acioee ENTERTAINMENT 3 Actor/director Now Jodie Foster is a shooting star By Frank Lovece asort of prodigious arena, that’s true, casts of “Hondo” (1967) and “May- but T think more important was the berry RF.D.” (1968-71). Ths led to Jo- Sitting and speaking with Jodie idea of balancing between the head die's first break, at 3, when she landed Foster, you get the feeling that she and the heart.” a Coppertone commercial that Buddy takes it for granted that she's the _ That, Foster has learned to do, Was trying out for. She went on to be- ‘smartest person in arom, The weird judging from her chameleon-like, come a prolific TV tomboy, breaking thing is she's probably right a lot of highly intuitive adult performances. into movies with “Napoleon and Sa- the time. In“Five Corners” (1987), she played a mantha” (1972). Six years later, she Foster carned a literature degree, plain, sensible Bronx gil inthe early got into writing and directing ‘with with honors, at Yale. She was valedic: 1960s. In “The Accused,” a year later, "Hands of Time,” a short piece for the torian at the Lycee Francais prep she won an Academy Award portray- 1978 BBC documentary “Americans.” school in Los Angeles, where from ing a young woman who was gang- Now, with an Oscar, two hit movies, ‘age 9 her classes were conducted in raped at a bar. Then, with adead-on and a Hollywood directorial debut, French, in which she's fluent. And Appalachian accent, she played a ca- “the next step is erucial for me,” she When she speaks in English, it's with pable but insecure FBI agent in the says. “After ‘The Accused’ and ‘Si- the rapid-fire directness of an arbi- hitthrller “The Silence of the Lambs” lence,’ I'm more scrutinized. And if trageur doing a corporate takeover. (1991). Even as a child, Foster could my name is on the marquee now, any ‘his is all Felevant because the 28- play a 12-year-old prostitute in “Taxi Kind of failure is a bigger issue than if year-old Foster —a working actress Driver” (1976), earning an Oscar I wasnt.” Since age 3-— has chosen for her fea- nomination, then turn around and That's a good reason to be picky. ture-ilm directorial debut a drama play an heiress in the Disney comedy Foster, who concedes she has the lux. about a child prodigy. Titled “Little ‘Candleshoe” (1977). ury of'a nest egg from her youthful Man Tate," it’ stars Foster herself, career, says, “Alot of people have to Dianne Wiest, Harry Connick Jr. and act all the time. They gotta work all newcomer Adam Hlann-Byr the tme ste do two or three year-old genius Fred Tate. And while ©] iz lms a year, whatever comes along, Wetiretchng tings to say Fosters 77e next step is and they just disregard the things that orm ie reflected in that of Fred crucial for me. After aren't right about itr eon ‘kid with a shocking genius at paint- — ¢¢ " A lot of young actors who've ing, music and math who tries desper- ‘The Accused” and starving being waiters suddenly burst aly tofitin with his peers — tere “Silence,” Pm more ome the scene, and they think they are similarities: The single mother. is ‘want to make five other movies right {v's 11 pews wopepoeny onidanyag sodedamoy Jo uopsresed hq ydaous pnrarqond red uy 30 e1ogm wy BOR ONPOLSOY ‘The long-gone, barely referred-to fa. SCrutinized.’ aveay- But they think i's important to ther. The precocious talent for things make ‘something that’s fabulous! artistic, And the early mastery of lan- commercial. And the fact is, nobody guage —" Foster. reportedly was knows what's quote-unquote Speaking full sentences before age 2, commercial ‘and handling cold scripts at age 5 Heer transition from child actress to “I'm not a hack,” Foster says plain- “I don't “know,” Foster ponders, adult she credits to good management _ ly. “I just don't know how to work that with uncharacteristic uncertainty. "I a8 much as talent. "My mom, espe- much. I don’t have any ideas left at don't know. 1 just — I don't know. I cially,” she says. “because she chose the end of a movie, And it's more fun ‘wasn't a genius at math and all that roles for me. She knew what kind of a this way. If you've got to spend three other stuff. And T was not at all that person I was, and she chose roles that oF four months on something, it better type of) personality, I was not quiet were really challenging, that were not - be something you enjoy.” orpassive Iwasnot internal, realy.1 about being 10 or Bor 12 but that were _©1! NENSNFEN ENT ssn tras an actor kid so 1 was uninhibited serious characters.” {nd out there and danced on tables." Mom is Evelyn Foster, nicknamed STAR VIEW Fred Tate is more likely to hide un- Brandy, who married Lucius Foster der them. The only child of a tough- III, an’ Air Force officer and Yale talking waitress, the character wants graduate. They were divorced after 10 only to be an “average” kid. But when years and three kids — soon to be 918b-12z (008) 99LOT AN ‘M20 MeN “aay HIed 002 NOLLWIODOSSV ASIUdua.LNA Yd VdSMIN felted special col for ifed_ four ince during the divorce, Brandy FRANK Youngsters, he sees achance for ac- foundshe was pregnant withihechia Eeplance among a goup just lke who would become Alicia Christan LOVECE ims Foster, nicknamed odie “The story was something I think I Jodie’s brother, Buddy, was a child understood,” Foster reflects. “Iwasin actor who would later be in the TV Jodie Foster