Jodie Foster says Hollywood nearly turned her into someone she couldn’t live with.
In a candid interview, the Oscar-winning actress admitted that fame pushed her toward becoming an “a–hole,” a realization that ultimately led her to step away from the industry.
When speaking about her decision to quit acting after turning 50, Foster traced it back to the commanding tone she heard herself take with someone on set.
“I asked someone for a cappuccino?” she recalled in a Variety interview. “I did what? I thought I knew what I was talking about and ranted on for 45 minutes? I didn’t send that person a condolence letter when their mom died? I wasn’t at their wedding? I disappeared for four months and expected everybody to be my friend when I came back?”
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Foster, who had been famous since her breakout role at age 12 in 1976’s “Taxi Driver,” feared she was becoming a “creature of Hollywood — in other words, an a–hole,” according to the media outlet.
Instead of leaning into celebrity privilege, Foster made a rare choice and stepped away from the spotlight.
Foster revealed that she had lost interest in acting — and eventually found it again.
At this point in her career, Foster said she’s done chasing Hollywood’s approval and the industry’s obsession with constant relevance.
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“The movies I make,” she said, “will be about this big life that I have, not about references from 365 days a year in a reality show.”
Foster’s recent comments come after she revealed a traumatic childhood memory that has haunted her throughout her life.
During an interview with AARP magazine in December, the 63-year-old actress shared that the incident occurred in May 1976 on the night before the premiere of her movie “Taxi Driver” at the Festival de Cannes. Before Foster departed for France to attend the festivities, tragedy struck.
“My puppy, he was a little guy,” she recalled. “Went careening down these very slick steps and hit a wall. His whole skull exploded into blood right in front of me.”
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Foster was just 13 years old at the time. She later told AARP the traumatic incident — and its aftermath — had a lasting impact on her life.
Despite the emotional toll, Foster attended the Cannes premiere of “Taxi Driver,” where critics praised her performance in the film — a breakout role that would later lead to her first Oscar nomination.
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But the acclaim triggered fear rather than celebration. Foster said she locked herself in a bathroom after the premiere, worried her sudden success had come at a supernatural cost — fearing she might have inadvertently entered into a deal with the devil.
She drew a comparison between her mindset then and that of the lead character in the 2001 French-language romantic comedy “Amélie,” which starred Audrey Tautou.
The official logline for the movie reads: “Despite being caught in her imaginative world, young waitress Amélie (Tautou) decides to help people find happiness. Her quest to spread joy leads her on a journey during which she finds true love.”
“I had a whole internal thing that I had to give up the thing I loved most to get [this success],” Foster said. “It was like ‘Amélie,’ total magical thinking about how powerful I was. What a sad, sad moment. I didn’t talk to my mother about it, or anyone.”
Fox News Digital’s Ashley Hume contributed to this report.
