Fresh Air: Jodie Foster

Host: Terry Gross
Guest: Jodie Foster
Date: January 13, 2026
Episode Theme:
An intimate, career-spanning conversation with Jodie Foster, touching on her childhood as an actor, her iconic roles ("Taxi Driver," "The Silence of the Lambs"), the psychological cost and resilience of early fame, her latest French-language film "A Private Life," Hollywood then and now, feminism, MeToo, and personal privacy.

Episode Overview

Terry Gross welcomes Jodie Foster for an in-depth retrospective of Foster's extraordinary five-decade career. The conversation explores Foster’s origins as a child actor, her family dynamics, famous childhood roles, and how early critical acclaim shaped her sense of self and career. Foster unpacks her survival and resilience in Hollywood, dives into the making and legacy of "Taxi Driver" on its 50th anniversary, addresses gender and power in the industry, discusses the MeToo movement, and reflects on her fierce commitment to privacy amidst public scrutiny. The episode is candid, warm, humorous, and deeply insightful—a revealing portrait of one of cinema’s most enduring talents.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Jodie Foster’s Early Life and Entry into Acting

[00:00–05:00]

• French Language Upbringing:
  • Foster’s mother fell in love with France after a late-in-life trip, enrolling 9-year-old Jodie in an immersive French school (Lycée Français in Los Angeles).
    • "I cried for about six months and then I spoke fluently and got over it." (Jodie Foster, 01:52)
• Quirky Child Actor Stories:
  • Reminisces about her iconic Coppertone and Crest commercials, discussing the odd scripts and acting style of the era.
    • "I remember thinking, oh, well, this is not a job I'm gonna do when I'm a grownup. Because this seems like a very silly job." (Jodie Foster, 08:01)
• Acting as Family and Community:
  • Acting appealed to her more for the camaraderie on set than the performance itself.
  • Her mother was supportive but complex, saying, "You can quit anytime," but Foster felt quitting wasn't a real option.

Notable Moment:

• When reflecting on being a child breadwinner, she shares the nuanced pressure and her mother’s attempts to redistribute the load among siblings:
  • "She kind of sold it differently... ‘we all participate, we’re all doing a job.’" (Jodie Foster, 10:31)

2. Resilience, Trauma, and Navigating Hollywood as a Child

[11:14–16:49]

• Survival and Psychological Impact:
  • Foster describes the two routes for child actors: resilience or breakdown, and credits her survival to her innate constitution and supportive familial structure.
  • Lion Attack Story:
    • At age 9, she was picked up and shaken by a lion on a Disney set.
    • "He picked me up by the hip and shook me like this... And I watched the entire film crew run in the opposite direction." (Jodie Foster, 13:45)
    • Demonstrates her lifelong resilience and detachment from trauma.
• Long-term Effects:
  • Acknowledges that resilience as a survival skill also has psychological consequences with age.

3. Mother's Role, Feminism, and Complicated Messages

[16:49–19:34]

• Mother's Influence:
  • Foster’s mother helped her choose roles that had meaning, sometimes vicariously living through Foster’s achievements.
  • Her mother encouraged feminist ideals but also communicated contradictory advice prevalent in that era:
    • "You can do anything, but you won’t be able to take care of yourself. So who are you going to marry that’s going to take care of you?" (Jodie Foster, 18:15)
  • Foster rebelled against the fear-based guidance to forge her own path.

4. On "A Private Life," Psychoanalysis, and Hypnosis

[01:36–04:54]

• About the Film:
  • Foster stars as Lilian Steiner, an American Freudian psychoanalyst in Paris who is skeptical of hypnosis but driven to unravel a patient’s mysterious death.
  • Discusses differences between Freudian psychoanalysis and hypnosis—both professionally and as story themes.
• Personal Experience with Hypnosis:
  • Foster quit smoking after a "not very impressive" hypnosis session, paralleling plot elements of the film.
    • "I left thinking, well, this is dumb... And then I just never smoked again." (Jodie Foster, 02:30)

5. "Taxi Driver" at 50: Art, Controversy & Coming of Age

[20:15–32:23]

• Casting and Mother’s Judgment:
  • Foster’s mother saw the opportunity in "Taxi Driver" as both controversial and brilliant—a chance to contribute to art and female representation.
  • Foster recounts how seeing auteur cinema with her mother cultivated her ambition and skill as an actor even before "Taxi Driver."
• Filming Memories:
  • Robert De Niro’s method acting and improvisational rehearsals were transformative.
    • "He really took the time to show me what acting was—that it wasn't just saying lines that somebody else wrote." (Jodie Foster, 23:22)
    • "It was just this huge eureka moment. I'll never forget it." (Jodie Foster, 27:11)
• On Playing a Child Sex Worker:
  • Her mother’s protection and emphasis on art, plus the contrast in her own innocence and role, helped define the approach.
  • Notably, Scorsese cast her for that very ambiguity:
    • "He liked the ambiguity... seeing somebody who's a child, in some ways sexualized as a woman but isn't a victim." (Jodie Foster, 30:02)
• Handling Hard Scenes:
  • Foster describes coaching De Niro through the delicate scenes involving physical intimacy, noting the lack of "intimacy coordinators" in that era, a contrast to her work on “True Detective.”
    • "Where have you intimacy coordinators been my whole life?" (Jodie Foster, 31:48)
• Psychological Evaluation:
  • Due to the nature of her role, she underwent a psychological evaluation to prove she distinguished acting from reality.

