Category: Jodie Foster

Jodie Foster to get leadership award
LOS ANGELES – Jodie Foster needs to make more room on her trophy shelf.
The 45-year-old star will add the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award to her collection of Oscars, Golden Globes and other awards.
Lansing, former chief of Paramount Pictures, will present Foster with the award Tuesday at The Hollywood Reporter’s 16th annual Women in Entertainment breakfast.
The actress-director-producer “has consistently maintained a sensibility and quality that is not easily sustained in this industry,” publisher John Kilcullen said Thursday. “She clearly embodies the qualities of excellence and achievement that this award was created to honor.”
Previous recipients include Barbara Walters and Meryl Streep.
Foster’s film credits include “Taxi Driver,” “The Accused,” “The Silence of the Lambs” and this year’s “The Brave One.”

Foster turns vigilante for `Brave One’
TORONTO – Thirty years ago, Jodie Foster earned her first Academy Award nomination, for “Taxi Driver,” with anti-hero Travis Bickle storming New York in psychotic rage over the street scum he encountered.
Now it’s Foster’s turn to prowl the city in a whirlwind of violence in the vigilante tale “The Brave One,” playing a woman who embarks on a bloody spree after recovering from an attack that killed her boyfriend and left her near death.
In a strange sense, the film combines aspects of Foster’s roles in “The Accused” and “The Silence of the Lambs,” which each earned her the best-actress Oscar.
In “The Accused,” Foster was a victim, gang-raped by men in a bar. In “The Silence of the Lambs,” she was young FBI agent Clarice Starling, pursuing a monstrous serial killer preying on women.
In “The Brave One,” directed by Neil Jordan, Foster is both victim and monster herself. After the attack, she turns her fear and emotional devastation outward, buying a gun initially to feel safe but using it to administer justice as judge, jury and executioner of other evildoers.
The film is a thinking-person’s take on vengeance thrillers such as Charles Bronson’s “Death Wish.”
“It amuses me to no end. I say to my agent, `I’m the one with the gun? When did that happen? Me? I’m like 5 feet 3,'” Foster, 44, said in an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival, where “The Brave One” played in advance of its theatrical debut Friday.
While that aspect amuses Foster, there is nothing remotely humorous about “The Brave One,” a grim tale that raises provocative moral questions as viewers find themselves empathizing with a woman whose actions they may find repugnant. The film co-stars Terrence Howard as a police detective whose own unwavering moral code is knocked off course as he pursues Foster’s vigilante.
Though a far different story than “Taxi Driver,” “The Brave One” similarly reflects the New York and America of its time, the former a nation that cut and ran from Vietnam, the latter a country wounded by the destruction of the World Trade Center and living amid the war on terrorism, Foster said.
The New York of “Taxi Driver” was a place of crime and corruption through which Robert De Niro’s Bickle rampaged. The New York of “The Brave One” is a city that has undergone economic rebirth and become a safer place to live, yet which carries the hurt and anger of the Sept. 11 attacks.
“In the 1970s, New York and America were coming out of Vietnam having been terribly disappointed by who we were, having left that country in a mess and left ourselves in this terrible, complicated mess,” Foster said. “Travis Bickle’s mission is to look at what New York is and say, `I’m going to fix this. There’s got to be some way that I can fix this. We couldn’t fix it over there, but I’m going to fix it here.’
“Post 9/11 is such a different beast. It’s the safest big city in the world. There’s a cop on every corner. It’s beautiful and beautified. Times Square is like Disneyland. And why is it that we’re on Orange Alert? Why is it that we’re a quarter-inch away from this rage and fear that has no basis in reality? That’s kind of who America is right now. We are rediscovering that there’s part of our national psyche that is really angry.”
Foster was an ideal person to embody that anger, a performer with whom viewers could identify despite the character’s dark deeds, director Jordan said.
“She’s got this remarkable thing where she quite effortlessly holds your imagination,” Jordan said. “She puts herself in that place and without question, as a member of the audience, I am there with her. And I don’t know how she does it.”
Co-star Howard counts Foster among Hollywood’s greatest screen stars.
“She’s Marlene Dietrich, Glenn Close, she’s Marlon Brando, all of them combined,” Howard said. “Fifty years from now, the people who can say they worked with Jodie Foster and have that on their resume, I can see my grandkids looking at it and saying, `You worked with Jodie Foster?’ and them being amazed, like I marched with Martin. That’s what it was like for me.”
Though Foster has slowed down her career the last decade to raise her two sons, “The Brave One” comes amid a diverse mix of big and small films the actress has taken on in the last few years.
She starred in the thrillers “Panic Room” and “Flightplan” and took a juicy supporting role in last year’s bank-heist tale “Inside Man.” Fluent in French since childhood, Foster also took on a supporting role in the French-language romance “A Very Long Engagement.”
Foster is just finishing the family flick “Nim’s Island” and has been toiling for years to star in a film about Leni Riefenstahl, the filmmaker vilified after World War II for her propaganda pieces about Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany.
“I wish I was better at making these things happen fast. That particular project is really hard to get right,” Foster said. “It’s going to be an interesting, challenging experience to make the movie and to defend it. I think that’s what’s going to be fun about it, really, is the discussion about it, these big, moral questions.”
Starting her career at age 3 in Coppertone tanning-lotion commercials, Foster went on to appear in “The Courtship of Eddie’s Father” and “Paper Moon” for television and earned a supporting-actress Oscar nomination as a child prostitute in “Taxi Driver.”
After her Oscar wins for “The Accused” and “The Silence of the Lambs,” Foster moved into directing with “Little Man Tate” and “Home for the Holidays.” Other directing projects have fallen through, including one starring Russell Crowe and another on which Foster had planned to direct “Taxi Driver” co-star De Niro.
“I will certainly direct again. I think it’s my biggest disappointment, that I haven’t directed more. But as a director, I know it means a year away from my kids, and it means an enormous level of commitment. It’s not something that I can take lightly,” Foster said. “Maybe someday I’ll take a big break from acting, and that’s probably when I’ll be directing more.”

