Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Jodie Foster Speaks Out

image host

We’ve all seen the headlines at the check-out counter. “Kristen Stewart Caught.” We’ve all thumbed the glossy pages here and there. “Kris and Rob a couple?” We all catch the snaps. “I like that dress. I hate the hair. Cute couple. Bad shoes.” There’s no guilt in acknowledging the human interest in public linens. It’s as old as the hills. Lift up beautiful young people like gods and then pull them down to earth to gaze at their seams. See, they’re just like us. But we seldom consider the childhoods we unknowingly destroy in the process.

I have been an actress since I was 3 years old, 46 years to date. I have no memories of a childhood outside the public eye. I am told people look to me as a success story. Often complete strangers approach me and ask, How have you stayed so normal, so well-adjusted, so private? I usually lie and say, “Just boring I guess.” The truth is, like some curious radioactive mutant, I have invented my own gothic survival tools. I have fashioned rules to control the glaring eyes. Maybe I’ve organized my career choices to allow myself (and the ones I truly love) maximum personal dignity. And yes, I have neurotically adapted to the gladiator sport of celebrity culture, the cruelty of a life lived as a moving target. In my era, through discipline and force of will, you could still manage to reach for a star-powered career and have the authenticity of a private life. Sure, you’d have to lose your spontaneity in the elaborate architecture. You’d have to learn to submerge beneath the foul air and breathe through a straw. But at least you could stand up and say, I will not willfully participate in my own exploitation. Not anymore. If I were a young actor or actress starting my career today in the new era of social media and its sanctioned hunting season, would I survive? Would I drown myself in drugs, sex, and parties? Would I be lost?

I’ve said it before and I will say it again: if I were a young actor today I would quit before I started. 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. Sarah Tobias would never have danced before her rapists in The Accused. Clarice would never have shared the awful screaming of the lambs to Dr. Lecter. Another actress might surely have taken my place, opened her soul to create those characters, surrendered her vulnerabilities. But would she have survived the paparazzi peering into her windows, the online harassment, the public humiliations, without overdosing in a hotel room or sticking her face with needles until she became unrecognizable even to herself?

Acting is all about communicating vulnerability, allowing the truth inside yourself to shine through regardless of whether it looks foolish or shameful. To open and give yourself completely. It is an act of freedom, love, connection. Actors long to be known in the deepest way for their subtleties of character, for their imperfections, their complexities, their instincts, their willingness to fall. The more fearless you are, the more truthful the performance. How can you do that if you know you will be personally judged, skewered, betrayed? If you’re smart, you learn to willfully disassociate, to compartmentalize. Putting your emotions into a safety box definitely comes in handy when the public throws stones. The point is to survive, intact or not, whatever the emotional cost. Actors who become celebrities are supposed to be grateful for the public interest. After all, they’re getting paid. Just to set the record straight, a salary for a given on-screen performance does not include the right to invade anyone’s privacy, to destroy someone’s sense of self.

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. We talked and laughed for hours, sharing spontaneous mysteries and venting our boredom. 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. We watched her run around the court for a while, both of us silent, each thinking our own thoughts. I was pregnant at the time and found myself daydreaming of the child I might have soon. Would she be just like Kristen? All that beautiful talent and fearlessness … would she jump and dunk and make me so proud?

There’s this image I have of a perfect moment. It comes to me as a square format 8mm home movie with 70’s oversaturated reds and blues, no sound, just a scratchy loop … there’s a little white-haired girl twirling in the surf. She’s singing at the top of her lungs, jumping and spinning around in the cold water, all salty, sandy, full of joy and confidence. She’s unconscious of the camera, of course, in her own world. The camera shakes a little. Perhaps her mom’s laughing behind the lens. Could a child be more loved than in this moment? She’s perfect. She is absolutely perfect.

Cut to: Today … A beautiful young woman strides down the sidewalk alone, head down, hands drawn into fists. She’s walking fast, darting around huge men with black cameras thrusting at her mouth and chest. “Kristen, how do you feel?” “Smile Kris!” “Hey, hey, did you get her?” “I got her. I got her!” The young woman doesn’t cry. F--k no. She doesn’t look up. She’s learned. She keeps her head down, her shades on, fists in her pockets. Don’t speak. Don’t look. Don’t cry.

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.

Source | Via

11 comments:

  1. Oh Jodie, I think I love you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you Jodie. Stay strong Kristen. I hope you dance.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank You Jodie, People makes mistakes and learned from it. She's just human. I hate it when people put all the blame on her. She's amazing and I still love Kristen Stewart no matter what. This all will passed.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you Jodie!! Everything she says is so true!! Kristen is not flawless, she is a beautiful, smart young woman, who will learn from life! I love her and support her! Thanks for this blog!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Amazing words from someone who knows K, im moved, in tears, being a mom of a young daughter I totally sympathize with K's mom, what difficult time her child is experiencing at the moment, and how different things will have to be managed from now on. Jodie is right, time moves fast and what's news today won't be the news of tomorrow. My best and sincere wnishes of peace and happiness to Kristen and her family.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Well,,, as everybody says, Jodie Foster is a great actor. Now for me she is a great woman, great role model, and most of all a human with compassion and love.
    Thank you Jodie.....
    Love you Kristen...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Words of wisdom!! Finally someone speaks up!! The hate outside is unbelievable!! Did she kill people or what? She has been treated like the worst sinner in human history. Enough already!!! Keep beating a dead horse just show how cruel and inhuman you are. And those haters act like they are all morally superior. Ha!

    ReplyDelete
  8. That was so beautifully written. I hope Kristen reads this and holds her head up high. She does not owe us anything, especially an answer or explanation. That is between her and Rob. As long as she makes peace with him and their relationship (or lack there of) she has nothing to be ashamed of. She made a terrible mistake, but the price she is paying is far greater than the crime! I will always support her... I am rooting for her, I hope she is able to get her man back and thrive against the backlash. Regardless, she will always have my support and good wishes!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thank you Jodie foster for always be at kristen side and be there when she needed some support,understanding,and defendant.I hope that you and kristen someday work together again.I love you both and I can't wait to see kristen beautiful face again and hope she's ok.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I want to say thank you Jodie!!!I believe that kristen will survive this and come out stronger than even before.I cannot wait to see start working and see her doing what she love to do and that is to act.I will support and never leave her when she is needed understanding,support and love.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Bravo Jodie Foster!!!!!!! Love you Kristen❤

    ReplyDelete