Jodie Foster has opened up about her first impressions of Robert De Niro when they worked together on Taxi Driver, admitting she found his method acting “really uninteresting”.
The Oscar-winning star first broke out as a child star in the 1976 film opposite De Niro, and spoke about his way of working at the Marrakech Film Festival.
“We’d run the lines and run the lines a second and third time,” she said (via Variety). “And I’m sure maybe some of you have been here when Robert De Niro was here. One of our greatest American actors, so proud to have worked with him — not the most interesting person on earth.”
Foster shared that De Niro “was very much in character” and as a result “was really uninteresting” as a person.
“I remember having these lunches with him and being like, ‘What is happening? When can I go home?’” she continued. “And he wouldn’t really be able to talk to me, so I would talk to the waiters and the people in the restaurants.”
However, the star recalled that her eyes were “opened” to “what acting could be” after their third lunch together.
“And I realised at 12, ‘Oh, it’s my fault because I haven’t brought enough to the table,’” she elaborated. “I’ve just been saying lines and waiting for my next line and acting naturally, but building a character is something different.
“And I remember how excited I was, I remember being kind of sweaty and excited and giggly and coming back up into the hotel room to meet my mom and saying, ‘I’ve had this epiphany.’ And I think from there, everything changed.”
Meanwhile, earlier this year Wes Anderson revealed that Foster turned down the chance to appear in at least three of his films in the past.
“Over the years, I had so many movies that I tried to get Jodie Foster to be in,” he told Collider. “It used to be every movie, we went to Jodie Foster for a part. And I think I did it three movies in a row, maybe four. And I met her, and I liked her. And I thought I was going to get her. And I think she’s just great, Jodie Foster. And I loved her.”
He added: “I still would like to get Jodie Foster. But I guess after asking few times, I thought maybe I’m not… I think sometimes somebody has an idea of the kind of work they want to do at that time in his or her life, and we weren’t right.”
Last year, Foster revealed to NME that she didn’t want to become an actor, sharing: “You know, I didn’t become an actor because I wanted to act. I had no choice; I started at [age] three.”