The role nobody wanted Jodie Foster to play: “I had to fight for it”
Jodie Foster is one of the definitive legends of the film industry, starting out as a child actor in Disney productions before being discovered by the great Martin Scorsese for his 1974 film Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, which eventually led to her explosive performance in Taxi Driver. Few performances have been met with equal levels of outrage and admiration—something Foster managed to achieve at just 12 years old.
After taking time out and studying at Yale University, Foster returned to acting with a bang, starring in critically acclaimed films such as Silence of the Lambs, The Accused, and Panic Room. However, while she has an enormous level of power in the industry after becoming so familiar with the inner workings of the business from such a young age, the actor shared her struggle to fight for one role in particular.
Of course, Foster has built a reputation for picking dark and gritty projects, with the actor rarely opting for anything light-natured or comedic. Her roles are usually deeply considered and dramatic, playing earnest detectives, fierce mothers and famously, a child ‘prostitute’.
Her introduction to Hollywood was accompanied by controversy and chaos, with Scorsese being met with death threats for creating this role and Foster herself being stalked by one ‘fan’ who believed her character to be real. This person became a very real threat, and not just to Foster but to the President of the United States, who the stalker attempted to assassinate.
Perhaps these early experiences in the industry influenced Foster’s fascination with darker stories. In interviews, she has expressed gratitude for these opportunities, as they reshaped her perception of the roles available to women—challenging the status quo by leaning into lesser-seen stories and characters. This may have fueled her strong desire to play a particular role later in her career, leading her to fight an uphill battle for the chance to star in Hotel Artemis.
Hotel Artemis, directed by Drew Pearce in 2018, follows a nurse who runs a hospital for criminals in a futuristic Los Angeles that is being torn apart by riots. The role requires an intense physical transformation for Foster, with the actor saying, “That’s really the reason I wanted to do the movie, and I had to fight for it. I’ve been looking for a transformation character for five years. I think the producers were a little scared. They were like, ‘Wait a minute. You’re not going to look bad, are you?’ It’s like, ‘If you’re not the same Jodie Foster everybody’s used to seeing, then do we want that?’ But it was important. That was the character. She’s a 70-year-old woman who hasn’t left that room for 25 years and lives on tacos and hasn’t had any vitamin D”.
Her character is weathered and slightly haggard, reflecting the destructive environment around them and the dark tone of the film. While producers were less keen on the idea of her embracing this darkness, it was something that the role absolutely needed, and thank goodness that she stood her ground and didn’t appease the producers’ sanitised ideas.
