March 12, 2021
It’s hard enough to stay relevant in the film industry for ten years, especially with fickle audience tastes, politics in the industry, and the amount of luck it takes to make a successful movie. Staying relevant and successful for over fifty years, including a few self-imposed breaks from acting, is truly impressive. Thirty years ago, Jodie Foster starred in one of the best thrillers ever made and has a new movie out this month, for which she just won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress. This week, we’re going to look back on her career, the choices she made – including ones that worked and ones that didn’t – and highlight the best of the best. I’ll also share my thoughts on her new film, The Mauritanian.
Early Stardom
After starting her career in television, Foster landed a few film roles in the early 1970s, including an early picture by Martin Scorsese, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. Her popularity and recognition increased in 1976 when she had five(!) films released. She was a hit with kids in the comedies Bugsy Malone, a teenage riff on gangster movies co-starring Scott Baio, and Freaky Friday, the original body swap movie that has been remade many times since. But the true sign of her talent came in two other releases that year. The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane showcased Foster as a teenager living alone after her parents mysteriously disappeared. The film was pretty strange, even for the mid-1970s, and features the creepiest of performances by Martin Sheen as a stalker of the teenaged Foster. But it showed that she could play adult themed roles and be very successful, a move that she replicated with her performance as Iris, the teenage prostitute, in Taxi Driver. Her rave reviews would garner an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, starting her long relationship with the Academy as someone who is very respected for her performances and range.
Although Taxi Driver is considered one of the all-time great films, I only saw it recently, unlike other classics from the 1970s that I saw years ago. I thought Taxi Driver was good, but didn’t really love it as much as I thought I would. Maybe it’s because it has been built up over the years and my expectations were too high. The film was very successful, both critically and financially, and would lead to bigger opportunities for Foster (not to mention De Niro and Scorsese), but unfortunately, it also led to the most troubling event in the early days of her career.
March 30, 1981
Despite her success as a child actor, and a few modest hits in the late 1970s (including Candleshoe and Foxes), her career started to stumble a bit in the early 1980s. It was during this time that she slowed down her career to focus on her academics, attending Yale University. It was during her freshman year that she first became aware of a man named John Hinckley, Jr., who stalked her while she was in college. On March 30, 1981, Hinckley attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan, claiming that part of his motivation was to impress Foster. He became obsessed with her after seeing Taxi Driver.
Undoubtedly, this was a traumatic event for Foster, and you have to wonder if it made her rethink being in the public eye. At this point, she had already been acting for over a decade, was on her way to a college degree, and I’m sure she could have walked away from acting and been successful in another career. After all, it’s pretty rare for a child actor to be successful for many decades. A lot of them flame out early, even if they win an Oscar (Tatum O’Neal), or go through hell and back, only to emerge stronger on the other side (Drew Barrymore). Foster did continue acting and over the next forty years showed that she was willing to take bold risks in acting roles, try her hand at directing and producing, and eventually become a go-to actress for many years.
Bold Choices That Worked
A number of actors seem to follow the same pattern in the roles they choose, playing characters very similar to each other, film after film. As much as I love Denzel Washington and Tom Cruise, it seems like a large number of their roles in the last twenty years are hard to distinguish from one film to the next. Foster has taken on a number of projects over the years that have a wide range, including drama, romantic comedy, science fiction, action, suspense, and futuristic thrillers. I have to give her credit for trying something new many times. Now, I certainly haven’t seen everything she has done. I’m sorry, I just couldn’t bring myself to watch Nell – remember that one, where she played a woman found in the woods who invented her own language? But, here are a few that I have seen and think actually worked.
Panic Room (2002) – Last year, I wrote about my love of David Fincher, and my admiration for this movie. After mostly playing relatively low-key performances with softer tendencies, Panic Room kicked off Foster’s “action-hero” phase very effectively. She plays the mother of a teenage daughter trapped in a new house when thieves show up to steal bearer bonds hidden in the home’s panic room. Panic Room is an entertaining movie and showed a new side of Foster, further demonstrating her range beyond her previous roles.
Flightplan (2005) – This one isn’t perfect, but it’s a fun action movie set on an airplane. After her husband suddenly dies, Foster and her young daughter fly from Germany to New York with his body for the funeral services. Midway through the flight, Foster awakens from a nap to find that her daughter has disappeared. With the help of the flight crew and an air marshal, a frantic search begins, but soon they learn that her daughter was not listed on the manifest. Was she really on the flight? You may be thinking that it’s ridiculous that someone could get lost on an airplane, but the one in this movie is freaking ENORMOUS, so yeah, anything is possible. The plot has a few preposterous moments, but if you’re looking for a mindless action movie with a few good plot twists, you could do a lot worse. This would also set Foster up for the badass role we have next.
