulah, in Alan Parker’s much loved musical comedy, Bugsy Malone. The film, set in 1929, is about rival gangsters and mobsters. Tallulah is the chanteuse at Fat Sam’s speakeasy. Foster delivers memorable lines such as, “How about smearing my lipstick?” with perfect comic timing.
In 1978 Louise Farr of Crawdaddy magazine met the 14-year-old Jodie Foster on the film set of a Disney movie called, Freaky Friday. Farr asked Foster if she saw herself as being like Lolita and if she liked being a nymphet.
Jodie responded: “You’re kidding. I’m not attractive to anyone. I have a big nose and zits. Huh ... nymphet ... I never even heard the word before .... I’ve always loved things that were sick or weird. When Farr writes about the 13-year-old Jodie making $100,000 a film and “traveling the world with her Louis Vuitton luggage” there’s a sense the journalist is a little jealous. Farr later admits that when she hears the young Jodie talk about her ambitions to direct movies, Ms Foster sounds a lot wiser than most people three times her age.
Jodie's next film, Robert Kaylor's Carny was an odd one. Her character Donna (also known as "jailbait") is a small-town girl who sees The Carnival as a means of escape and eventually decides to earn a living as a stripper in the carnival's "Garden of Earthly Delights." Critics praised Foster for bringing vitality to the role but said although the film made you want to see a carnival, it's plot was a bit all over the place.
When Foster took time out to study Afro-American literature at Yale University, she wasn't sure if her movie career would simply fade away. In 1984 she appeared in, The Hotel New Hampshire. The film was about the strange behaviour of the Berry family. Foster plays Franny Berry who is raped by the football jock worshipped by her homosexual brother Frank (played by Paul McCrane). Franny then has a wild night of love with her other brother John Berry (played by Rob Lowe). Later on Franny finds success as a movie actress and marries Junior, now a well-known civil rights lawyer. Although critics liked the film, financially speaking it was a flop.
Foster continued to make films but her Box Office record was nothing to write home about. In 1988 however, Foster showed incredible range in The Accused, a story of a woman who is raped in a bar by three men and is then betrayed by her lawyer, and received an Oscar for Best Actress.
When Jonathan Demme began work on Silence of the Lambs he apparently wanted the part of Clarice Starling to go to Michelle Pfeiffer. His second choice was Meg Ryan and his third was Laura Dern. Foster had to fight to land the part of a FBI trainee who desperately needs to get information from a famous serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter. The success of the film was enormous and it meant that in 1991 Foster's teenage dream happened and she got to be a director. Her film, Little Man Tate was well received and it give the troubled Orion Pictures a much-needed hit.
Nell is a warm and touching movie that was directed by Michael Apted in 1994. Foster plays Nell, a wild child, who has lived her entire life with her mother in an isolated mountain cabin in North Carolina. When her mother dies, she is found by doctors who are fascinated by her and the language she has developed. Most critics agreed it was the intensity of Foster's acting that made the film special.
In the same year, Foster played Annabelle Bransford in Maverick (this comedy western written by the brilliant William Goldman) was a massive monster hit which made over 180 million dollars. Polanski's Carnage (made in 2011) made much less money but Foster's portrayal of Penelope Longstreet got her nominated for Golden Globe Award for best actress in a comedy film. In recent years Foster has tended to make thrillers.
Panic Room (2002) was a massive hit and made $198m at the box office, Flightpan (2005) made an astonishing $224m and a year later, Inside Man would make $185m. For 5 decades Foster has been delivering the goods. She is still 2 years away from being 60 and there’s more to come. She still has the dream and the drive to produce, star and direct more movies. Jodie Foster is a legend and her fans know — whatever she will do in the future, she will do superbly.
Below is a link to her discussing the roles she is most proud of.
