Jodie Foster

American actress, director, and producer Jodie Foster (1962) has received two Academy Awards, three British Academy Film Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award and the Cecil B DeMille Award. A child prodigy, Foster began her professional career at the age of 3. Foster's breakthrough came at 14 with Martin Scorsese's psychological thriller Taxi Driver (1976). She played a child prostitute, for which she received an Oscar nomination. As an adult, she won new acclaim with The Accused (1988), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), and Nell (1994). She later starred in four thrillers, Panic Room (2002), Flightplan (2005), Inside Man (2006) and The Brave One (2007), which were commercially successful and well-received by critics. She has focused on directing in the 2010s.


British postcard by Music & Movie Stars Ltd. Publishers, no. MMS 036. Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976).


American postcard by Fotofolio, no. Z325. Photo: Annie Leibovitz. Caption: Jodie Foster, Malibu, California, 1988. Proceeds from the sale of this card were donated to AIDS organizations.

A prostitute at the tender age of 12

Jodie Foster was born Alicia Christian Foster in 1962 in Los Angeles. She is the daughter of Evelyn Ella 'Brandy' (Almond), a producer, and Lucius Fisher Foster III, an Air Force lieutenant colonel and real estate broker. She is the younger sister of Buddy Foster, Cindy Foster Jones and Connie Foster, who all also acted. Brandy had filed for divorce in 1959 after having three children with Lucius, but the exes had a brief re-encounter in 1962 which resulted in Alicia's birth.

Her older siblings nicknamed her Jodie, a name she has used in her profession. She started her career in a Coppertone Suntan Lotion commercial when she was 3 years old and made commercials for four years. She made her debut as an actress in the TV series Mayberry R.F.D. (1968), on which her brother, Buddy Foster, was a regular. She stayed very busy as a child actress, working on television programs such as The Doris Day Show (1968), Adam-12 (1968), The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1969), The Partridge Family (1970), Bonanza (1972), and Gunsmoke (1969-1972).

After her film debut in Disney's Napoleon and Samantha (Bernard McEveety, 1972), Foster was much in demand. Her film roles included playing Raquel Welch's daughter in Kansas City Bomber (Jerold Freedman, 1972) and a tomboy in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (Martin Scorsese, 1974) starring Ellen Burstyn. She starred as Addie Pray on the short-lived television series Paper Moon (1974), which was originally a film by Peter Bogdanovich starring Tatum O'Neal.

Jodie first drew attention from critics with her appearance in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976) alongside Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel, where she played a prostitute at the tender age of 12. Her sister, Connie Foster, was her stand-in during the more explicit scenes. She received her first Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress for her role. She was 12 turning 13 during the production of The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (Nicolas Gessner, 1976), for which she won the Saturn Award for Best Actress. Foster went on to have a very successful career in her early teens with leading roles in Bugsy Malone (Alan Parker, 1976) as the mini-vamp Tallulah, and the Disney films Freaky Friday (Gary Nelson, 1976) with Barbara Harris, and Candleshoe (Norman Tokar, 1977) opposite David Niven and Helen Hayes.

Fluent in French by age 14, she spoke her own lines in the French film Moi, fleur bleue (Eric Le Hung, 1977) with Jean Yanne and Sydne Rome. She also co-starred in the Italian comedy Casotto (Sergio Citti, 1977) with Catherine Deneuve. The last film she made during this era was the coming-of-age drama Foxes (Adrian Lyne, 1980), before enrolling at Yale University. In 1981, during her freshman year at Yale, she was attached to a worldwide scandal when a crazed and obsessed fan named John Hinckley stalked her and attempted to assassinate President Reagan.  When captured, Hinckley insisted he'd done it to impress Foster - a re-creation of a similar incident in Taxi Driver.


Italian postcard in the Le più belle del mondo series by Tele Tutto, no. 11.


Postcard, no. 135.

