Behind The Scenes with Jodie Foster
Jodie Foster makes one of her increasingly rare appearances in the US hit “Flightplan.” Thea Klapwald talked to her in Los Angeles to find out more about the film and what she has planned for the future.
HK Magazine: The main character in “Flightplan” was originally written for a man to play. How did you change it to suit you?
Jodie Foster: I think it made a lot less sense as a guy. They had set him up as a man who worked his whole life, who was an engineer. His wife took care of the childcare, was the primary caregiver, so he didn’t know what kind of sandwiches his kid ate and he didn’t know what he was supposed to pack and through the course of losing her, he kind of comes to assume a parental place that he’d never had before. Then he wonders if he’s gone crazy and that doesn’t make any sense because no guy is going to admit “I’m crazy.” I think it’s one of those great...differences between men and women. Men tend to blame outward. They’re better at saying, “It must have been someone else!” Rather than saying it must have been me.
HK: Beyond your child disappearing, the film also contains intriguing subplots about racial profiling and what it’s like to fly these days.
JF: I think that the film takes into consideration that this is a post-9/11 world and in fact it talks about it. No matter how smudged our boundaries have gotten, the world has become more international, there’s global economics and we don’t need passports to travel in Europe anymore. But, if you push someone against the wall, they still go to this very primal, bigoted, self-protected place. It’s a primal thing and 9/11 really just brought that out more. What happens with the racial profiling with the Arab character on the plane is not dissimilar since [Foster’s character] is profiled as a hysterical female.
HK: You filmed in Malaysia for “Anna And The King.” Did you like it enough to make another film in the region?
JF: I love Asia. I’ve spent a lot of time there. I’d love to really find a movie that would take me there. That’s the best way to see a country, to experience a country, to live there, work there, bring your children there, instead of just taking a tour bus somewhere. I’d have to say that one of the great highlights of my life was shooting “Anna and the King” in Malaysia and being able to spend time there. Malaysia has such an interesting culture because it’s Chinese, Indian and native Malay. You get three different cultures all in one place. As for Chow Yun-fat, he was just the sweetest guy; the nicest man.
HK: What’s next for you?
JF: I was going to direct “Flora Plum” but that’s on the backburner right now. I’m developing to produce and act in “Leni,” which is about Hitler’s propaganda filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. I’m also developing a film to direct called “Sugarland” that I will act in with Robert De Niro in either 2006 or early 2007. We haven’t made a movie together since “Taxi Driver.” It’s about a court case, a three-handed piece. On the one hand there’s the civil-rights attorney that I play. On another, there’s a rich, charismatic Cuban sugarcane plantation owner, first generation. On the third hand, there are Jamaican cane workers living in slave-like conditions. De Niro would play the Cuban plantation owner.