The Brave One (2007) – After Foster completed Flightplan, she made a brief stop in one of my favorite Spike Lee films, Inside Man. She doesn’t have a big role in that one, but she is very effective in it, and she said that her interest was primarily because of the opportunity to work with Spike. While Inside Man is a fun movie, The Brave One is a real departure for Foster, playing a woman grieving the loss of her fiancé in a brutal attack while out walking one night. Suffering from some serious PTSD, she decides to take matters into her own hands when the police basically give up on finding the assailants. Armed with an illegal handgun and her own wits, she becomes a vigilante, taking care of the scum of the city. This was not a film you would expect from Foster, and while parts of it are far-fetched, she is very good in it, and it looks like she is having fun playing in an action movie and shooting the bad guys.
Director Credits – Foster doesn’t have an extensive directing career, but she has dipped her toe in the water a few times. Her feature directorial debut came in 1991 with Little Man Tate, in which she plays the single mother of a gifted young boy, who is wise beyond his years. When an educator (Dianne Wiest) of gifted children takes an interest in him, the mom struggles with the conflict of how much her son needs to continue developing his skills vs. just being a kid. It’s a nice family story with good performances from all the lead actors. Foster has also directed a few other films, to modest success, and also stepped behind the camera for early episodes of the excellent series Orange is the New Black, and one of the better Black Mirror episodes, Arkangel. Even when she is not acting, she can still bring her talents to the screen.
And Those That Didn’t
They can’t all be good, right? We’ll be quick with these ones.
Maverick (1994) – Apparently, this was a pretty successful film when it was released, but I found it very silly, and not in a good way. Mel Gibson, James Garner and Foster play rival poker players, trying to outwit each other on their way to a big poker showdown. Maybe it worked in the mid-1990s, but it hasn’t aged well.
Elysium (2013) – Remember that crazy movie set in the future where Matt Damon is morphed into a part man / part robot and saves the world? Yeah, this is that one. Foster plays the evil Defense Secretary of a space community where the wealthy and elite live after the demise of Earth’s environment. This one was pretty bad.
Hotel Artemis (2018) – Despite a very strange premise, Foster is pretty good in another futuristic movie, playing the nurse at an exclusive hotel where criminals can receive medical treatment and hide out from the authorities. Hotel Artemis is pretty average, but Foster plays an eccentric character with a mysterious past, and it showcases her ability to break outside the comfort zone of other characters she has typically played. Let’s move on to my three favorites.
An Underrated Sci-Fi Movie – Contact (1997)
This film could easily have landed a spot in a comfort movie post. I’m not quite sure why I like it so much – it’s probably because the story is a clever combination of science fiction and mystery, with the ultimate example of irony playing out in the final act. Based on the novel by Carl Sagan, Contact is the story of astronomer Ellie Arroway (played by Foster) who has devoted her entire life to the search for extraterrestrial beings. She developed her love for the stars from her father, who died when she was a young girl. While listening to the cosmos one day, Arroway hears a mysterious sound from many light years away, and her discovery sets off a race to determine who sent the signal and what it means. The movie was directed by Robert Zemeckis, still coming off the height of his popularity from winning the Oscar for Forrest Gump three years earlier. Zemeckis included some impressive special effects (by 1997 standards) and clever integration of real-life footage of President Bill Clinton discussing a different space discovery. Unfortunately, the White House wasn’t too happy about that decision.
Foster excels in this role, portraying someone who is convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that there is extraterrestrial life out there, yet admits that she is an atheist who doesn’t believe in God. This creates a conflict in her relationship with a theologian (played by Matthew McConaughey in a very good performance) who is part of the President’s team of experts preparing a response to the signal. When she is confronted about her beliefs, she tells him that as a scientist, she doesn’t believe in things she can’t prove. McConaughey’s character calls her bluff, asking her, “Did you love your father?” Taken aback by the question, Arroway responds, “Of course.” His response – “Prove it.” I won’t spoil the movie if you haven’t seen it, but the irony comes into play when Arroway has an experience that calls into question the ideas of faith, reality, and how we can prove what we believe to be true, when no one else can see it.
