Reason why Jodie Foster had to undergo psychiatric assessments before being cast in iconic movie
Topics: Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, Oscars
Stefania Sarrubba
Featured Image Credit: Getty Images/Jon Kopaloff/Columbia Pictures
Topics: Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, Oscars
Jodie Foster has played many challenging roles in her career spanning almost six decades, but one proved to be particularly hard and required some extra prepping.
The Silence of the Lambs star, more recently seen in the acclaimed fourth season of HBO’s True Detective, started acting when she was very young.
A child model and actress known for her work in Disney productions, such as 1972’s Napoleon and Samantha and 1976’s Freaky Friday, Foster transitioned to more adult roles when she was a teenager.
After working with Martin Scorsese on Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore in 1974, a young Foster was cast in the role of child prostitute Iris Steensma in the filmmaker’s cult movie Taxi Driver, released in 1976.
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In the acclaimed film, Robert De Niro’s Vietnam veteran Travis Bickle encounters Iris and becomes protective of her, ultimately killing her pimp and lover Sport (Harvey Keitel) and one of her clients.
Foster, who was 14 at the time the movie was released, had to undergo a psychiatric evaluation before taking on the role of Iris. On top of that, she was accompanied by a social worker while on set. To spare Foster the most sexually suggestive scenes, her older sister Connie — who was 20 at the time the film was made — acted as her stand-in.
Despite the role of Iris attracting some criticism, it skyrocketed Foster’s popularity and showcased her talent, securing her first Oscar nomination in 1977.
Foster would later reflect on playing Iris and how that character helped her shed the Disney star image she had built for herself early on in her career.
Speaking on her Taxi Driver role in 2014, the actress, producer, and director said she hated 'the idea that everybody thinks if a kid's going to be an actress it means that she has to play Shirley Temple or someone's little sister', (via Interview magazine).
"That's not reality anymore. I don't think the majority of the public really want to see that. I hope not, anyway. I'm really not very good at tap-dancing," she joked.
Following her breakthrough in Taxi Driver, Foster would go on to book more intense roles, including that of sexual assault survivor Sarah Tobias in1988’s The Accused.
Loosely based on the 1983 gang rape of Cheryl Araujo in New Bedford, Massachusetts, the legal drama follows the aftermath of the rape and Sarah’s battle to prosecute the three assailants as well as the men who encouraged the violence.
Foster starred alongside Top Gun’s Kelly McGillis as District Attorney Katheryn Murphy, assigned to Sarah’s case.
The film challenged the perception of responsibility and victim blaming surrounding sexual violence, and earned Foster her first Oscar in 1989.