“The 63-year-old actress spoke to NPR as Taxi Driver celebrates its 50th anniversary in February.”, — write: www.dailymail.co.uk
The 63-year-old actress spoke to NPR as Taxi Driver celebrates its 50th anniversary in February, People reported.
The gritty film noir featured Foster in her first Oscar-nominated role as a child prostitute. She was just 12 years old when making the movie.
The actress, who would later go on to win the coveted award for 1988’s The Accused and 1991’s Silence of the Lambs, delved into what it was like being a young actor in America’s movie capital.
Aware that many others in the industry have experienced wide-ranging forms of abuse, Foster admitted it has given her pause to consider why she wasn’t treated the same way.
‘I’ve really had to examine that, like, how did I get saved? There were microaggressions, of course. Anybody who’s in the workplace has had misogynist microaggressions. That’s just a part of being a woman, right? But what kept me from having those bad experiences, those terrible experiences?’ said Foster, who recently confused NBC with CBS during a live interview with Today host Craig Melvin.
After a lot of pondering on the subject, the acting vet has come to her own conclusion.
‘And what I came to believe… is that I had a certain amount of power by the time I was, like, 12,’ Foster shared.
‘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,’ she explained.
Foster noted that her personality – which has been described as intense intelligence combined with steadfast determination – could have also been a factor in why she wasn’t approached by ‘predators.’
‘I am a head-first person and I approach the world in a head-first way,’ she conceded.
‘It’s very difficult to emotionally manipulate me because I don’t operate with my emotions on the surface.
‘Predators use whatever they can in order to manipulate and get people to do what they want them to do. And that’s much easier when the person is younger, when the person is weaker, when a person has no power,’ she said.
‘That’s precisely what predatory behavior is about: using power in order to diminish people, in order to dominate them.’
Foster’s acting career began at the age of five in the TV show Mayberry R.F.D. and she said that industry experience has provided her with life-long resilience.
‘I think there’s a part of me that has been made resilient by what I’ve done for a living and has been able to control my emotions in order to do that in a role,’ she described.
‘When you’re older, those survival skills get in the way, and you have to learn how to ditch them [when] they’re not serving you anymore.’
Foster, who has been married to photographer Alexandra Hedison since 2014 and shares two sons, Charlie and Kit, with former partner Cydney Bernard, also gave insight into why she is so private about her personal life,
‘I did not want to participate in celebrity culture,’ she told NPR. ‘I wanted to make movies that I loved. I wanted to give everything of myself on-screen, and I wanted to survive intact by having a life and not handing that life over to the media and to people that wished me ill.’