Jodie Foster can go for a few years without making a movie.

“I’m very picky,” she admitted. "I'm about acts that are just for the performance and not really interested. It has to speak to me."

Hours before the premiere of "ViePrivée" in Cannes, it was a French thriller that, despite her natural excellence, could not resist. After meeting Rebecca Zlotowski, French filmmakers also wrote the script, and Foster found that they had a passion for character development and narrative. The story discovers Foster plays a therapist who is convinced that her patient’s suicide was actually a murder, and he is too tangled and funny to refuse.

"Rebecca has the command of this world of knowledge and emotional world," said Foster, 62. "We think about the movie the same way. She wanted to make sure the audience was brought into the indoor life of the characters, and that's what I like to do as an actor."

Foster took a long break in Aughts’ performance, focusing on raising children. But she has been on screen more often lately, with her Oscar nomination for her job as a swimming coach in 2023 "Nyad" and an Emmy Award for her performance in 2024 "True Detective: Night Country." This is part of a new perspective she discovered after she was 60, and she found that she focused more on ensemble movies and shows, and less. Since she first attracted audiences in Disney Classics, she has been waving love for the work she has been doing, such as the stories of “Freak Friday” and “Taxi Driver” (such as “Taxi Driver”), before winning the Oscars to win the Oscars for “Silence of the Lambs” and “Defendant” and “Defendant.”

Why did you decide to make "ViePrivée"?

I always wanted to go back and do a French movie because I haven't made a French movie for a long time. For me, it is always about trying to find the right material. I don't want to do some exaggerated American and French co-production. As an actor, I need a story. Many of the French movies I like are behavioral movies, you just follow people for three days or something. That's not what I'm going to do. I'm interested in narrative. I'm all about developing a character that drives this story. This ticks all the boxes.

Your character Lilian seems very confident at the beginning of the movie, but we will soon see cracks in her exterior wall. Many of the people you've played try to maintain control or assert control. What drew you into these parts?

This is a very human thing. Maybe it's something for women. Maybe I brought it to the table because I wasn't born, he was emotionally accessible. I'm not the one who "falls on the table". That's why I'm not a natural actor. I was just thrown in when I was 3 years old. This is not what I chose to do. I would never choose to be an actor. I have the cover people use to adapt to this crazy world and the levels they need to maintain to keep themselves safe.

You won't choose to be an actor, but do you like acting?

Yes I do. But I like it. When I was a kid, I had a lot of work and by the time I was 18 I needed to take a different approach. I see a lot of young actors and I'm not saying I'm jealous, but I don't understand they just want to take action. They don't care if the movie is bad. They don't care if the conversation is bad. They don't care if they are grapes in the fruit of the loom advertisement. If I never took any action again, I wouldn't really care. I really like being a boat for a story or a cinema. If I could do something else, if I was a writer, painter or sculptor, that was also great. But that's my only skill.

You have directed four movies, including "Little Man Tate" and "Holiday Home". Do you prefer directing performances?

I do like directors more, but it's hard to get things off the ground. In order to make it mine, I had to work on the material for so long. I love the movies I make and they speak to my life. To me, they feel like Auteur movies. If I can't do that, I really don't want to do that.

Nicole Kidman recently revealed that she has worked with 27 female directors over the past eight years.

Wait, what? ((Foster knocks on her sitting on the side of the sofa). That's incredible. She has been working!

How did you react to this? Do you want more actors to use their influence to get opportunities for female directors, maybe they won’t be considered?

I hope so. I've seen things change a lot. When I started acting, the only woman I've ever met was a makeup artist or a script supervisor. Then, I started to meet more female technicians. But the last fortress has always been the director. I was lucky when I decided to guide. The people who make the decision know me, so they don't think I'm the risk of being a director for the first time. But as an actor, I only made one movie with one female director before my last three projects. That's over 50 years.

As you said, the last three projects you did - "Real Detective", "NYAD", now "ViePrivée" - directed by women or co-directed. Is this a conscious choice?

It's hard for me to say that half of my movies will be made by women or men or any other movie. Isn’t this an instinctive choice? You want you to be interested in humans. I mean, Jonathan Demme’s Silence to “The Lambs” is my favorite feminist director. That said, I think some kind of quota system is important in giving first-time filmmakers the opportunity. You need to start the process early so that we all have the same chances.

There has been a golden moment of consciousness in the United States over the past decade where the men they make decisions (who turn a blind eye to their xenophobia, racism, and sexism) suddenly wake up and like, “Hey, why are there no women on our board list?” Of course, they are called publicly, but that forces them to look at themselves and decide to change. We are getting the benefits from it.

Do you think the Trump administration's attack on companies that accept DEI initiatives will disappear?

Yes, it may be over now. As far as administrative management is concerned, of course, it seems to be in the work. We see it in everything from academia to law firms to entertainment. I hope this won't happen because we want to tell all story. When we do this, they make money. Surprisingly, it took a long time to explain to studio executives that women are 50% of the population. There is no risk for female filmmakers. By the way, it wasn't the senior executive who made this change because we had the studio where Amy Pascal, Sherry Lansing, Dawn Steel ran simultaneously. Four of the six studio heads are women, and the directors list are men. We need the people who run Studios to make sure they don’t absorb institutional bias. I'll get off now.

existprivacy. ” You haven't participated in many comedies. Is it fun to show your other side?

This is very interesting. It is helpful to perform in French because I am a French person compared to English. I have a more vulnerable way to me. I'm not too confident, not sure about myself, and I think it's more interesting.

Do you find your French more interesting than English?

I do. Maybe it's easier for me to get rid of my character or something. I don't like to do comedy in English. Maybe it's because in America, when we make comedy, they don't have much subtlety or wisdom. For me, this is essential. So I didn't find that I like a lot. The one I really like is the "Maverick". Even if it's stupid, it's written by William Goldman, so it has expensive British intelligence on it. However, it's hard for me to be fascinated by comedy for more than a week. About a week later, I thought, “Oh, can we have this stuff done?” They are harder to make than drama.

Why did you decide not to shoot a cameo in "Fairy Friday"?

I'm busy with this movie. But Jamie Lee Curtis is a very good friend of mine. I followed the shoot and all of this stuff.

After you won the Golden Globes for "Real Detective", you said, "This is the most satisfying moment of my career." Why?

It happened at the age of 60. There is a hormone injected into your body and suddenly you are like, “Oh, I don’t care.” It’s all very excited with me because it helps tell someone else’s stories and lifts up a sound that has never been heard before. So with "Mauritanians" I was in that movie, so I could tell Tahar Rahim's story, not my character's story. I wanted to design my own character with "real detectives" so that it serves the stories of Indigenous characters. I want to bring any wisdom, experience, money or status I have as an actor to help this. I have to tell my story, it’s someone else’s turn. This is even more interesting. Who knows there are so many more people who have to open movies on 1,500 screens?

My 50s are hard for me. It's hard to embrace the transition. The worse version of who you think you are. But something happened a few years ago. I woke up one day and was like, "I don't care about anything I used to care about. I'll go a different path." Your kids grew up, your parents died, and maybe you're divorced. These changes in life are breaking. But there is a freedom. Despite losing other identity as a faithful mother or daughter or wife, as painful as it is, you can also say, now it is just me.