It’s remarkable how long Jodie Foster has been part of our lives and, yet, not part of them. In an interview with the New York Times a few years back, she was predictably cautious about revealing too much of herself, but she did hit on the fundamental paradox of her occupation. “It’s not that I’m not in touch with my feelings. It’s that I’m scared of what happens when I show them,†she said. “For an actor, that’s crazy! What a cruel profession for somebody like me. I didn’t choose it. I was 3 years old. I got picked because I was willing. A lot of people are made to be an actor on a cellular level. They can’t wait to cry their eyes out in front of everyone. That’s not me.â€
Foster has long kept her private life private, happy to let other celebrities linger in the public eye, every part of them on display. Modeling since she was little, in movies before she was 10, she has chosen the sane path of letting her work speak for itself and to cultivate a world that’s separate from Hollywood, turning in recent years toward directing and being less interested in acting. Child stars often face a difficult journey toward adulthood — for women, it’s even more perilous — but Foster is that rare success story. It’s one thing to wow audiences at 12 in Taxi Driver, but to continue to do strong work in adulthood — even after taking time off to graduate magna cum laude from Yale — is more impressive.
Intelligence and focus define her performances, including her latest in Nyad, and because she doesn’t step in front of the camera much anymore, it always feels special when she does. But in that Times profile, she offered an insight into her choices that had never occurred to us: “I make all my movies about pretty much the same thing. It’s ultimately death and being alone. It’s existentialism. The meaning of life. All of those big things that would seem obnoxious if I went on about them.†Once you read that, it makes sense: There’s a fundamental solitariness to her characters, as if they’re never entirely part of the same world as the other people in the story. A Jodie Foster heroine often has to go it alone. Her characters are unflappable because they have no other choice. Life has taught them to keep their guard up.
Below, we rank 33 of Foster’s most memorable performances. We didn’t cover everything — she shows up briefly in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, for instance — and skipped over the work she made as a very little girl. (Although, if you watch 1973’s Tom Sawyer, it’s unnerving how she already seems like Jodie Foster, Movie Star™.) She didn’t choose to be an actor, but there’s no denying she’s a natural.
33. Catchfire (1990)
This is probably the worst movie Jodie Foster has been in, and it is definitely the weirdest. Directed by Dennis Hopper — Foster had such a bad experience with him that she famously warned Meryl Streep afterward not only not to work with him, but not to even come near him — it’s a mishmash of a lot of very stupid gangster clichés and Hopper’s clear desire to appear attractive to young women (manifesting itself in how he shoots Foster here). Catchfire was such a mess that Hopper took his name off it, but unfortunately for Foster, she was stuck with her name in the credits. Also, this is an all-timer of a batshit cast, with Joe Pesci, Charlie Sheen (playing Foster’s boyfriend!), John Turturro, Fred Ward, Tony Sirico, Dean Stockwell, Catherine Keener, and … holy shit, is that Bob Dylan? With a chainsaw?
32. Shadows and Fog (1992)
No, really, there was a time when Woody Allen was able to cast a bunch of award-winning actresses (including Kathy Bates and Lily Tomlin) to play a collection of prostitutes in his period piece about a serial killer wreaking havoc in the 1920s. Foster is one of them, and the fun stems from watching the actresses work off each other, although it’s little more than a cameo and not particularly memorable. The women’s rapport makes you wish they’d all had a proper movie to star in together. Alas, that has yet to happen.
31. Anna and the King (1999)
It’s one thing to decide to make a serious version of The King of I. It’s another to ask Foster to play the one thing she is profoundly unqualified to play: stupid. Her Anna in this bloated, dull, woefully misguided version of the classic story is supposed to be dreamy and besotted with the king (here, Chow Yun-Fat, who’s better than Foster). As Roger Ebert put it, “She seems subtly uncomfortable … it is almost impossible to play a dumb person who is supposed to be smart, and that’s what she has to do as Anna.†It was an odd choice for Foster to do a big, dumb epic like this, and the good news is that she never decided to do something like it again.
