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The Oscar winner gets candid after her process as a director and why the rehearsal and pre-production stages are so important.
By Carly Thomas
Associate Editor
Jodie Foster is opening up about her filmmaking process and why she never fully “fell in love” with the acting side of the industry.
During a recent conversation with Jodie Comer for Interview magazine, the Oscar winner admitted she’s “not naturally an actor.”
“I just got stuck in it when I was three,” she explained. “I probably would’ve been a lawyer or a college professor. It’s just not my way. So I loved the technical sides of filmmaking, but I never fell in love with the acting part. It was against my nature, and I think has made me a richer person because of it.”
Throughout what has become a decades-long acting career, the True Detective star said she’s also learned a lot about herself, noting that she used to isolate herself from her co-stars on set.
“I’ve always made movies by myself, where it was just about my character, and I didn’t have to deal with the other actors. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to understand that was selfish of me, jealously guarding something that I didn’t want to share,” Foster told Comer. “Now I’m learning to enter in and say, ‘How are we together and dynamic?’ Instead of it all being about me. It has been so interesting, because now I meet all these actors that do everything differently.”
Regarding the filmmaking side of the industry, the Panic Room star, who has made her way into the director’s chair several times for films such as Home for the Holidays and Money Monster, said she’s also realized her process as a director differs from others.
“When I direct, I love to talk, so I talk to people about the techniques, but I don’t like to get inside an actor’s body, because I think that’s invasive,” she explained. “Tell me, ‘Faster, slower.’ Tell me, ‘I didn’t feel that part,’ but don’t talk about my childhood, and don’t try and be one with me.”
When Foster’s at the helm, she also puts emphasis on the rehearsal and pre-production stages, so that the actors can come to set feeling prepared on the day of filming.
“I want them to not question themselves, so that you create something that’s cohesive and feels spontaneous, raw, and fresh,” she said. “I tell directors that, but they don’t listen to me, so sometimes I’ll work on a movie where I have to do 120 takes, and I’m like, ‘Okay, alright, bye.'”
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