Jodie Foster has opened up in a new interview with Variety, revisiting her most famous roles, reflecting on how she actually got into acting, and sharing charming insights about working with a young Kristen Stewart. In the wide-ranging conversation, Foster also spoke about her deep connection to The Silence of the Lambs, her early life in the business and fond memories from Panic Room — offering striking revelations about her past and craft.
Foster began the interview by revisiting how she first entered show business, and it may surprise fans who assume she always wanted to act. “I have never have any desire to act. i became an actor at 3 because my brother did it, and he did it because the kid accross the street did it. I came in on in interview because it was hot, my parents didn’t want to leave me in the car and I got an ad. And then, that’s just what I did!” This anecdote underscores how accidental her start was — thrust into the industry almost by circumstance rather than intention.
Over the decades, she turned that unexpected beginning into one of the most acclaimed acting careers in Hollywood history. Her breakthrough came as a child actress, earning an Oscar nomination at just 14 for her role as Iris in Taxi Driver (1976), directed by Martin Scorsese. Foster later revealed that veteran co-star Robert De Niro, whom she initially found “really uninteresting”, ultimately taught her important lessons about character and improvisation on set.
One of her defining performances came in 1988’s The Accused. The gritty courtroom drama, released at a time when few films tackled sexual assault with unflinching honesty, earned Foster her first Academy Award for Best Actress. It told the story of a woman seeking justice after a brutal assault, and Foster’s powerful turn was widely seen as career-defining.
She is perhaps best known, however, for The Silence of the Lambs (1991), in which she played FBI trainee Clarice Starling opposite Anthony Hopkins’ chilling Hannibal Lecter. The film was a cultural phenomenon — one of only a handful to win the “Big Five” Oscars (Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Screenplay) and became part of the broader lexicon. “Lots of ppl just love it because itr’s scary and it’s in our lexicon. It’s part of our culture. But there is such deep, tragic, iconic metholodogy to it. And that’s why I love it. I would love to play Clarisse again!” That depth behind the horror is exactly what Foster says has kept the film resonating with audiences for decades.
Another memorable project she discussed was 2002’s Panic Room, directed by David Fincher. In the thriller, Foster plays a mother who, along with her daughter Sarah (Kristen Stewart), must hide in a fortified room during a home invasion. Stewart was just 11 at the time, and Foster described her instantly warming to her co-star: “As soon as i met her i was like, oh she’s my mini-me, I absolutely love her. I spent so much time with this kid in a tiny little room — for context, here joie foster references the actual movie set in which, for this movie, they were stuck in an actual 8x14 feet large. ‘I have never enjoyed being stuck in a closet with a person so much as with kristen stewart as a kid.’” Their chemistry off camera — hanging out, talking about music and even debating whether U2 were a “boy band” — helped the pair bond in what could have otherwise been an intense, claustrophobic shoot.
Beyond those iconic films, Foster has remained selective about her projects. She’s often spoken about the importance of meaningful work over volume of output and has said she doesn’t understand actors who take roles purely for the sake of acting without regard to quality or story.
In recent years, Foster has also returned to acting after a period focused on directing and prioritising her own terms.