FOSTER PLAYS DARK ROLE IN NEW MOVIE
NEW YORK (AP) — Parallels to Martin Scorsese’s dark classic “Taxi Driver” led Jodie Foster to take a role in her new movie, “The Brave One.”
The 1976 film portrays a cabby driven to madness amid a crime-ridden and debt-filled New York City climate. The newer film is a story about living with fear in New York after Sept. 11.
“When I first read the script, honestly, it didn’t remind me enough of ‘Taxi Driver,'” Foster said in an interview published in this week’s Newsweek. “That was one of my issues with it. There was all this room for something more beautiful.”
Foster, who was in “Taxi Driver” as a 13-year-old, stars as Erica Bain, a radio host who survives an attack that kills her fiance. Afterward, she learns to use a gun and finds situations in which to use it.
The two-time Oscar winner spoke to Newsweek last summer, on the film’s set in Brooklyn. The Warner Bros. release opens Sept. 14.

Foster’s Sexuality Under Attack Again in Gay Magazine
Actress Jodie Foster’s sexuality is under attack again – this time from one of America’s top gay magazines.
The bold editors of Out have put an image of two models holding masks of Foster and CNN newsman Anderson Cooper over their faces on the cover of the upcoming May issue, over the headline: “The Glass Closet: Why the stars won’t come out and play.”
The lifestyle magazine’s May issue features a list of America’s most influential gay men and women, but editors couldn’t resist taking a swipe at Foster, who has been the subject of lesbian rumors for years.
According to the editors, the controversial cover image is “a sly commentary on the way that semi-closeted celebrities hide in plain sight.” The accompanying article, penned by leading gay writer Michael Musto, sets out to challenge stars like Foster to address the sexuality issue that dogs them, rather than simply avoid the question.
Musto writes, “It’s true that stars are free to put up whatever walls they want in order to maintain boundaries with the public.”
Meanwhile, entertainment mogul David Geffen tops Out’s gay power list.

