Jodie Foster Broke Out in Hives During Her First Awards Show

Our first guest tonight is an Emmy- and two-time Academy Award-winning actress and director. You know her from so many movies, including Taxi Driver, The Accused, The Silence of the Lambs, Contact, and Nyad. She stars in A Private Life, which is in theaters January 16th. Let's take a look. -♪♪ Please welcome to the show, the one, the only Jodie Foster, everybody! -♪♪ I'm so happy you're here. I also couldn't help but think that the whole audience was watching that, being like, why is she speaking French? I bet they were like, oh, no, it's like when you're watching a Netflix movie, and you're like, And you can't get it off. You can't get it off. But this movie is wonderful. You play a therapist who is investigating a patient's murder. Yes, and she's a psychoanalyst, which is a little bit different, because we don't really do psychoanalysis. Yes, Freud and misogyny and all that stuff. We canceled him. But they still do it there. Yeah. Did you have to research the idea of, like, being a psychoanalyst? Yeah. Did you know much about it beforehand? Well, I only knew about it from going to college and literature and looking at it through the lens of psychoanalysis, but not that people actually did it, which they do. They lie on the couch, and there's a nice little cushion for your head so you don't get your nasty hair gel on the couch. And it was very interesting, very interesting people, very intellectual people. And I said, boy, I'll never do that. Yeah. I remember when I first went to therapy, I realized that it wasn't gonna be a couch, and I felt very ripped off. Yeah, yeah. Because I feel like when you walk, like growing up, like even in cartoons, like everybody who went to a therapist got to lie on a nice couch. Wouldn't that be nice? But I think you'd fall asleep. Yeah, I would definitely. But I'm very boring to myself, so that. So this is, but it's also a lot of different genres. Like, we were talking backstage. It's like, it feels like a Woody Allen film at times, a Hitchcock film at times. And I imagine the script was one of the reasons you decided to go over to France and shoot a movie. Yeah. Well, there's a lot of plot to it, which is unlike a lot of smaller independent movies. So there is a, you know, a very interesting way to go about finding things out. It also has a little romance. It has a little comedy. You can do this genre-less thing in France. We can't do it here because films have to decide exactly what demographic they're marketing to. So they don't let us just willy-nilly be like, a little bit thriller, a little bit comedy. Whereas this is like just a, this is a movie for people who like movies, which is a more fun kind of movie to make. Yeah, with great actors. Yeah, really great actors. And, you know, mostly French actors. So your French is so good. Yeah. But you've, but I mean, this isn't a film where like, you're like stumbling through your French. Like it is, you are playing an American. So at least we, you know, that is a, you know, we know you've learned French, but how old were you when you learned French? I was nine. Okay. My mom put me in an immersion French school called UBC Francais de Los Angeles. And in one day I had to do math, science, geography, like everything in French. And so you're already, I mean, again, by nine, you already were an actor. Yes. And what was it that your mom thought, like what was the catalyst for her deciding that you should go to a French school? You know, she'd never traveled anywhere. She'd never been outside the United States. She had been once to Tijuana for a weekend and once to, I think Havana, Cuba in the fifties for a weekend. Okay. So she was, you know, she read magazines and she, we had a Peugeot car and she painted the house like a terracotta color, like Rome. All she wanted to do is to go somewhere else and reinvent herself. So she finally went on like a bus trip, a tourist bus trip. She came back and she said, that's it, we're going to put you in a French school. You're going to become a French actor. We're going to move there. And I mean, I kind of did that. Yeah. I mean, eventually, I mean, you must've been a huge disappointment to her while you were just an American actor. Yeah, I really was. I was. And the French people also are, they don't, even because I speak French so well, they forget that I like things like football and Halloween and Jell-O and, you know, stuff like that. That's so funny. So American football, obviously, and Halloween, those are just completely foreign to them. Yeah, they don't understand it. And they also, when I was there, the director kept saying, you know, Jodie's preparing very assiduously for this movie and she's really serious about it. You know, she's been going to the gym every day. And I was like, dude, I go to the gym every day because I'm an American. This is like what we do. And she smoked