30. Elysium (2013)
In recent years, Foster has gravitated toward playing eccentric supporting characters. Her role in Elysium is what happens when that strategy goes badly. In Neill Blomkamp’s follow-up to District 9, she’s Delacourt, the unfeeling defense secretary who carefully monitors the titular orbiting space station in which the one percent now reside. (Wouldn’t want any dirty commoners like Matt Damon’s lowly hero ruining the place, right?) There’s no real wit or menace to the performance, although her hair looks amazing in the film. (One thing, though: What is that accent supposed to be that she’s doing?)
29. Hotel Artemis (2018)
Like Elysium, this is Foster trying on some quirks for size. In Hotel Artemis, she plays the Nurse, who runs the titular hotel. (It only looks like a hotel, though — it’s really a hospital that specializes in patching up bad guys.) The movie takes place over one predictably crazy night as she must contend with a bunch of disparate criminals, and it always feels like she’s just hamming it up, trying to tap into the story’s B-movie spirit but never fully convincing us that she truly loves pulp fiction like this. As the Nurse, Foster talks like she’s in an old-time gangster picture and walks with a limp — there’s a lot of acting going on here — but this mediocre action-thriller hardly seems like a good use of her time.
28. Nell (1994)
How much do you blame Foster for Nell? Her performance as a woman isolated from the world and raised as a child well into adulthood by her mother, suddenly unleashed onto the world, is committed and serious and thoughtful. But Nell itself is stupider than a rock and more than a little problematic, particularly with how recklessly the film treats the classification of Nell’s condition and how infantilizing all the characters are toward her. (In the end, the story’s not about Nell, you see: It is quite literally about the friends we made along the way!) That this movie is a disaster isn’t the fault of Foster — who was, after all, nominated for an Oscar — but that doesn’t change the fact that she’s the one you’re watching the entire time.
27. Stealing Home (1988)
The poster, which features Mark Harmon wistfully staring off into the distance as Foster hovers largely over him, makes this look like a romance between Clarice Starling and Gibbs from NCIS. But Foster has a small part, and only in flashbacks, as a childhood friend/flame of Harmon’s baseball player who, when the film begins, has committed suicide. Harmon tries to uncover the mystery of his life while trying to get his own life on track. Stealing Home is a two-hankie weeper, and a cheap one at that. Foster’s good in the part, but she’s also too good for the part.
26. Siesta (1988)
An extremely strange little movie about a woman (Ellen Barkin) who may or may not be a daredevil who may or may not be jumping into a volcano and may or may not be getting pushed around by an evil promoter (Martin Sheen) and may or may not be imagining that Grace Jones (Grace Jones) is in the same movie she is. Foster has a small, intriguing role as … you know, we saw this movie for the first time years ago and are still not entirely sure who anyone is in this movie. Clearly inspired by Blue Velvet but without David Lynch’s control of tone, Siesta is still fascinating as an artifact of the time right after when Blue Velvet came out and no one had the slightest idea of what to do with it.
25. Nim’s Island (2008)
One of the great things about Foster is her willingness to try different things, but that tendency betrays her in this outsize, loud, over-the-top family “adventure†comedy. Foster plays an adventure-books author secretly terrified to leave her home who ends up bonding with a girl (Abigail Breslin) and her dad (Gerard Butler) on a far-off island. They learn lessons together! Nim’s Island ends up biting off more than it can chew, and can’t decide if it’s an inspiring romp, a goofy family film, or both. Foster doesn’t quite find the right tone here: She knows she’s in A Family Movie, and she dials it up a little too much. But to be fair, this is a movie where she wakes up to a seal kissing her. (Available to rent on Amazon.)
24. The Mauritanian (2021)
Foster’s first film role after a three-year gap finds her playing Nancy Hollander, a no-nonsense American defense attorney who takes on as a client Mohamedou Ould Salahi (Tahar Rahim), who has been sent to Guantanamo Bay after 9/11 because the U.S. government is convinced he was involved. Her performance is initially quite intriguing — Hollander doesn’t care if Salahi is innocent, she just wants to make sure he gets his day in court — but Kevin Macdonald’s turgid true-life drama eventually turns simplistic, stranding the character in a trite arc in which she has to learn that, darn it, sometimes people are more important than the law. Foster brings her usual intelligence and steeliness, but The Mauritanian isn’t to her level.
