Thursday, Dec. 23, 1999 | 9:34 a.m.
What sets Jodie Foster apart from her peers is her vitality.
As a child actress who has matured into a confident adult actress and self-assured filmmaker, she is definitely an interesting case study.
She started out as a familiar face in Disney movies. By the age of 14, she had received an Academy Award nomination for playing a teenage prostitute in Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver" (1976). While attending Yale University, where she studied literature before graduating in 1985, she became the obsessive motive behind John Hinckley's assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan. She later earned two Oscars for her roles in "The Accused" (1988) and "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991). Then, finally, she made her directorial debut in 1991 with the highly acclaimed film, "Little Man Tate."
Now, in her first role after much publicity surrounding the birth of her son, Charlie, while remaining a single mother, Foster returns to star in the romantic epic "Anna and the King." Foster takes time to elaborate on her latest film, which loses the musical numbers that made the 1957 musical "The King and I" such a classic, and focuses on the rich history behind the nation of Siam.
Plus, she discusses herself as a role model, plus her future projects, including one of Hollywood's most talked-about sequels (to "The Silence of the Lambs") and describes what role she believes will be "the great challenge" of her life:
Question: It seems the roles you choose are distinctively different than the roles that go to other actresses. How would you explain that?
A: I try to do different things every time out, otherwise I find that I would be repeating myself. So I'll do "Nell," which couldn't be more different. ... I did sci-fi, which was (Robert) Zemeckis' "Contact," a sort of insane light-comedy in "Maverick," and then there is something like "Anna and the King" which is an epic. Those are like my last four pictures and none of them have anything to do with each other.
After "Contact," I must have gotten 20 sci-fi movie offers, but I didn't do them. This time out, I really wanted to be in an epic, you know like one of those big David Lean movies. The truth is, I'm not as drawn to playing characters as I am being in movies. So the first question I ask is "what is the movie about?" ... as far as if the script is good or what is it trying to say? The second question I ask: "Who is the director?" And then the third question is, finally: "What's the part?" And I think that is what distinguishes me, where sometimes people have these very arbitrary or vain reasons as to why they make a film.
Q: Let's talk a little about "Anna and the King." What is your take on the facts-versus-fiction aspects, based upon the diaries of your character, Anna Leonowens?
A: She did a lot of exaggerating about her background, that we all know. She lied about where she came from, which is understandable because of the time -- she wanted to appear in better standing than she was. She was very busy fabricating a much more elaborate life than she actually had. In terms of what she did, I think it is pretty true. It's just her simple interpretation of things. Her self-importance. And she is very hyperbolic about everything (laughing): "This is the greatest bowl of pasta I've ever eaten" or "this is the ugliest hotel room I've ever seen." You know, everything is just very hyperbolic.
And yes, she did plagiarize some travel accounts that were literally lifted from a French historian. And I think all of these elements made her more complicated and much more interesting. Plus, she was a survivor trying to figure out how to survive with a little kid, no money and in a time when women didn't go outside of the house, let alone travel 6,000 miles on a ship to a country where she didn't even speak the language. With all the complexities, she was by no means perfect, nor was she nice.
I played her very opinionated and judgmental. She even stated herself that she was way too pushy. So maybe that is the difference between my version and the Deborah Kerr/Irene Dunne versions is that in this era, we can actually create female characters that can change and start off having a lot to learn and by the end of the movie find themselves -- as opposed to those two women who in the '40s and '50s were stuck playing characters who were sweet and soft and lost.
Q: Were you familiar with your co-star, Chow Yun-Fat?
A: (Smiling) Yeah! I really wanted to work with Yun-Fat and I couldn't imagine anybody else playing the role of King Mongkut. In fact, if Yun-Fat had ever left the movie, whom else would you cast? I don't think there is anybody else who could do it. And I'm not a big martial arts fan, but I did see some of his movies. He has all the presence and the power, plus everyone I know said, "you're going to love this guy." I just didn't realize how much I was going to care about him because he's such a wonderful man, truly one of the nicest people I've ever worked with.
Q: You said one of the factors in choosing your roles is who the director is. So what was it about Andy Tennant that played a part in your decision for "Anna and the King"?
A: Oh, he is perfect for this. I loved his last film "Ever After" and I think he kind of has this fairy-tale sensibility with edge. He brings a sort of contemporary edge to it. He certainly knows how to build that structure and build it simply.
Q: You've taken a seat behind the camera a few times as director. Could you see yourself tackling an epic picture?
A: No. No, I'm not brave enough to do that. That's a big beast and it really is not my style as a director. I really like intimate stories and the details of people's lives. And if you gave me an epic, I'd ruin it and turn it into a small movie (laughing).