6. Gender, Power, and the MeToo Era

[32:23–38:31]

• Reflections on MeToo:
  • Foster never directly experienced the worst abuses and credits a combination of early power/acclaim, her "head-first" rather than emotionally-vulnerable personality, and strong parental protection.
    • "By the time I had my first Oscar nomination, I was part of a different category of people that had power and I was too dangerous to touch." (Jodie Foster, 32:35)
• Roles and Personality Reinforcing Each Other:
  • Foster notes playing powerful, outspoken young women may have reinforced her personal boundaries and strength.
    • "I was empowered by the people I played in some ways. And I also was born a powerful person." (Jodie Foster, 35:04)
• Memorable Assertive Moment:
  • She recounts confronting a powerful, misbehaving male actor on set, verbally standing her ground; details her refusal to emotionally react under duress, relying on logic and calm to defuse situations.
    • "I don't know where it came from, but I went on this super, you know, articulate rant... At the end... he said, okay, I'll meet you downstairs." (Jodie Foster, 36:10)
    • "I say things like, wow, I'm sorry you feel that way. I respond with my head when somebody comes at me..." (Jodie Foster, 38:05)

7. Privacy in the Spotlight: Coming Out and Personal Boundaries

[39:08–42:54]

• Golden Globes Lifetime Achievement Speech [39:10]:
  • Foster’s speech eschewed a traditional public coming-out, valuing privacy over spectacle.
    • "If you had to fight for a life that felt real and honest and normal against all odds, then maybe, maybe then you too might value privacy above all else." (Jodie Foster, 40:19)
• Choosing Privacy Over Activism:
  • Foster acknowledges her era was different; direct advocacy was dangerous. She honors queer pioneers but sees her own role as creating substantial, varied roles for women and maintaining her wholeness while contributing to the art.

Memorable Quotes & Moments

1. On Resilience vs. Collapse for Child Actors:

"There are real advantages to that in life. And I really feel grateful for the advantages that that's given me, the benefits that that's given me. Or the other is you totally fall apart and you can't take it..."
— Jodie Foster (11:16)

2. On Being Mauled by a Lion:

"He picked me up by the hip and shook me like this... And I watched the entire film crew run in the opposite direction."
— Jodie Foster (13:45)

3. On Privacy and Coming Out:

"If you had to fight for a life that felt real and honest and normal against all odds, then maybe, maybe then you too might value privacy above all else."
— Jodie Foster (40:19)

4. On Power, Personality, and Avoiding Abuse in Hollywood:

"By the time I had my first Oscar nomination, I was part of a different category of people that had power and I was too dangerous to touch... It's very difficult to emotionally manipulate me because I don't operate with my emotions on the surface."
— Jodie Foster (32:35)

5. On How Acting Taught Her to Express Emotion:

"Thank God I was acting. So it gave me an outlet that I would not have had. I had to develop... I had to learn emotions and I had to learn not only how to access them, but also how to control them so that I could give them intention."
— Jodie Foster (25:25)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [00:00–05:00] – French immersion school; early commercials; onset camaraderie
• [11:14–16:49] – Effects of child acting; lion attack story and resilience
• [16:49–19:34] – Mother’s complex feminism; family choices; conflicting generational messages
• [20:15–22:56] – Reflection on "Taxi Driver": legacy, script, and casting
• [23:22–27:11] – Method acting with De Niro: transformative lessons, improvisation
• [28:33–29:35] – Psychological evaluation for "Taxi Driver"
• [32:23–38:31] – MeToo, power in Hollywood, assertive confrontations
• [39:08–41:03] – Golden Globe speech and privacy; coming out on her own terms

Tone & Highlights

• The interview is frequently humorous (Foster’s stories of bad commercials, childhood logic, deadpanning scares), highly self-aware, and characterized by Foster’s unpretentious candor.
• Foster is reflective, occasionally wry, and always sharply intelligent as she discusses both the art and realities of her decades-long career.
• Gross serves as a perceptive, admiring, and gently probing interviewer, facilitating space for Foster’s insights and storytelling without sensationalism.

Summary

This episode offers a fascinating, unguarded conversation with Jodie Foster that traverses personal history, psychological insight, cinematic milestones, and the complexity of public life. Foster shares the deep impact of her mother, the challenge and strength required to survive and evolve through early fame, and how those experiences shaped her identity and career. The episode also provides a rare, behind-the-scenes account of "Taxi Driver" and Foster’s enduring commitment to authenticity—in her art and her life. It’s a must-listen for film aficionados, creatives, and anyone interested in the intersection of childhood, stardom, feminism, and selfhood.