23. The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (2002)
Based off an unfinished novel by Georgian author Chris Fuhrman (who died before it was published), The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys is a smart, disjointed, ultimately winning story of four Catholic school kids who play pranks and make comic books (with terrific animation provided by Spawn’s Todd McFarlane) while under the oppressive rule of a strict nun (played by Foster). Foster produced this, and she clearly adores the material, but her character wavers wildly back and forth between meanness and the inherent vulnerability and humanity that she can’t help but bring to the role. This probably isn’t the right part for Foster, but, again, she did produce the movie, so you can forgive her for finding a role for herself, even if it doesn’t quite fit.
22. Candleshoe (1978)
One of the most remarkable things about Foster’s career is that it has gone on so long that it stretches all the way back to Hollywood legends. Candleshoe was actually a Walt Disney production — this was one of those live-action films you’d find on old oversized video boxes, next to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Gus the Kicking Mule — that starred a 14-year-old Foster as a tomboy heroine alongside David Niven and, in her last movie, Helen Hayes. Foster is all overalls and pluck, like many of her (often-TV) movies of the time, and it’s a reminder that she really was one of the most bankable child actors for several years before figuring out the next stretch of her career.
21. The Brave One (2007)
If you’re being generous, you can say this is Jodie Foster’s version of a Liam Neeson “special set of skills†movie. If you’re less generous — and, let’s face it, if you’re truthful — you can say this is her Death Wish. She plays a radio host who is attacked in Central Park and responds by becoming an armed vigilante, killing criminals and drawing the attention of an investigating police officer (Terrence Howard). Foster is convincingly steely and vengeful, but The Brave One isn’t smart enough to truly interrogate her character or her quest for “justice.†It’s fun to watch her do this sort of semi-action movie, but it’s a lot of effort wasted.
20. The Beaver (2011)
Grant Foster this: It took guts to make a dark comedy that dealt frankly with depression in which the main character starts to interact with the world through a hand puppet. (The unfortunate part is that the film stars Mel Gibson, whose personal life was starting to implode around the time The Beaver came out.) The movie is uneven but fascinating, but in terms of her own performance, she takes a backseat, playing Gibson’s fed-up wife who wants to start fresh, although eventually trying to reconnect with her troubled husband. By this stage of her career, Foster seemed more energized by directing than acting, and as such she does solid but unspectacular work here, preferring your attention focus on Gibson and co-stars Anton Yelchin and Jennifer Lawrence, who are all central to The Beaver’s absurdist, daring plot.
19. A Very Long Engagement (2004)
On the heels of the international success of Amélie, director Jean-Pierre Jeunet reunited with star Audrey Tautou for this less-engaging World War I drama concerning a woman looking for her lover, who is believed to have been killed on the frontline. A Very Long Engagement was a Who’s Who of impressive French actors — Gaspard Ulliel, Marion Cotillard, and Denis Lavant are part of the cast — and then along comes Foster, who shows up in a cameo to tell Tautou her own story. Watching the Oscar-winner speaking French so smoothly — well, as best as we can tell — is a delight, and her presence elevates the proceedings briefly. But it’s more of a neat gimmick than a meaningful component in a sweeping romantic saga that’s soggier than it is stirring.
18. Carny (1980)
After her unquestioned success as a child actor — both in the dark roles of Scorsese and the friendliness of Disney films — Foster took some chances with two films in 1980 right before enrolling at Yale. The lesser of the two is still pretty good, this story of a teenage waitress (Foster) who, bored with her life, ends up running off on the carnival circuit with two con men/clowns, played by Gary Busey and the Band’s Robbie Robertson, who wrote the film’s story. (For the record: If you end up coming across two carnival workers, and they’re Gary Busey and Robbie Robertson, run.) Foster took the role in part to challenge herself with more adult roles, but it doesn’t show: She looks as natural here as the kid in Freaky Friday or, really, the adults she’d play decades later. Carny is ultimately pedestrian, but as usual, she’s the best part.
17. Foxes (1980)
And here’s the other film from 1980, a “street toughs†teen crime thriller of the kind that was all the rage at the time. Foxes teams Foster with Scott Baio, her Bugsy Malone co-star, as the leader of a group of wayward girls in the San Fernando Valley in the late ’70s. Foster is the clear star here, the conscience of the group and the one most eager to survive this part of her life and move onto something else. This was the first film from Adrian Lyne, and you can tell: He’s a little too soft-focus, slow-saxophone “seductive†than is probably appropriate.
