Wes Anderson reveals Jodie Foster has rejected several of his movies
The Phoenician Scheme director Wes Anderson has praised Jodie Foster’s acting skills and revealed she has rejected appearing in many of his movies over the years.
The catalogue of actors that Anderson has worked with is full of A-listers, such as Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Adrien Brody, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Willem Dafoe, Timothée Chalamet, Margot Robbie, Meryl Streep and countless more.
However, one star that has always been out of reach is Foster, as Anderson explained in a new interview with Collider: “Over the years, I had so many movies that I tried to get Jodie Foster to be in. It used to be every movie we went to Jodie Foster for a part. And I think I did it three movies in a row, maybe four.”
The director continued: “And I met her, and I liked her. And I thought it was going to get her. I think she’s just great, Jodie Foster. And I loved her.”
Reflecting on her directorial debut, Little Man Tate, Anderson said of her on-screen performance: “She has this real sparkle. She has a lightness in it. It’s just a different kind of character. But anyway, I still would like to get Jodie Foster. But I guess after asking few times, I thought maybe I’m not… I think sometimes somebody has an idea of the kind of work they want to do at that time in his or her life, and we weren’t right.”
However, Anderson didn’t reveal the precise movies in his canon that Foster rejected, sharing, “Well, I don’t like to say, because if I say, then you say, ‘Oh, you mean so-and-so, who’s in the movie, wasn’t your first choice?’ And so I don’t want that to be a thing. But she’s pretty amazing, Jodie Foster.”
Anderson recently released his latest movie, The Phoenician Scheme, which featured another all-star cast that the director assembled, including Michael Cera, Benicio Del Toro, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Mia Threaplton, and Scarlett Johansson.
In a two-star review, Far Out wrote of the movie: “Despite the fact that there are a few jokes and amusing moments, mostly coming from Michael Cera, who could not be more perfect as the ‘Norwegian’ insect expert, it shortly feels repetitive and stiff, with nothing funny enough in the story to make the stuffy dialogue style even vaguely entertaining.”
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