“Really Uninteresting”: Foster’s Honest Take on De Niro During ‘Taxi Driver’ Filming

Jodie Foster opened up about her first experience working with Robert De Niro on Taxi Driver, revealing that she didn’t find him very exciting when they first met. Speaking at the Marrakech Film Festival after receiving a tribute award, Foster said that while De Niro supported her on set, his Method approach made him seem distant.

“We’d run the lines and run the lines a second and third time… One of our greatest American actors, so proud to have worked with him — not the most interesting person on earth,” Foster recalled.

“At that time, he was very much in character… So he was really uninteresting and I remember having these lunches with him and being like, ‘What is happening? When can I go home?’”

The dynamic changed when De Niro involved Foster in his preparation process. “He finally walked me through improvisation by the time we had our third lunch together, and it opened my eyes to what acting could be,” she said.

“And I realized at 12, ‘Oh, it’s my fault because I haven’t brought enough to the table.’ I’ve just been saying lines and waiting for my next line… but building a character is something different.”

Foster also shared stories from her first trip to the Cannes Film Festival for Taxi Driver. The production team hesitated to bring her, but her mother, who was also her manager, insisted. “My mom said, ‘No, it’s really important. She speaks French. This is Cannes!’ And so we paid for our own flights,” Foster said.

She also recalled doing French interviews for the team while De Niro, Harvey Keitel, and Martin Scorsese stayed in their rooms due to concerns about the film’s violent content.

Reflecting on her career, Foster admitted that acting was not a choice she made for herself. “I would never have chosen to be an actor, I don’t have the personality of an actor… It’s actually just a cruel job that was chosen for me as a young person,” she said. She added that she tries to support young actors today, warning them about the pressures of the industry. “I feel like, wait, where are their parents?… I want to take care of them because I know how dangerous it is,” she said.

Despite not choosing acting, Foster said she has always been drawn to strong, central roles. “I didn’t want to be the sister of, the wife of, the daughter of, the girlfriend of. I just wanted the movie to be about me,” she joked. She also cited her interest in roles that mattered, influenced by second-wave feminism.

Foster’s reflections provide a rare, candid look at her early career and how she navigated the challenges of working with legendary actors while growing up in Hollywood.

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