Oscar Masterpieces Times Two – The Accused (1988) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
In the mid-1980s, Foster was stumbling through a number of average roles in movies that never amounted to much at the box office, or with critics. It seemed like she might never be able to make that transition to become a successful adult actor. Fortunately, that changed with a career-changing performance in 1998 with The Accused. Largely based on the true-story of a woman who was raped in 1983, Foster played the role of Sarah Tobias with an amazing range of someone who experiences the worst kind of terror. The film explored not only the attack, but the role of onlookers who did nothing to stop it, and the all-too-often case of victim blaming. Starring alongside Foster was Kelly McGillis as the district attorney prosecuting the case and looking out for the victim’s interests in finding justice. The Accused showcased the best of what a skilled actor can bring to a difficult role, bringing a vulnerability and courage to the character. Foster was rewarded with an Oscar for Best Actress, but it wouldn’t be her last.
In the history of the Academy Awards, which spans almost 100 years, only three films have ever won the “Big 5” awards – Picture, Director, Screenplay, Lead Actor and Lead Actress. The first two were It Happened One Night in 1934 and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest in 1975. No one would have predicted that a suspenseful thriller from a fledgling studio would become the third, but that is exactly what happened in 1991 when The Silence of the Lambs won the Big 5 at the Academy Awards.
Directed by Jonathan Demme and premiering on Valentine’s Day thirty years ago, the film was based on the book by Thomas Harris about an FBI trainee searching for a serial killer on the loose, with the help of an imprisoned killer who had a nasty habit of eating the flesh of his victims. Foster played the role of the trainee, Clarice Starling, opposite Anthony Hopkins in a chilling performance as Hannibal Lecter. I recently rewatched this movie and let me tell you, it still holds up. To me, this is up there with The Exorcist as one of the best horror/thriller films ever made. Demme’s direction is very tight, including a few scenes focused on the main characters looking directly into the camera while they talk to each other, which adds to the tension of the scenes. The movie is a nice crisp two hours and features a wonderful score that complements the images of the film very well. Hopkins is outstanding of course, but so is Foster, going toe to toe with him in every scene they are in together. She plays the role of Starling as someone who is determined to face whatever terror comes her way to advance in her career, but still shows the vulnerability from childhood trauma that she experienced. Her memories of moments with her father, including when he died while she was young, reminded me of her character in Contact, reflecting both characters’ relentless career-driven mindsets. Foster once again won the Oscar, giving her the clout in Hollywood to pursue the passion projects that interested her. It’s hard to believe that this film is now thirty years old, but it’s still creepy as hell all these years later.
Return to Glory – The Mauritanian (2021)
I first had the idea for this post when I realized that it was the thirtieth anniversary of The Silence of the Lambs, and I thought it would be interesting to explore the unique career choices that Jodie Foster has made over the years. It was a bonus when I saw that she had a new film coming out, her first since Hotel Artemis in 2018. In The Mauritanian, Foster plays an attorney with the ACLU who takes on the pro bono case of a suspected terrorist from Mauritania (a country in Africa) imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay shortly after 9/11. The true star of the film is Tahar Rahim, who plays the real-life character who chronicled his time in prison and his experiences being tortured, without ever being formally charged with a crime. I thought the movie was very good, even if it has the usual beats of a film in this genre. Foster was excellent and it’s nice to see her get a role like this – the elder stateswoman of a team of lawyers, who uses her experience and guile to advocate for her client. There are a few brutal scenes of the prisoner’s torture that went on a little longer than I would have liked, but if the filmmakers were looking to prove a point, they certainly accomplished it.
Foster’s performance resulted in a surprise win for Best Supporting Actress at the Golden Globes a few weeks ago. Now, the Globes are notoriously wonky when it comes to award recognition. It probably stems from the fact that the awarding body (The Hollywood Foreign Press Association) is made up of only about 80 mostly white, mostly old people. You may have read some recent criticism of the HFPA’s lack of diversity. The reason I bring this up is that it’s not a slam dunk that Foster will receive an Oscar nomination when the Academy announces them on Monday. But even if she doesn’t, it’s nice to see her still get roles like this offered to her, and to get some recognition for her performances. When she won, she was sitting on the couch with her wife and dog (it was a Zoom video award ceremony, after all) and expressed a genuine feeling of emotion and surprise at winning. She noted that it was nice to be invited back to the party. After over fifty years in the business, it was definitely well earned.
That’s all for this week. I hope you enjoyed my look at one of our best working actors. I’ll be back next week for a look at a genre that for some puzzling reason continues to produce some wonderful films, but also ones that don’t work at all. That genre is the musician biopic and we’ll take a look at some of the very best (and a few of the worst). Until then, thanks for reading and if you’d like to be notified of future posts, you can subscribe here.