Jodie Foster opened up at the Marrakech Film Festival, expressing that her acclaimed success in the film industry was not a path she intentionally chose, but rather one that was “cruelly” shaped for her from a young age. Her candid reflections on the Jodie Foster acting career highlighted challenges she faced, the support she needed, and her protective empathy for young performers today.
Forced Into the Spotlight as a Child
Foster reflected on her early introduction to acting, describing how her journey began with commercial roles at just three years old, followed quickly by her feature film debut at the age of six. Instead of seeing acting as a calling, Foster considers it a profession she was thrust into. During a panel conversation at the festival, she stated,
“I would never have chosen to be an actor, I don’t have the personality of an actor. I’m not somebody that wants to dance on a table and, you know, sing songs for people,”
—Jodie Foster, Actress.
She further confessed,
“It’s actually just a cruel job that was chosen for me as a young person that I don’t remember starting,”
—Jodie Foster, Actress. This lack of agency, she said, shaped the way she approaches her work even today. Foster added,
“So right there, it makes my work a little bit different because I am not interested in acting just for the sake of acting. If I was on a desert island, I think probably the last thing I would ever do is act. So I was just trying to survive.”
—Jodie Foster, Actress.
Empathy for Today’s Young Child Actors
Given her own experience, Foster admitted to being especially sensitive to the challenges faced by young performers now. She said,
“reaching out to the young child actors of this era,”
—Jodie Foster, Actress. Her concern for their well-being and life outside the industry was clear as she questioned,
“I feel like, wait, where are their parents?”
—Jodie Foster, Actress. She went on,
“And why is nobody telling them that they should stop doing so many movies or maybe not be so drunk on the red carpet? I want to take care of them because I know how dangerous it is.”
—Jodie Foster, Actress.
Foster argued that achieving excellence in acting comes at a steep personal cost. As she expressed,
“I don’t know why anyone would want to be an actor now, if they knew that in order to be excellent they would have to contend with being robbed of their life in a way. I don’t know how you make sense of that except to have what my mom helped me do, which is to have this very firm delineation between your private life and your public life.”
—Jodie Foster, Actress.
Pursuing Strong and Meaningful Roles
Despite her reservations, Foster acknowledged being continually drawn to powerful, central female characters throughout her Jodie Foster acting career. She admitted her desire not to play supporting roles or be defined as someone else’s counterpart.
“I didn’t want to be the sister of, the wife of, the daughter of, the girlfriend of. I just wanted the movie to be about me,”
—Jodie Foster, Actress. She revealed that this was partly in response to the second wave of feminism, adding,
“reacting to a second wave feminist interest of saying, ‘I want to matter. I want to make movies that matter,’”
—Jodie Foster, Actress.
An International Perspective on Acting
Foster, who attended a French school growing up, enjoys making films in French as well as English and has recently presented her latest project, “A Private Life,” by French director Rebecca Zlotowski, at the Marrakech Film Festival. She discussed what draws her to multilingual projects, sharing,
“Of course, because I do feel like it’s a part of my personality that I just never get to use, and half my culture, because I went to a French school,”
—Jodie Foster, Actress. She elaborated on the sense of camaraderie she finds in global filmmaking communities:
“I love the global family of making films. It feels like they’re the same people wearing the same jeans and complaining about coffee at 3 in the morning. But it also allows me to open up and learn a new culture, too.”
—Jodie Foster, Actress.
No Plans to Leave the Screen
Despite her conflicted relationship with her profession, Foster assured her audience that retirement is not on the horizon. She declared,
“I’ll be making films until I die,”
—Jodie Foster, Actress, and then light-heartedly added,
“You can’t get rid of me that fast.”
—Jodie Foster, Actress.
Jodie Foster’s honest comments at the Marrakech Film Festival shed light on the lesser-known emotional and psychological burdens of a lifelong acting career. Her reflections resonated with ongoing discussions about the well-being of child actors, the importance of personal boundaries, and the evolving role of women in film. As Foster continues making thought-provoking films, both in Hollywood and internationally, her perspective is likely to influence further conversations about the pressures and impacts of living a very public life from such a young age.
