Jodie Foster made veteran director Martin Scorsese “uncomfortable’ on the set of classic movie Taxi Driver.
The then 12-year-old child actress played teenage prostitute Iris in the 1976 psychological thriller which also starred Robert De Niro as loner Travis Bickle. The movie drew criticism for its hyper-realistic portrayal of s-x and violence, and concern was shown for the young actress, who at the time was subjected to psychological testing, in accordance with California Labor Board requirements, to ensure she wouldn’t be emotionally scarred by her role.
Recalling her experience making the iconic movie in a rare appearance on British chat show The Graham Norton Show, the 53-year-old actress-turned-director, who is in London promoting new movie Money Monster, revealed Scorsese felt “uncomfortable” directing her in the controversial role and would laugh out of embarrassment: “I was 12 years old and had made more movies than anyone else on the film at that point,” she explained to Norton. “They were very uncomfortable about my character. Nobody knew how to direct me.”
By then Foster had worked on several prime time television series and children’s films and was already beginning to feel jaded by the movie making process and thought acting was a “dumb job”.
“Scorsese would say something like ‘unzip his fly’ and just start laughing and not know what to do so he would hand it over to Robert De Niro and then Robert would tell me what to do. And he was even more ‘Robert De Niro’ then, even quieter and more strange,” she smiled to Norton.
However working with the legendary director swiftly changed the young star’s mind, and having enjoyed a career spanning 40 plus years, she’s now firmly in the director’s chair like her former mentor.
“I’d done a lot of it and I guess I thought acting was a dumb job because all I ever did was say lines that someone else wrote,” she mused.
“I thought that was a terrible way to make a living and I couldn’t imagine I would do that when I grew up. But he (Scorsese) took me under his wing and taught me how to improvise and I realised there was more to acting than just saying lines.”