Foster Quotes Eminem at Penn Graduation
PHILADELPHIA – You can add rapping to the list of Jodie Foster’s talents. The Oscar-winning actress spoke Monday at the University of Pennsylvania’s commencement ceremonies, ending her address with the chorus of Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” from “8 Mile,” the semi-autobiographical 2002 film in which he starred.
Foster, who graduated from Ivy League rival Yale University in 1985, received an honorary doctor of arts degree.
She earned laughs from the graduates by taking pictures of them from the podium and then by recalling her own years at Yale. But she struck a serious note later, saying the country and world are worse off than they were four years ago, and challenging graduates to change that.
The U.S. “squandered” the goodwill and sympathy other nations offered after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Foster said. She also criticized officials for the “disastrous and shameful” handling of Hurricane Katrina.
Penn seniors had expressed skepticism and seemed underwhelmed by her selection as commencement speaker when it was announced earlier this year, but she received a standing ovation after her speech.
Foster, 43, won Oscars for 1988’s “The Accused” and 1991’s “The Silence of the Lambs.” She received nominations for her roles in 1976’s “Taxi Driver” and 1994’s “Nell.”
Aimee Masters, 22, who received her bachelor’s degree in sociology and women’s studies, said Foster was “really inspiring.”
“Everyone around me was really happy with what she said,” Masters said, adding that quoting Eminem “was surprising, but I liked it.”
Comedian Yakov Smirnoff, who earned a master’s degree in positive psychology, was among the approximately 6,000 graduates.

Heist thriller has “Inside” track at box office
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster and Clive Owen should pull an “Inside” job at the weekend box office with their new thriller.
“Inside Man,” a heist film that turns into a cat-and-mouse game between a bank robber and a veteran police detective, will enter the fray Friday, along with two films that were not screened in advance for critics, the comedy “Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector” and the horror “Stay Alive.”
“V for Vendetta” captured the top spot last weekend with a debut of $25.6 million and has reaped respectable midweek grosses. Warner Bros.’ R-rated sci-fi actioner looks likely to fall to second place this weekend.
Universal’s R-rated “Inside Man” has garnered mostly positive reviews, and is tracking best with the over-25 crowd and is extremely strong with black audiences, particularly females.
Washington was most recently in theaters with “The Manchurian Candidate,” which opened with $20 million in the summer of 2004, while Foster’s “Flightplan” took off with $25 million last August.
The opening haul for “Inside Man” should set a new high for its director, Spike Lee, whose best debut to date is “The Original Kings of Comedy” with $11.1 million in 2000.
Lionsgate’s “Larry the Cable Guy” most likely will vie for the No. 3 spot with Paramount’s former champ “Failure to Launch” and Disney’s “The Shaggy Dog,” both entering their third weekends.
Based on the blue-collar comedy of Larry the Cable Guy, the PG-13 comedy revolves around a veteran health inspector saddled with a rookie. Its appeal is tracking largely to young males and fans of the comedian.
“Failure to Launch” was off a moderate 36% last weekend, and has been generating solid midweek business; it had picked up $52.8 million through Wednesday. “Shaggy” shed a mere 18% of its audience, and had gleaned $38 million through Wednesday.
Disney’s “Stay Alive,” a PG-13 tale about a group of young friends in New Orleans who find a killer video game, is aimed at teens and fans of the genre. It stars Frankie Muniz, Samaire Armstrong, Sophia Bush, Jon Foster and Adam Goldberg. According to prerelease tracking, it won’t make the top five.
In the limited-release arena, IFC Films’ “Lonesome Jim” opens in New York. The R-rated comedy-drama, starring Liv Tyler and Casey Affleck, was directed by Steve Buscemi.
Sony Pictures Classics’ “The Child” (L’Enfant) debuts in Los Angeles and New York. The drama, winner of the 2005 Palme d’Or at Cannes, was directed by Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne. The R-rated French-language film centers on a young man who sells his newborn son because he needs the money but realizes the horrendous mistake and tries to get him back.