more cigarettes and drank more red wine. It's just like, dang, this preparation, this gym thing. I like that the only way anyone in France goes to the gym is if they're about to do a movie. Yes, that's right. Well, I'm actually a little surprised that you're an American football fan. Are you an avid fan? Avid fan, yeah. Was this something you liked French that you adopted at a young age? You know, when I was little, maybe you guys remember this, there was the International House of Pancakes and they had these little helmets. Every time you ate a pancake or got a pancake, you'd get a helmet. And I was just, you know, I needed to collect all of them. And I became obsessed with which teams were which and memorizing them. And then like 30 years later, I found them in a store. Oh, the old, like a full IHOP, yeah. The old ones, yeah. So I have them, you know, I have apartment in New York and one in Los Angeles, so I have the full AFC, NFC in both places. Wow. Just so I can move them around. Yes. And. I, we actually had these, there was like a pencil machine in my school that in like where you would just put in 25 cents like and just get, and when I started this show, it was like, oh, I want like as a, I just like having the same thing, just like one of each and just like. And then I do things where, you know, during class, well, as you know, it's a little thing called wild card weekend next weekend. Oh my God. Of course. Yeah. You must be so nice. They must've been so bored when you talked about this in France. There's yeah. Their eyes glaze over. What is this, a wild card? What is the wild card? So I move the little helmets around. You do, you get it ready. Yeah. What do you, do you have a team? Are you a Rams fan? Green Bay Packer fan. Why are you a Green Bay Packer fan? You know, somebody gave me one of those cheese heads and it was just, it was all over. Yeah. I was like, if I could wear this every day. Oh my God. It's funny that somebody saw you and was like, I know what she's going to like. That's what she, we know to get her for Christmas. Did your, just to circle back, did your mom then also become a fluent French speaker? Oh, I thought you were saying, I'm going to say, was she a football fan? No. She never spoke a word of French. So she forced me to translate everything for her. So wait, she went on one bus trip, came back and like, was like, you're going to speak French. And you're going to be my translator. Unbelievable. So I did a movie there when I was 14, got an apartment there and I had to make every reservation. I had to do everything for her. And I guess it was, you know, it was a way for me to perfect the language. This is the movie. Is this the movie you did when you were 14? Yes. Okay. So just based on this poster, this does not look like it aged well. No. It's a terrible movie. What did you do in this movie? What, what did, who did you play? I play a, you know, a young girl with a filthy mouth. And I live with my older sister who's going out with this guy. And I, that's all I remember. Yeah. You really, you were a type back then of like a young girl with a filthy mouth. But you also would do, you did your own skateboarding in the movie. I did. Yeah. Yes. I brought my skateboard to France. And that's, I think there's a scene in the movie where I'm skateboarding with a bunch of kids. That's fantastic. I want to ask more about your movie you're in now. We'll be right back with Jodie Foster. Welcome back everybody. We're here with Jodie Foster. We're talking backstage. Your kids are older. Yes. 27 and 24. But you, I mean, I'm assuming, you know, when you have young kids and you have your body of work, it must be fun to like show them your body of work. They never saw any of my movies. Really. They saw Bugsy Malone when they were little. Okay. And everything else had blood and gore. Yeah. And so I never showed them any of my films. And my older son, I don't think he knew I was an actor till much later. I think he thought I was a construction worker. I gave him a tool belt once when he, I said, you're come to work and visit me. And I gave him like a little plastic tool belt and a little plastic hat. And he just put the two together and that was it. It's really funny that it would take that long. Also, your kids are bright. So it's very surprising to me that it would take them that long to put it together. And he's the one that became an actor. Wow. Okay. Yeah. At some point though, they've seen Silence of the Lambs. Yes. They saw Silence of the Lambs when they were, one of them was 18 and the other ones. That's a good time. What about like, you know, we were talking about your mom and obviously she was a huge part of your life and, and yet you did these very adult movies as a very young actor. Like when Taxi Driver came along, were like you, your mom, did either of you have any hesitation about it? I'd already done a movie with Scorsese, which is Alice Isn't Left Here Anymore. And we were big fans of his. My mom is a huge film fan. So she took me, she picked me up from school and she took me every day to see films. I think probably to hide because she was depressed and also because of this travel thing. So she would take me to see German films, Italian films, you know, every type of Japanese movies, every type of film that was in a different language. And then she would kind of interrogate me at the end and say, what happened? And what do you, why do you think you did that? As a kind of film school. That's fantastic. So when it came up to do Taxi Driver, you guys were both like, this will be, this is exciting. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And for Taxi Driver, I went there in my school uniform. She was like, if you think she can do this, I had my Peter Pan collar, my blazer, my little knee socks. And I think, I mean, the sort of the genius of Scorsese is that he knows how to play against type, so yeah. You got to, also at a very young age, younger, certainly the most, host SNL. Second season of SNL. Not a highlight of my life. Not a highlight? No. Why not? It was scary. And they didn't quite know what to do with me, so they just kept putting me on people's laps, which was weird. Also, I- The 70s, I'm so sorry you grew up in the 70s. I know. I was drinking something before we went on for the final live show, and it was like an Orange Julius, if you guys remember that. I remember an Orange Julius, yeah. It was sticky and sweet, and I dropped the whole thing on my pants, and I was sopping wet. You couldn't see it on camera, but I was sticky and sopping wet, so that's my memory of that experience. By the way, people were doing a lot worse things in the 70s SNL than dropping Orange Juliuses on their pants. True. I've heard you're someone who will read a review. Like, you don't, you're not, I think a lot of actors, like, I don't care what people think about it, but was this something that also happened and started early in your career? You know, it's just something we did in our family, and yeah, we read reviews. My mom would read reviews. She'd read the bad ones and the good ones, and yeah, I think I was taught to be stoic and to be resilient and not to complain and just sort of get on with it. There's good parts to that and bad parts to that. Do you feel like you ever got things from, because I feel like, you know, obviously it always hurts when someone doesn't like something you do, but if they talk about it in a way, you know, that's intellectual, you could actually learn something from a bad review. I think that's true. As a director, however, I'm not so brave. Oh, gotcha. Yeah. So as an actor, you'll take the note, but if it's your whole, if the whole movie's your baby, you don't care for it. Yeah, sometimes I just, if I know the film as a director is gonna be a tough sell, then I might just get on a plane and go somewhere else and not read anything. When your mom read the bad reviews to you as well, would she, like, at least preface it with, like, this is a bad one or this is a good one, or would you just find out together? No, she might say, like, oh, I agree with that, or yeah, maybe work on that, or that I, yeah. It's a funny thing, I guess it is a funny thing. My mom really liked being negative. Okay. Because she felt like then you'd never be disappointed. Oh, interesting. Yeah. She would come at, like, any sort of, like, modicum of success is better than what we thought. Yes, exactly. So you're always surprised. If something good happens, then you're surprised. How, what about going to award shows over your career? Obviously, you've been at ones where you've won and ones where you've been nominated and didn't. All right, well, how do you go into an award show night? Well, there was a moment in the first award shows where I would break out in hives and they said my name, and it was difficult for me with lots of flashbulbs, because in those days we had lots of flashbulbs. They didn't have the quality of film that they have now. But then I guess I got used to it and it just feels like work. Yeah. Do you feel like, are you happy when they announce you as a winner? Are you happy? Yeah, it's bingo. Yeah. It's bingo, you're like, my name, my name. It's totally primitive, even if you think that you're a deep person, you just become really, you're just like, my name. It's also like, many times where I've been like, oh, we're definitely, you know, this show, I'll be like, oh, we're definitely not gonna win, we're not gonna win. And then they read the nominees and I'm like, I think we're gonna win. Maybe. And then it turns out my initial instinct was the right one. Always trust your first gut, it turns out, when you're me at an award show. The movie's so wonderful. It is so lovely to have you here. Yeah, you too. Please come back soon. Okay. And this is Jodie Foster, everyone, of Private Life.