16. Flightplan (2005)
Despite her two Oscars and being part of hits like Maverick, Foster wasn’t necessarily someone you’d think of as a movie star in the “put asses in seats†sense. Panic Room helped change that impression somewhat, but this subsequent Robert Schwentke thriller proved less effective, casting her as a grieving widow on a plane with her young daughter — only to wake up mid-flight and discover that her daughter is missing, and that no one onboard believes her. If Flightplan came out now, it might have been a more interesting film, discussing how women are gaslit and patronized, but as is, it’s only moderately engaging. Is Foster superior to the material? Of course: She brings intensity and poise — as well as a whiff of sadness for a character still recovering from the death of her husband — that soars above the story surrounding her.
15. The Hotel New Hampshire (1984)
Of all the movies Foster made on her summer vacations from Yale, this is the only one that ever got a theatrical release in the United States, and the only one she’d be proud to still have on her résumé today. This adaptation of a John Irving novel follows the Berry family, a typically eccentric and brilliant Irving family that opens a hotel next to the prep school that five members of the family attend. On one hand, The Hotel New Hampshire asks you to believe that Foster could be siblings with Rob Lowe and Seth Green. On the other, it’s a loyal rendering of the novel, even more so than The World According to Garp, the more heralded Irving film that had come out two years earlier. Foster is effortlessly good in this, and it’s a sign that once she finished college and got back to acting full-time, the sky was the limit.
14. Carnage (2011)
The scathing play God of Carnage had been lauded both in London and on Broadway, so it seemed a cinch to adapt it for the big screen, bringing in Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, and John C. Reilly to portray two married couples who meet up after one couple’s son gets in a fight with the other’s. And yet, this claustrophobic Roman Polanski dark comedy never rises above “Eh, good enough†territory, with Foster playing the emotional, sensitive Penelope who dislikes Winslet and Waltz’s snooty air. There’s an intentional artificiality to the script’s back-and-forth banter, and Foster’s naturalistic, empathetic tendencies don’t always mesh well with the theatricality of what she’s saying. Carnage never transcends the feeling that it’s a star-studded acting exercise for all four of these talented performers — it’s diverting but not proof of what Foster can do at her very best.
13. Sommersby (1993)
One of the head-scratchers of Foster’s career is that, on the heels of The Silence of the Lambs, she did a weepy romance with Richard Gere. That’s the least Jodie Foster decision we can imagine — which, honestly, is probably why she did it. The movie is based off The Return of Martin Guerre, in which a Civil War soldier (Gere) returns to his wife (Foster), who begins to suspect he may be an imposter … and who realizes she may be in love with this new guy anyway. Sommersby is big and sappy and overwrought, but Foster gives it all she’s got, and as far as Gere romances go, this is an underrated and under-appreciated one. It helps to have an actress as invested as Foster: She elevates the material by her very presence. And you know what? The ending gets us every time. We’re not above it either.
12. Five Corners (1987)
Foster had grown frustrated with her post-Yale career (she’d end up reviving it later with her Oscar-winning turn in The Accused), and part of the “problem,†such as it was, is that she kept taking roles in weird, goofy, smart but small movies like this one. This is a John Patrick Shanley–scripted thriller about a deranged ex-con (John Turturro) who returns from a prison term for attempted rape to obsess over the woman he tried to rape (Foster), who is protected by a non-violent conscientious observer played by Tim Robbins. (Oh, also, this takes place during the civil-rights movement. Clearly, there is a lot going on in this thing.) Five Corners was mostly buried at the time, but even with that, Foster busted out, even winning an Independent Spirit prize. Foster was so good at this time that even when she was considering retiring, she was collecting awards.
11. Nyad (2023)
One of this Oscar-y biopic’s selling points is that it doesn’t soft-pedal how surly its main character is. Annette Bening plays Diana Nyad as an uncompromising, socially awkward pill — proudly so — which creates a formidable challenge for Foster, who portrays Bonnie Stoll, her close friend and reluctant swim coach. It’s up to the two-time Oscar winner to demonstrate what’s ultimately commendable about Nyad — how she can be an absolute pain in the ass in her pursuit of athletic immortality but, also, someone you’d run through a brick wall for. Nyad works best as a study of this difficult friendship — Stoll has no compunction about telling off Nyad when she’s reached her limits, although the performance hints at the ways in which Stoll very much needs her pal’s competitive fire in her life. As a result, what we end up with is a true doubles act between two relaxed acting legends who effortlessly convey what it’s like for these characters to have known each other forever, long ago accepting each other’s quirks. The movie dares you to loathe Nyad, but Foster helps explain why you ultimately respect her.
