Joelie Fosler

Joelie Fosler
Working to blot sexist images
and humanize women's roles
"Jodie's one of the greatest people I've ever met."
Unlike
most people who pursue acting as a career, she
Staff Writer
is well-educated, a graduate of Yale who was willing to
take four years out of a lucrative career to earn a deEW YORK - When Jodie Foster began her gree. She did it against the advice of those who said the
career at the ripe old age of three, she was interruption would end her acting days.
depicted in advertising art as a miniaturized
Of course four years at Yale was nothing compared to
version of the feminine ideal - The Copper-· the interruption of John Hinckley's inordinate interest
tone Girl.
in the actress, an interest he pursued with visits to the
Foster's generation has come a long way since those campus in unsuccessful attempts to meet Foster.
suntan-oiled days, and now every movie the 30-year-old
actress makes reflects her commitment to seeing those
WHEN HE couldn't see her, even after a midnight
sexist images obliterated.
call to her dorm, he tried getting her attention by shootShe illustrates her feelings with a story about the pro- ing President Ronald Reagan in 1981. Foster, a sophoposed opening sh.ot for her latest film, "Sommersby," a more at the time, retreated to her studies and survived
movie opening in select cities Feb. 5.
the media melee. .
An American remake of the French fable about a lost
"A lot of people tell me actors are stupid, but those
husband who returns a changed man to the wife he left early years are important to a career, which is why a lot
behind, it was first filmed as "The Return of Martin of them drop out of school or don't go on," she explains.
Guerre."
"What my education has done for me is shown me
Re-written and ~et in the South during the Recons- how to deepen my understanding of a script and not sit
truction period following the Civil War, the original on the outside. It's all about reading the text and its inscript for "Sommersby" called for Foster, as a woman tent and what you bring to that."
·
whose husband has been gone for seven years, to throw
She plays a conventional role in "Sommersby" with
her arms around the returning soldier's knees, weep un- the same intensity she would bring to more contempocontrollably and be brushed aside.
rary themes. But Foster feels that "Sommersby" ad"It was embarrassing," Foster relates, not bothering to dresses the idea of what marriage really means.
mask the displeasure in her voice. "There's no reason
"I like the folktale thing, the morality tale," she says
you can't be romantic and strong at the same time."
in a tough voice that contrasts with her sharp-featured
delicacy.
··'
THE SCENE, featuring co-star Richard Gere, was
"It's not like one of these costume dramas with people
:
scrapped and re-written so that a tense Foster would see looking across landscapes. It's deeper.
the returning man from a distance and react with con"It's about a woman giving it all up for love. That's a .
fusion.
pretty fiery journey, even for a woman living in conven·
"Women's roles are not written in human terms," tional times."
complains the woman who picked up Best Actress OsGere and Foster found themselves at odds when lt
cars for playing FBI trainee Clarice Starling in "The Si- came to rehearsals. She wanted them; he didn't.
·
lence of the Lambs" (1991) and a rape victim in "The Accused" (1988).
"JODIE DOESN'T like to enter into a project like this
So she has pushed and prodded and fought to find with less than the best," Gere explains.
them.
"She wanted much more rehearsal than I did. I like to
"She has strength of character," says "Sommersby" di- schmooze and leap in. She wanted to rehearse the dancrector John Amie!. "There was something in those ing so it would be great. My policy is that it's good for
women Oike the one Foster plays in the film) that will the picture if our dancing isn't great."
not be extinguished - her softness, her gentleness, her
sweetness. I suppose, for want of a better word, her
By JOYCE J. PERSICO
N
WO
•
S.
• see FOSTER, CC6
Foster
• continued from CC1
deserved Best Supporting Actress
Oscar nomination.
After her college graduation, Foster kicked her acting career into
high-gear with a searing and explicit
performance as the victim of a gang
rape in "The Accused."
By the time she won the starring
role in Jonathan Demme's "The Silence of the Lambs," no one was
. thinking of Foster as an ingenue any
more.
Having written and directed a
short film entitled "Hands of Time"
for a Time-Life BBC documentary
called "Americans," Foster made
her directorial debut on a fulllength feature in 1991 with the story
of a special child called "Little Man
Tate."
Foster, in a mixture of mock and
rea) 1mrprise; growls at Gere's desc;ription of their working methods.
"I don't like to rehearse at all!" she
cqunters. '.'We had a lot of script
· problems. Arid he wouldn't get up
out of his chair
three days!"
Foster's career has evolved from
the usual pre-teeµ fare of such television shows as "The Courtship of
· Eddie's Father,!' ":Mayberry, R.F.D,"
"Bonanza" and "Gunsmoke" to a list
' of incredible film performances in .
movies that weren't worthy of them.
The most notable exception was
the bleak, 1976 Martin Scorsese clas·
"TO DIRECT in Hollywood, an
sic "Taxi I>river,''. for whicb Foster,
as an i.mderage prostitute to Harvey 'old boy' has to look you in the eye
· KeitePs virulent pimp, won a well- and say, 'I don't know why, I have
for
nothing to gain, but I'm going to
give you $5 million to make a
movie,' " Foster explains.
She has no immediate plans for directing again, admitting that she
welcomed the idea of having a director tell her where to stand.
What she is looking forward to is
the Tom Harris sequel to "The Silence of the Lambs," a book due for
release later this year, that reportedly features Foster's Starling character and her nemesis, escaped serial killer Hannibal.Lecter.
"We'll all be involved in the sequel," she says of her collaboration
with director Jonathan Demme, Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins and
Bucks County screenwriter Ted
Tally.
But, so far, Foster's two Oscars
have offered both opportunities and
limitations.
•
"It helps for all the obvious reasons," she adds, looking serious behind tortoise shell glasses. "All these
big, tempting, arbitrary goals are
taken care of so you can concentrate
on which roles you want to do. It's
sort of freeing.
"On the other hand, big profile
movies cost more money and more
people have to go to them to make
them successful. So, it's a mixed
blessing."