Jodie Foster has opened up about her early success in Hollywood and how it may have protected her from the dangers faced by many child actors, including sexual abuse.
The 63-year-old actress' performance in Martin Scorsese’s 1976 classic, Taxi Driver, earned her widespread recognition and an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, marking the start of a long, stellar career.
Looking back on her past, the 63-year-old actor reflected on how she was able to avoid the “terrible experiences” that so many of her peers faced in the industry.
Power at a Young Age
In an interview with NPR, Foster explained how her early success gave her an unusual amount of professional power for someone so young.
"I had a certain amount of power by the time I was, like, 12," she said. "So 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. I could’ve ruined people’s careers, or I could’ve called ‘Uncle,’ so I wasn’t on the block."
Foster credits this power, along with her strong personality, as factors that helped protect her.
"It also might be just my personality," she continued. "I am a head-first person, and I approach the world in a head-first way. It’s very difficult to emotionally manipulate me because I don’t operate with my emotions on the surface."
Understanding Predatory Behavior
Foster also offered insight into how predators in Hollywood often manipulate vulnerable individuals by using power imbalances to dominate them
"Predators use whatever they can in order to manipulate and get people to do what they want them to do," she said.
"And that's much easier when the person is younger, when the person is weaker, when a person has no power. That's precisely what predatory behavior is about: using power in order to diminish people, in order to dominate them," Foster added.
While The Silence of the Lambs acknowledges the existence of "microaggressions" in Hollywood, something all women face, Foster sees her experience as a unique case.
"Anybody who’s in the workplace has had misogynist microaggressions. That’s just a part of being a woman, right?" she said. "But what kept me from having those bad experiences? What I came to believe is that I had a certain amount of power."
The Challenges of Child Actors
Foster, who began acting at age three, is aware that this level of protection was not the same for other child stars and acknowledges the risks they face today.
Last month, the actress spoke at the Marrakech film festival and shared that acting was never a choice she got to make for herself.
“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,” she revealed, per The Independent.
“It’s actually just a cruel job that was chosen for me as a young person, that I don’t remember starting. 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," she added.
Foster shared that her experiences have made her reach out to “young child actors of this era," adding: “I feel like, wait, where are their parents? 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," she concluded.