Jodie Foster says early success meant she escaped sexual abuse in Hollywood

jodie foster once said of her early success Hollywood Making her “too dangerous to touch” which is the most likely reason why she is protected sexual abuse As a child actor.

In a new interview, the 63-year-old Oscar winner looks back on her career and talks about why she thinks she didn’t face reality ‘Horrifying experiences’ of other child actors.

“I really had to examine, like, how was I saved?” she told NPR’s FRESH AIR. “Of course, there are microaggressions. Anyone in the workplace has had misogynistic microaggressions. It’s just part of being a woman, right? But what kept me from having those bad experiences, those horrible experiences?”

The key difference, Foster says, is that she came to possess a level of professional authority unusually early on, which lifted her out of the category of a disadvantaged actor.

“Probably by the time I was 12 years old, I already had a certain amount of power. So by the time I got my first Oscar nomination, I was already in another category of people with power, and I was too dangerous to touch. I might ruin people’s careers, or I might be called ‘uncle,’ so I wasn’t left out,” she said.

In 1965, at the age of three, Foster made her debut in a television commercial for sunscreen and went on to get more work in advertising. At the age of six, she made her debut in the film ” napoleon and samanthaand continued to play smaller roles in television and films, including Becky Thatcher in Tom Sawyer (1973).

In 1976, she played a child prostitute in the film. Martin Scorsese’s taxi driver when she was 12 years old. this performance, widely regarded as her breakthrough role, Earning the actor her first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

She won her first Academy Award for Best Actress in 1988 for her performance as Waitress Sarah Tobias. defendant This is her second film role as FBI agent Clarice Starling. 1991 movie silence of the lambs. She was recently nominated for an Oscar for her work as a swimming coach in 2023 nyad and won an Emmy Award for her performance in the film HBO series True Detective: Land of Darkness.

this panic room Stars say predatory behavior in Hollywood stems more from power imbalances than individual personalities.

“Predators will do whatever they can to manipulate people into doing what they want them to do. It’s easier when people are younger, weaker and don’t have power,” she said.

“This is exactly what predatory behavior is: using power to weaken people in order to dominate them.”

She added that her “head-first” personality may also have made it difficult for predators to get to her.

“I approach the world in a head-first way. It’s very difficult to manipulate me emotionally because I don’t operate with superficial emotions,” she said.

“Two things can happen child actor: One is that you develop resilience, you figure out a plan and a way to survive completely, which is a real advantage in life. “

Last month, Foster spoke about acting and why she thinks it’s a “brutal job” She won’t choose for herself.

“I can I never chose to be an actorI don’t have the character of an actor. I’m not the kind of person who wants to dance on tables or sing for people,” she said at the Marrakesh Film Festival in December.

She said her experience exposed her to “child actor this era”.

“I’m like, wait, where are their parents? Why hasn’t anyone told them they should stop making so many movies, or maybe stop getting drunk on red carpets?” the actor said. “I want to take care of them because I know how dangerous it is.”