Q: But you are brave enough to direct again?
A: Yes. I have a film I'm directing next called "Flora Plum." It's about a circus performer in the 1930s who takes pity on a poor girl and steers her on the road to stardom while falling in love with her at the same time. It'll star Claire Danes and we begin production next year.
Q: How did becoming a director change the way you approach your style as an actor?
A: It made me a lot happier because I didn't feel so dissatisfied. When I was acting in films I couldn't control the vision. It allowed me to say, "I'm here to serve the director. When I make my movies, I'll make my own decisions." That was really helpful. Otherwise, you feel like you never have the opportunity to express your own vision because you're serving someone else's.
Q: I've read recently that you are attached to another project that might be some cause for controversy in the story of German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl.
A: Yeah, I'm to act in that project. Potentially the greatest female filmmaker of all time. She is as thoroughly hated as she is adored, especially since being a German filmmaker during the Nazi era. I'm sure I'll be attacked on both sides, because I don't see how you can make anybody happy. Will she be a monster? No, because I don't believe human beings are monsters, whether they are Goebbels or Hitler, and she certainly is not a monster. It'll be the great challenge of my life. Her story is a life worth telling. She made desperately the wrong choices and it is a great cautionary moral tale -- to tell you about all the things you should never do. And yet at the same time, probably the most talented female filmmaker we've ever known. What a shame.
Q: Have you met her and discussed the film project with her?
A: Oh yeah. I've talked to her on the phone a lot. She's 97 and she is doing scuba-diving shark documentaries in New Guinea. I mean, how insane! As lucid today as she ever was, as energetic as she ever was (taking the time to find the words). She is just an amazing portrait. It is, however, a film we are not doing with her, which I think is the right way to go. And frankly, last week she sent me a birthday card and it said, "I will always see you as the person to portray me." She is a great woman, and she is also perhaps a horrible woman, and that will be the real complexity of the film.
Q: So, what is the status for you reprising the role of Special Agent Clarice Starling in the highly anticipated sequel to "The Silence of the Lambs"?
A: (Smiling) I've been waiting nearly 10 years to do "The Silence of the Lambs" sequel. I'm very excited about it. We're just waiting for a script."
Q: What about the talk of making Clarice into a cannibal?
A: Well, the book has nothing to do with whatever film we make. Thomas Harris is an extraordinary novelist and this is an extraordinary book. But the film as a sequel has to live up to the characters that we made in the first film. (Excited) You know, I really want the sequel to be as good as the first one, in the same way as you have "Alien" and its sequel "Aliens" and so on.
Q: Funny that you would mention "Alien," which is directed by Ridley Scott, whose name has been said to be attached as director for the "Lambs" sequel.
A: He is definitely doing it, yeah. Of course Jonathan Demme (who directed "The Silence of the Lambs") is a different director so it's a different vision. But I've known Ridley for a long time and we've almost done many movies together. (Smiling) I like him a lot and think he is an exceptional director.
Q: You always hear how actresses express their utmost respect for you and even try to emulate you. Where does that come from?
A: It always shocks me because I feel I have always made my choices for completely personal, selfish reasons. At the time I made certain decisions whether I should go to college or not go to college. No one else had been down that path and I was really trying to work it out from a very authentic place. So it's really nice to know whatever choices I've made, people really respect that because those choices came from a personal place.
Q: Is that something that intimidates you or do you even think about?
A: I don't ever think about it. I made all of my decisions, which all have been very hard, hard decisions to make, and I remember feeling very insecure about them, wondering whether I chose the right path. I'm so hard on myself and hard on my work that I couldn't live with myself if I was in the middle of doing a picture that I knew wasn't good or I wasn't passionate about or the film had no social purpose in any way.
A lot of actors are much more indifferent about their job and kind of show up, have a good time, drink their cappuccino, do their stuff (laughing), go home, and it's just not a big deal. They just think (conveying their excitement), "yeah, I can't wait to go back to work tomorrow and do that scene where I yell a lot." Personally, I really get stressed out about the implication of what I do. It is very painful to me.
Q: Having grown up in Hollywood, how do you think you avoided the temptations of fame that young actors often fall prey to?
A: Gosh, I don't know. I mean I think my mom had a lot to do with it. But it's also my personality. I think being an actor is a little like being an astronaut. There are some people who go up there and they can't handle the oxygen, they can't stand being alone, they feel claustrophobic, they start tearing their eyes out because they can't stand it. Then there are other people who really enjoy the floatation. They're built for it. And you are either built for it or not.
It is a very emotional, psychologically demanding arena, and a lot of kids should not be doing this. They just don't have the make-up for it. So you really need to have a strong home to overwhelm that temptation that is always there. It'll always be there.
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