A waitress who is gang-raped in a bar

In 1985, Jodie Foster graduated magna cum laude from Yale University with a degree in literature. She resumed her acting career and appeared in the comedy-drama The Hotel New Hampshire (Tony Richardson, 1984) opposite Rob Lowe and Nastassia Kinski, based on the novel by John Irving. In France, she appeared in the historical drama Le sang des autres/The Blood of Others (Claude Chabrol, 1984) based on the novel by Simone de Beauvoir. Foster sought a breakthrough role that would return her to stardom. After appearing in a few obscure films with limited release, she landed an audition for The Accused (Jonathan Kaplan, 1988). She was cast in the part of Sarah Tobias, a waitress who is gang-raped in a bar during a night of partying and teams up with a lawyer played by Kelly McGillis to prosecute the attackers. This performance earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress, but despite the Oscar win, Jodie still hadn't re-established herself as a bankable star.

Her next film, Catchfire (Dennis Hopper, 1990), went straight to video, and she had to campaign hard to get her next good role. In 1991, she starred as Clarice Starling, an FBI trainee assisting in a hunt for a serial killer in The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 1991) with Anthony Hopkins. The film was a blockbuster hit, winning Jodie her second Academy Award for Best Actress and establishing her as an international film star.

With the wealth and fame to do anything she wanted, Jodie started directing. She made her directorial debut with Little Man Tate (Jodie Foster, 1991), about the tribulations of a child genius. It was followed by Home for the Holidays (Jodie Foster, 1995) with Holly Hunter, Anne Bancroft and Robert Downey Jr. These films were critically acclaimed but did not do well at the box office, and she proved to be a far more successful actress than she was a director. On the set of Sommersby (Jon Amiel, 1993) with Richard Gere, she met Cydney Bernard and was in a serious relationship with her until they broke up in 2008. 1994 was a huge triumph for her acting career. She first played a sexy con artist in the successful Western comedy Maverick (Richard Donner, 1994) with Mel Gibson and James Garner.

She made her debut as a producer in 1994 with Nell (Michael Apted, 1994). She also played the title role opposite Liam Neeson and Natasha Richardson. For her compelling performance as a wild, backwoods hermit who speaks an invented language and must return to civilisation, Jodie was nominated for another Academy Award and won a Screen Actors Guild Award as Best Actress. Although she was working far less frequently as an adult than she did as a child, the films she turned out were commercially successful and critically acclaimed. Her next big-screen role was in the science fiction drama Contact (Robert Zemeckis, 1997) opposite Matthew McConaughey. She played a scientist who receives signals from space aliens. The film was a huge hit and brought her a Golden Globe nomination.

She had to pull out of Double Jeopardy (Bruce Beresford, 1999) because she became pregnant, and was replaced by Ashley Judd. In 1999, her son Charles Foster, with partner Cydney Bernard, was born. She returned to work four months later to begin filming Anna and the King (Andy Tennant, 1999), a non-musical remake of The King and I (Walter Lang, 1956). The film was only modestly received in the U.S. but was successful in the rest of the world.


British postcard by Heroes Publishing Ltd., London, no. SPC2540.


Canadian postcard by Canadian Postcard, no. A-253. Jodie Foster in Nell (Michael Apted, 1994).

Playing tough women in mainstream thrillers

Jodie Foster returned to work four months after giving birth to her second son Kit Foster, but she shut down her production company Egg Pictures in late 2001 to spend more time with her children. She headlined the thriller Panic Room (David Fincher, 2002), which co-starred Kristen Stewart. The film was a smash box-office hit and gave Jodie a $30 million opening weekend, the biggest of her career yet. She then appeared in two low-profile projects: the independent film The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (Peter Care, 2002) and the French film Un long dimanche de fiançailles (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2004) with Audrey Tautou and Gaspard Ulliel.

She returned to making Hollywood mainstream films, first with Flightplan (Robert Schwentke, 2005), in which she played a woman whose daughter disappeared on an aeroplane that she designed. Once again Jodie proved herself to be a box-office draw, and the film was a worldwide hit. The following year, she starred in another hit, the bank heist thriller Inside Man (Spike Lee, 2006) with Denzel Washington and Clive Owen. Jodie was on a roll. Her next film was the revenge thriller The Brave One (Neil Jordan, 2007), which once again opened at #1 at the box office and earned her another Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress.

Following this succession of thrillers that all had her playing tough women, Jodie returned to the comedy genre in Nim's Island (Jennifer Flackett, Mark Levin, 2008) with Gerard Butler and Abigail Breslin. She reunited with Mel Gibson in the comedy The Beaver (Jodie Foster, 2011). Strong roles followed in Carnage (Roman Polanski, 2011) with Kate Winslet and the Sci-Fi film Elysium (Neill Blomkamp, 2013) with Matt Damon.

