Jodie Foster‘s first Oscar nomination came at just 14 years old for her work in Martin Scorsese‘s Taxi Driver. Now 61, the two-time Academy Award winner is sharing some wisdom with Elle magazine.
“I went through a period where I was like, ‘Wow, I had these goals about writing and directing, and I didn’t meet any of them.’ And I couldn’t stop feeling like a terrible failure,” Foster admits.
“And now I feel like I have fewer goals in film than I’ve ever had, and I’m happier than I’ve ever been,” she declares.
Foster can be seen in Netflix’s Nyad, playing Bonnie Stoll, the coach to Annette Bening‘s Diana Nyad.
“[T]here’s something amazing about acting in my sixties and supporting other people,” Foster says. “I think I enjoy it more than anything I’ve ever done.”
Having started out so young, Jodie says she can’t help but have a “soft spot” for other actresses. “I find myself reaching out to girls who could be my daughters and saying, ‘Wait a minute, you keep doing dumb things on publicity tours. What’s going on with you? … Who’s letting you do that? And where’s your mom?'”
She continues, “I just don’t know how they survive without some mother around the way I had a mom around. To be able to say, ‘You’re overexposed,’ or … ‘You can go away for two years and have a life and come back and there will be work for you. Yeah, maybe it won’t be in some franchise, but what do you care? This is your life.'”
Foster also calls the superhero genre “a phase that’s lasted a little too long for me.”
“The good ones — like Iron Man, Black Panther, The Matrix — I marvel at those movies … but … those movies don’t change my life,” Foster continues.