Jodie Fostering strength
NEW YORK — Jodie Foster has finally figured out what her weakness is: She doesn’t have one.
Simply put, Foster is a two-time Oscar winner with a damsel in distress-sized hole in her resume that will never be filled.
She doesn’t have a clue how to play a powerless female, and she doesn’t have much interest in learning.
“I do tend to play strong women,” says Foster, who continues that tradition by portraying an above-the-law “fixer” in director Spike Lee’s bank heist thriller Inside Man, opening in theatres Friday.
“I’ve played different kinds of strong women,” Foster says during a recent interview for the film. “I’ve played morally bankrupt strong women, I’ve played good girls, I’ve played straight-laced straight arrows, I’ve played wild women. Yet they’re always strong.
“Sometimes I feel like that’s my Achilles heel as an actor. I don’t really know how to play weak characters. If I played a weak character, I don’t think you’d believe me.”
Foster is all too believable as Inside Man’s icy and iron-willed Madeline White, a woman who knows where the bodies are buried and isn’t afraid to use that information to benefit her high-paying, anonymity-seeking clientele.
“She’s been in these dangerous situations where you have two dead hookers and a mayor,” Foster says, likening her character to an exaggerated, corporate-world version of legendary Hollywood publicist Pat Kingsley, the image shaper who has represented clients ranging from Tom Cruise to Courtney Love to Foster herself.
“The vault that (Kingsley) is … I mean, if anything that’s in her memory or in her head ever came out, the world would probably implode.”
And some of that implosion would likely involve Foster, who deftly avoids scrutiny of her social life. She’s never revealed the identity of the father (or fathers) of her two sons, and has never addressed rumours about her sexual orientation.
Yet she is unfailingly warm, polite and articulate, even when it comes to defending her last starring role, 2005’s Flightplan. A box-office success with a worldwide take of over $200 million, Flightplan was carved by critics who felt the film’s premise crashed and burned in the third act.
“I’m really proud of Flightplan,” Foster says. “It’s is not an art house film , it is a genre movie, and I make no apologies for that. I really feel like that character was beautifully drawn, truthfully drawn, and I’m really proud of that as an actor. I killed myself for that movie.”
Foster’s next two films are Neil Jordan’s revenge thriller The Brave One, opposite Hustle & Flow’s Terrence Howard, and the socially conscious Sugarland, which she will direct and co-star in opposite Robert De Niro.
That will lift her career tally to something in the ballpark of 50 movies and dozens of TV appearances, though Hollywood only truly woke up to Foster’s talents after her Oscar-nominated turn as a teenaged hooker in 1976’s Taxi Driver. That was also the year Foster did the Disney identity-swap comedy Freaky Friday, which was remade in 2003 with Lindsay Lohan in the Foster role. And oh, how the times have changed.
“In my time, 18-year-olds could do stupid things and not necessarily be on Access Hollywood the next day,” Foster says, lamenting the voracious public and media appetite that dogs young stars like Lohan today.
“You can’t have a young life and be an actor anymore, and that’s a shame. Because there’s a lot of value to those years when you do dumb things and make mistakes and you have experiences that you don’t necessarily want everyone to know about.”
Foster says she was lucky: When she was growing up in the business, she had people who cared about her watching out for her best interests, and the scrutiny of young stars was nothing like what it is today.
“There was a kind of privacy that you had in your life, and I think the media had a lot of respect for the adolescent years,” she says.
Foster’s 40 years in the biz have taught her how to play the Hollywood game, and how to separate her work from her life. She doesn’t begrudge her fame, but she doesn’t enjoy it, either.
“I’m trying to think of one good thing about fame, but I can’t,” she says.
“Respect is good and accolades are good and doing work you love is good. But there really isn’t one good part of fame.”