In 2013, she received the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globe Awards. In April 2016, Jodie Foster married Alexandra Hedison. In July of that year, John Hinckley was released after almost 35 years of commission to St. Elizabeth's Mental Institution. Lately, she focused on directing and made the film Money Monster (2016), as well as episodes for the TV series Orange Is the New Black, House of Cards, and Black Mirror.

More recently, Jodie Foster appeared in Hotel Artemis (Drew Pearce, 2018) in which she runs a high-security, members-only hospital for high-rolling criminals in Los Angeles. Foster directed the finale of the Science-Fiction drama Tales from the Loop (2020). Her next project was the legal drama The Mauritanian (2021), in which she starred as the lawyer of a prisoner (Tahar Rahim) at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Foster won a Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe for her performance. At the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, Foster received the Honorary Palme d'Or for lifetime achievement. In 2023, Foster appeared in the Netflix biopic Nyad as Bonnie Stoll. Her performance earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She next starred in the fourth season of True Detective, subtitled Night Country.


British postcard by Memory Card, no. 530. Photo: Steve Schapiro. Jodie Foster and Robert de Niro in Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976).


Dutch postcard by Boomerang. Photo: Richard Gere and Jodie Foster in Sommersby (Jon Amiel, 1993).


Trailer Hotel Artemis (2018). Source: Zero Media (YouTube).

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia and IMDb.

Taxi Driver (1976)

Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976) is one of my favourite films. When I first saw the film I was shocked by its realism and mesmerised by its strong acting, especially by Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster, who was 12 years old at the time of filming. Foster received an Academy Award nomination for Best Female Supporting Actor and De Niro was nominated in the Best male Lead category. The film itself was also nominated for Best Picture and the music by Bernard Herrmann, his last work before he died, for Best Original Music. It's a modern classic, but not to everybody's taste.


Italian postcard by Edizioni Beatrice D'Este, no. 20 162. Photo: Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976).


Canadian postcard by Canadian Postcard, no. A-5. Robert de Niro in Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976).


French postcard in the Collection Cinema Couleur by Editions La Malibran, Paris, no. MC 33, 1990. Photo: Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976).

Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets

Robert De Niro is Travis Bickle, a frustrated 26-year-old war veteran, who recently quit the Marines. He suffers from insomnia and therefore takes a job as a taxi driver in New York, and does not mind working at night. In his spare time, Bickle watches porn movies in cinemas and drives around aimlessly in the bad neighbourhoods of Manhattan.

Horrified by the disappearance of any sense of value, Bickle says: "All the animals come out at night - whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets." When one night Iris, a 12-year-old prostitute (played by Jodie Foster), accidentally ends up in his taxi as she tries to escape from her pimp, he is deeply moved. He wants to try and save her even though Iris is not keen on that at all. About her pimp, Sport (Harvey Keitel), she says that he is actually a very kind and caring person.

Bickle also suffers from his failed attempt to form a relationship with Betsy (Cybill Shepherd). Betsy works for a New York State senator called Palantine, who is campaigning for the presidential nomination. Palantine promises drastic social changes. At the beginning of their relationship, Betsy is intrigued by Bickle. First Bickle takes her out to lunch, during which he flirts with her and sympathises with her loneliness. He becomes obsessed with her. Eventually, they make a date to go to the movies. Bickle takes her to see an educational Swedish sex film, and Betsy leaves in disgust. After this incident, he believes he has to do whatever he needs to make the world a better place - in his opinion.

After that, Bickle becomes increasingly self-absorbed. He buys a knife and four pistols. During one of his trips, a businessman (a small role by Martin Scorsese himself) explains to him how he wants to kill his wife for cheating. When he is getting groceries at a shop he frequently visits, there is a robbery, and Bickle shoots the robber. Bickle writes a letter to his parents, saying that he is engaged in very important and secret government work. He also tells them about Betsy. Bickle has plans to assassinate Senator Palantine.

