Jodie Foster is often held up as the example all child stars are to follow as they traverse the tricky road to fame and their formative years – but the two-time Oscar winner believes she would not have made it over those hurdles and to this professional point if she’d been a young actor in today’s modern age.
VIDEO – Kristen Stewart at Panic Room Premiere
“If I were a young actor today I would quit before I started,”; she writes in a new Huffington Post op ed piece. “If I had to grow up in this media culture, I don’t think I could survive it emotionally. I would only hope that someone who loved me, really loved me, would put their arm around me and lead me away to safety.”;
Jodie points out that this means Sarah Tobias would never have danced before her rapists in The Accused and Clarice would never have shared the awful screaming of the lambs to Dr. Lecter. It also means the world would have been without some of most startling performances in cinematic history.
PHOTOS – Out & Proud Celebrities
This public message from the notoriously private Foster came as a reaction to the world’s hypnotic obsession with Kristen Stewart’s cheating scandal. And Jodie feels doubly invested since she played Kristen’s mother in 2002’s Panic Room.
“In 2001 I spent 5 months with Kristen Stewart on the set of Panic Room mostly holed up in a space the size of a Manhattan closet,”; Jodie writes. “I grew to love that kid. She turned 11 during our shoot and on her birthday I organized a mariachi band to serenade her at the taco bar while she blew out her candles. She begrudgingly danced around a sombrero with me but soon rushed off to grip and electric department’s basketball game. Her mother and I watched her jump around after the ball, hooting with every team basket. “She doesn’t want to be an actor when she grows up, does she?’ I asked. Her mom sighed. “Yes … unfortunately.’ We both smiled and shrugged with an ambivalence born from experience. “Can’t you talk her out of it?’ I offered. “Oh, I’ve tried. She loves it. She just loves it.’ More sighs.”;
VIDEO – Kristen Stewart’s Candid View of Fame
And while Jodie is loathe to offer anyone advice, she does close with this parting wisdom for Kristen to cling to in these dark days: “My mother had a saying that she doled out after every small injustice, every heartbreak, every moment of abject suffering. “This Too Shall Pass.’ God, I hated that phrase. It always seemed so banal and out of touch, like she was telling me my pain was irrelevant. Now it just seems quaint, but oddly true … Eventually this all passes. The public horrors of today eventually blow away. And yes, you are changed by the awful wake of reckoning they leave behind. You trust less. You calculate your steps. You survive. Hopefully in the process you don’t lose your ability to throw your arms in the air again and spin in wild abandon. That is the ultimate F.U. and — finally — the most beautiful survival tool of all. Don’t let them take that away from you.”;
More Links:
REPORT: Bobby Brown Heads Back to Rehab
Exclusive Docs: Evelyn Divorcing Chad
The Boys of Summer
Van Damme Admits to Affair with Kylie Minogue
