Jodie Foster Honoured

I’ve been watching Jodie Foster on screen for what seems like my whole life. And that’s probably true. Starting out as a child actress (a Coppertone advert is her first credit), she’s grown up in front of the public from Disney’s Freaky Friday to her Oscar winning turns in The Accused and Silence of the Lambs. This week, the Hollywood Reporter honoured the actress and director at an exclusive cocktail party at the Cannes Film Festival.

Starting out as a Disney favourite, she made a number of kids movies including Napoleon and Samantha and One Little Indian. However it was in 1976’s Taxi Driver that she caught the attention of the public. The role was of a teenage prostitute, and it earned her her first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In the same year, she starred opposite teen heartthrob Scott Baio in the gangster spoof Bugsy Malone. Again the awards piled up – BAFTA award for best newcomer.

Unlike the majority of today’s teen stars who end up in an out of tabloids and rehab centres, Foster chose to complete her education, and studied at Yale.

Her transition to adult roles wasn’t without some difficulty. However her role in 1988’s The Accused changed that. Foster played a gang-rape survivor in the first movie of its kind to confront the reality of rape and the inadequacies of the justice system. She won her first Oscar. Following up on her star performance, she starred opposite Anthony Hopkins in the 1991 thrilled Silence of the Lambs, as FBI agent Clarice Starling. Again she won the Oscar, for her role as the dedicated agent who strikes up an uneasy relationship with a cannibalistic serial killer.

Following on from the success of Lambs, Foster made her directorial debut with Little Man Tate, a drama about a child prodigy. In 1992, Foster founded a production company called Egg Pictures in Los Angeles, while continuing to act in films as diverse as the western spoof Maverick and the thought-provoking Nell.

The 2000s saw Foster take on the action thriller with roles in Panic Room , Inside Man, The Brave One and Flightplan.

Her latest film is The Beaver in which she re-unites with Maverick co-star Mel Gibson, and in which she directs and stars.

With a career that already spans four decades, we can only expect further greatness from this Hollywood legend-in-the-making.