Bickle has devised all sorts of methods by which he can hide his pistols and bring them out quickly. Famous is the scene in which Bickle stands in front of a mirror, practising the speech he wants to give when he is confronted with someone who wants to stop him during his attack. Bickle: "You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? ... Oh, yeah? Ok.", after which he draws his weapon. Bickle then attempts to kill Senator Palantine during one of his public campaign speeches. However, he is spotted by someone from the Secret Service. (Bickle had struck up a conversation with the Secret Service agent sometime earlier, inquiring about ways to join the service). After the Secret Service sees through him, he flees, and then goes off to Iris' pimp and tries to kill him. Then, in the same building, he tries to take Iris away from a customer. A gunfight between Sport and his cronies against Bickle ensues, in which only Iris and Bickle survive.

When the police arrive at the building where all this took place, Bickle is sitting wounded on a bench. He looks as if he is dying. When he sees the police, he puts his index finger to his head and pretends to shoot himself. The media write about Bickle as if he were a hero. He also receives a letter from Iris's father and reads that her father is very grateful to him for saving his daughter; she is out of prostitution, living at home again, and going back to school. When Bickle resumes his job as a taxi driver, Betsy comes into his taxi one evening. She makes remarks about saving Iris and his fame through the media. Bickle does not respond, and it seems as if he does not think he is a hero. Even now, so many decades later, there is debate about the ending of this film.


Belgian promotion card by Tasschen Gallery for the exhibition 'Taxi Driver - unseen photographs from Scorsese's Masterpiece'. Photo: Steve Schapiro. Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976).


British postcard by Music & Movie Stars Ltd. Publishers, no. MMS 036. Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976).


British postcard by Palm Pictures, no. C 20. Robert de Niro in Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976).


Vintage postcard. Robert de Niro in Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976).

Are you talking to me?

During the preparation of the film, Robert De Niro worked several weekends as a real taxi driver in New York. During this period, filming took place for the Italian film Novecento/1900 (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1976), in which he played a leading role, and De Niro flew back and forth between Rome and New York to do this. Taxi Driver (1976) is told from Bickle's point of view. However, one scene has been added that (partially) breaks with this structure, namely the dance scene between Sport and Iris. In order to restore the structure, a shot of Bickle has been added, in which it can be seen that he is standing outside the building and looking at the room where Sport and Iris are.

The shots in the taxi were shot in a taxi that was actually driving around the city. This meant that the camera was placed in the taxi along with Martin Scorsese, cameraman Michael Chapman, the actors and a soundman in the back. Scorsese wanted to make these scenes in the taxi as realistic as possible, with New York as the backdrop: "the city almost as a character." The steam through which the taxi drives in the opening shot is symbolic of hell, to reflect the dangerous, dark atmosphere of the ghetto.

Much of the dialogue in the film is a combination of the script by Paul Schrader and improvisation sessions during the preparations. For example, the famous scene in which Bickle stands in front of the mirror and talks to himself ('Are you talking to me?') was created by improvisation. The character Sport (Harvey Keitel) was fleshed out through improvisation. Originally, this role would not have much dialogue (five lines total), but Keitel chose to flesh it out further. A good example of this is the scene in which Travis Bickle enters into a conversation with Sport, and at the beginning of the encounter, Sport thinks that Bickle is someone from the police. The expansion and improvisation of this role were always done in collaboration with Martin Scorsese, bearing in mind that it was important to guard the basis of the script and not to deviate too far from it.

Author Paul Schrader got the inspiration for the script when he had no place to stay for a while after his marriage and a subsequent relationship broke up. He wandered around and realised that he had not spoken to anyone for weeks and had been living in isolation. This gave him the idea of using the taxi as a metaphor for loneliness. He then wrote the script in just ten days. "I wrote the script for myself, as therapy."

Schrader wrote the script with the idea of the two women, Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) and Iris (Jodie Foster) as beacons of good and beauty. Betsy as Madonna, Iris as whore. Bickle's statement "I'm God's Lonely Man" refers to the essay "God's Lonely Man" by Thomas Wolfe, a writer who died in 1938. In this book, Wolfe writes: "The whole conviction of my life now rests upon the belief that loneliness, far from being a rare and curious phenomenon, is the central and inevitable fact of human existence".


British postcard by Memory Card, no. 530. Jodie Foster and Robert de Niro in Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976).


British postcard by Memory Card, no. 531. Robert de Niro in Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976).


British postcard by Memory Card, no. 532. Harvey Keitel and Robert de Niro in Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976).

Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch) and IMDb.