Flight attendants outraged over Jodie Foster film
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Labor unions representing most of the nation’s 90,000 flight attendants have urged their members to boycott a new Jodie Foster film that portrays a flight attendant and a U.S. air marshal as terrorists.
They said that casting cabin crew members as villains in the movie “Flightplan” was irresponsible in light of heightened security concerns since the September 11, 2001 attacks, in which suicide hijackers used airliners as guided missiles.
The Walt Disney Co. film, which was the No. 1 release at the North American box office last weekend, stars Foster as an airline passenger who awakens from an in-flight nap to find her young daughter missing. It turns out that one of the flight attendants aboard is involved in a terrorist plot hatched by the plane’s air marshal.
A union statement issued on Tuesday also complained that other flight attendants in the film are shown as being “rude, unhelpful and uncaring.”
“This depiction of flight attendants is an outrage,” said Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) International President Patricia Friend. “Flight attendants continue to be the first line of defense on an aircraft and put their lives on the line day after day for the safety of passengers.”
An AFA spokeswoman in Washington said the unions worry that moviegoers will take away impressions that will make it more difficult for flight attendants to “earn the trust and respect of passengers.”
“It’s just so irresponsible,” the spokeswoman, Corey Caldwell, told Reuters on Wednesday.
She said the portrayal of airline cabin crew members as evil-doers adds further insult to long-standing Hollywood stereotypes that have depicted flight attendants as sexualized bubble heads or as harsh, humorless disciplinarians.
A Disney spokesman said that in making “Flightplan,” which grossed nearly $25 million last weekend, “there was absolutely no intention on the part of the studio or filmmakers to create anything but a great action thriller.”
“We are confident the public will be able to discern the difference between fiction and the incredible job real-life flight attendants do on a daily basis,” the spokesman said.
The AFA called for the boycott along with two sister unions — the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) and the Transport Workers Union Local 556, which represent cabin crew members from American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, respectively. The three unions together represent 80,000 of the 90,000 flight attendants who work for U.S. carriers.

Foster Fights Cinema Battle
Jodie Foster almost lost her famous cool in a cinema recently when she stood up to a woman who was upset about her young son’s questions.
The actress took her kids to see nature documentary The March Of The Penguins and ended up confronting the bitter woman in front of her, who turned on her kid for quietly asking questions in the dark.
Foster recalls, “This woman went berserk. She started with the shushing from the get go… and then she starts yelling at me.
Finally, I just turn into the most perfect police officer where I was whispering, ‘You know, you’re really disturbing everybody, and I think it would be a good idea if you moved if you’re not happy.’
It almost came to blows. I’m pretty sure I did say something offensive at some point, something like, ‘You’re awfully young to be that bitter.’ She really lost her mind. But I was insulted. I understand. I go to a movie, I don’t want to be disturbed. But don’t go to a noon Sunday matinee of a family movie. I mean, what do you expect?”

Foster Flies High at ‘Flightplan’ Premiere
LOS ANGELES – While most headliners are chronically delayed arriving at their own Hollywood premieres, Jodie Foster landed early to work the red carpet at the unveiling of the thriller “Flightplan.”
“It’s my job,” Foster told AP Television News on Monday night. “I wouldn’t not promote my movie and you want to get out there and tell people what it’s about and to communicate why you loved it.”
“Flightplan,” which opens Friday, follows a woman and young daughter who become separated while on an international flight. Was the girl abducted? Did she even exist? No spoilers from Foster, 42, who was glamorous in a black Armani cocktail dress.
One secret was revealed by screenwriter Peter A. Dowling, who said Foster’s role was originally intended for a male actor. “(The character) is a very strong woman,” Dowling explained. “I think one of the most amazing things about that kind of situation when it starts off, as a man, it has a tendency not be to written as a victim, because a male star doesn’t want to be seen as a victim, whereas a lot of these female-driven thrillers … well it’s a woman in peril, that’s the way people come at her, so I think it is good that she is a very proactive, strong woman.”
Other attendees included co-stars Peter Sarsgaard, Erika Christensen and Sean Bean. Kate Beahan, who has a key role as a flight attendant, said none of the film was shot on a real aircraft, but it felt that way: “When I finished filming and I flew back home to Australia, I really did not want to take that 14-hour flight.”