JODIE FOSTER
THE TWO-TIME OSCAR WINNER LOOKS BACK ON WHAT SHE’S LEARNED ABOUT FILMMAKING, FEMINISM AND FAMILY
The star shares lessons she’s learned about fame and feminism, and how she’s passing them down to her sons.
With all the horror stories coming out of Hollywood lately, it’s nice to hear a star say something positive about the film industry for a change. “It’s very hard for me to not also see the good in the movie business,” Jodie Foster said at a New York Times’ TimesTalks Q&A in NYC recently. “It raised me to be an ethical person.”
That might seem surprising, given that Jodie’s breakthrough role was as a child prostitute in 1976’s Taxi Driver. “Everybody was concerned that maybe my morals would be corrupted, but they really couldn’t have been more interested in my welfare,” Jodie says of co-starring with Robert De Niro in director Martin Scorsese’s dark drama. “I was raised by these wonderful brothers and fathers who taught me manners and… were looking out for me.” Growing up in LA as the daughter of a film-publicist mom, Jodie didn’t have a dad at home; her parents split before she was born, and she never had a relationship with her father. But her mother instilled important truths in her, and even as young Jodie acted on TV and in films like Freaky Friday and Bugsy Malone, she avoided the pitfalls of child stardom. When she won her first Oscar, for playing a rape victim in 1988’s The Accused, she thanked “most importantly, my mother, Brandy,” for teaching her that “cruelty might be very human, and it might be very cultural, but it’s not acceptable.”
Like any mother and daughter, Jodie and Brandy had their clashes. When her mom inexplicably freaked out about the actress dyeing her hair to play the feral title character in 1994’s Nell, Jodie didn’t speak to her for three months, explaining, “You put fear in me, and if I have fear, I can’t do my job.” They soon reconciled, and Jodie gained this wisdom: “As women fight for
THE BRAVE ONE
independence from their mothers, it can be a terrible, violent struggle, but it’s absolutely necessary to survive and evolve.”
Now Jodie, 55, tries to pass along her feminist values to sons Charlie, 19, and Kit, 16, who accompanied her to the Women’s March in LA last January. “It felt like the happiest day of the year,” Jodie says.
While she admits, “I’ve never met a woman who hasn’t had sexual harassment,” Jodie remains hopeful for future generations. “I believe there’s a next step, which I’m really looking forward to,” she says. “It would be great if we could really have repair and healing.” She’s also optimistic about her professional future; she plays an elderly nurse in the upcoming film Hotel Artemis. “I’m very excited about the work I’m going to do in my 60s and 70s,” she says. We are, too.
— Bruce Fretts