10. Contact (1997)
“I don’t find many movies I love,†Foster said around the release of Contact. “I have to have some acute personal connection with the material. And that’s pretty hard for me to find.†A film about faith, Robert Zemeckis’s follow-up to Forrest Gump stars Foster as Ellie, a scientist on the hunt for intelligent life in the universe who believes she’s found proof of aliens, which puts her on a collision course with the government and a hunky spiritual guide (Matthew McConaughey). Are we alone in the cosmos? Is there a higher power? Contact is an uneven blockbuster, mixing philosophy with special-effects spectacle, but Foster’s the one consistent strength as a woman who turned her back on God, only to discover that she’s still held out hope that there’s something out there that can make sense of life’s mysteries. When the movie gets a little dippy, she grounds the proceedings in something crushingly real.
9. Little Man Tate (1991)
Foster’s first film as director feels particularly personal: It’s about a child prodigy (played by Adam Hann-Byrd, who’s now a television writer for shows like The Morning After) who has trouble adjusting to the real world and the expectations of the adults around him. Foster plays his mother, who wants to support her son’s talents but can’t always figure out where his limit is, where his genius conflicts with his childhood. It’s not difficult to see why Foster would be attracted to this story, and her empathy, both as an actor and as a director, is what makes the film so affecting.
8. Freaky Friday (1976)
The original body-swap comedy has been remade several times, but, no offense to Lindsay Lohan, this is Jodie Foster’s role, one that didn’t just earn the actress her first Golden Globe nomination but established her as a bonafide movie star. Freaky Friday was a smash, and Foster is the primary reason why: She’s cute and spry, of course, but she’s also legitimately funny in this, and remarkably agile for a 13-year-old. Look how well she handles pretending to be her adult mother in this scene:
We particularly like how perfectly she conveys the disappointment and frustration her mother has with her teenager daughter’s habits … she is instantly older and exhausted and hilariously thwarted at every turn. This was the work of a major comedic star, one who was only 13.
7. Maverick (1994)
It might be surprising to see this big-budget retelling of the old television series this high on the list, particularly considering it’s just a lighthearted Mel Gibson comedy. But we love Foster in this movie, who plays exactly the sort of role Foster so rarely plays: the romantic interest. The key is just how funny she is in this movie as a fellow con artist who keeps running into Gibson’s Maverick and both battling and falling in love with him. Foster shows a legitimate skill at physical comedy that we’ve rarely seen from her before or since: If this were her first film, you’d think she was an accomplished stand-up, or had come up with the Groundlings or something. Maverick doesn’t always appreciate what Foster’s doing here — Gibson was a massive star at the time, and it focuses too much on him — but just look at Foster the next time you see this. She’s a hoot, start to finish.
6. Bugsy Malone (1976)
Alan Parker’s notoriously polarizing G-rated gangster musical with children shooting shaving-cream guns at each other plays so bizarre today it’s truly incredible it was ever made. A lot of the cast doesn’t quite hold up (Scott Baio has been co-lead with Foster twice now, and he’s noticeably worse in each film), but Foster’s so wonderful, as the moll of this gang, that she alone makes you understand what madness Parker was going for. Adult actresses have been trying to do what Foster does effortlessly here their entire careers.
5. Inside Man (2005)
For all her acclaim, Foster is not the sort of actress who delivers a lot of let-’er-rip performances; she doesn’t seem particularly interested in that kind of showboating role. The great exception is Madeleine White, the calculating fixer in Spike Lee’s underrated crime thriller. At first, Inside Man seems like it’ll be a mano a mano battle of wits between Denzel Washington’s cop and Clive Owen’s criminal, but when Madeleine shows up, she takes over the movie, acting like she owns all of New York. (Who knows: She actually might.) It’s a cocky performance, and Foster has an absolute blast in the part. Her character doesn’t kill anyone or even use a gun, but there’s a menace to Madeleine that reminds you that the scariest people aren’t necessarily the crooks — it’s the folks who know how to get the upper hand in any situation.
4. Panic Room (2002)
It’s easy to forget what a sizable hit this electric David Fincher flick was at the time — and that Jodie Foster was a last-minute substitution once original star Nicole Kidman had to bow out after injuring herself during shooting. (Foster actually had to cancel as president of that year’s Cannes Film Festival jury in order to take the part.) She plays Meg, a divorced single mom who must protect her tween daughter Sarah (Kristen Stewart) after crooks break into their townhouse, looking for loot left by the previous occupant. This is a nifty cat-and-mouse thriller, and Foster is marvelous conveying clenched-teeth resilience in the face of imminent danger. Not unlike Sigourney Weaver in the Alien pictures, Foster approaches Panic Room like a drama that just so happens to have suspense sequences in it, and she and Fincher elevate what could have been a by-the-numbers Hitchcockian exercise into something far more dynamic and exhilarating.
3. Taxi Driver (1976)
Foster had worked with Martin Scorsese on Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, but when she was picked to play the young prostitute Iris in Taxi Driver, it was an entirely new experience for the 12-year-old. “I thought it would be a job like all the others,†she said in 2016, “but when I got there, I realized it was creating a character from scratch, which I’d never done before. I’d just been asked to be myself. It was eye-opening for me.†The most obvious compliment to give Foster’s performance is how grownup it is — she completely holds her own alongside Robert De Niro’s mentally deteriorating Travis Bickle — but decades later, it’s remarkable to watch her in the movie and realize that all the strength and openness she’d convey in her adult roles is already evident here. Precocious yet self-possessed, trying to act mature while at the same time seemingly legitimately streetwise beyond her years, Iris doesn’t need to be rescued, which is why Travis so determinedly wants to. Her performance is so raw and unfiltered it feels dangerous and also a discovery — and that shock hasn’t dissipated over time.
2. The Accused (1988)
Foster was 26 when she won her first Best Actress Oscar for this candid look at sexual assault, and it’s a movie that’s only become more pertinent in the Me Too era. But there was no guarantee she’d get to play the rape survivor Sarah. “Everybody wanted the part, everybody,†she once said. “I had just gotten out of college, and I’d made like five movies when I was in college, but nobody saw them. So it took a lot of door-banging for anyone to be interested in me.†Indeed, after earning plaudits as a young performer in Taxi Driver and other films, she essentially had to reintroduce herself to audiences, and The Accused was a harrowing reminder of the unguarded honesty she brings to her roles. Obviously, the film’s study of how sexual assault is handled — and mishandled — in this country is the main draw, but don’t overlook Foster’s ability to suggest the difficulties of a working-class existence, letting this everyday waitress speak to the problems facing blue-collar Americans everywhere. Thankfully, Foster never lets Sarah be just a symbol: She’s a tough, resourceful woman who feels painfully lived-in.
1. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Released on Valentine’s Day and defying Oscar conventions — it’s “just†a genre movie, not a prestige picture — The Silence of the Lambs has never left us, whether it’s Hannibal Lecter’s absorption into the culture, the continuing debate about the story’s transphobia, or the endless spinoffs and sequels that came from this film. (Perfect timing: Clarice is now a CBS drama.) But never forget that this movie belongs to Jodie Foster, who plays Clarice, the inexperienced and underestimated FBI agent who’s on the search for Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine) and elicits Dr. Lecter’s (Anthony Hopkins) help. Defiantly feminist, this horror-thriller is a fitting double feature with the other movie for which Foster won Best Actress, The Accused, in that they both are examinations of how women come to other women’s aid when they’re endangered by men. Foster is a wonder at playing someone running away from her past and desperate to prove herself, showcasing Clarice’s guts, vulnerability, and smarts. She’s a hero who doesn’t believe she is one, and the film is her testing ground, forcing her to face her fears about herself — which are scarier than anything Lecter or Bill could concoct. Thrillers aren’t supposed to be this emotional. Horror films aren’t meant to be this stirring. That’s all Foster.
Grierson & Leitch write about the movies regularly and host a podcast on film. Follow them on Twitter or visit their site.