Shooting star

Actress Jodie Foster stalks down men in her latest film, The Brave One

Jodie Foster is perfectly aware that in reality women don8217;t kill strangers. 8220;They kill their husbands and their children and themselves,8221; said the 44-year-old actress matter-of-factly. 8220;That8217;s how women handle rage and abuse.

8220;Let8217;s say there is one that is,8221; she continued. A woman who does expel her anger outward, that is. And let8217;s say she8217;s played by the two-time Oscar winner. 8220;What is she like?8221; asked Foster. 8220;What if she8217;s someone who says, 8216;I8217;m not going to kill my children . I8217;m not going to kill myself. I8217;m going to kill that8230;8217; ?8221;

In the film The Brave One, opening in mid-September from Warner Bros., audiences will see Foster8217;s rendition of this kind of a woman, an NPR-type radio host who is thrashed by malicious gang bangers in the first 10 minutes of the movie, then left in a bloody heap to watch them pummel her fiance to a pulp. Afterward, her character transforms into a cerebral vigilante, methodically mowing down an array of wife-beaters, muggers, hoodlums and psychopaths.

Foster, the Yale grad, perhaps one of the best talkers in all of show biz, insisted she8217;s not advocating simple-minded revenge. 8220;There8217;s something incredibly true about the rage and fear that we don8217;t lay claim to, but once you experience it, you know it8217;s been there all along,8221; she said.

What Foster said is provocative and mouthy, and it was at odds with her off-screen persona, all fluffy. Perhaps there8217;s no movie star who does regular girl better than Foster, who8217;s been famous since she was three, and shatteringly withstood the real dark side of fame 8212; John Hinckley Jr.8217;s obsession with her.

Undeniably, Foster8217;s star power and her standing in the industry elevate The Brave One, turning it into a movie that can appeal to both the lowbrow and the high.

Foster can hold forth like a college professor on any theme related to the movie. 8220;The fear is that we have a sophisticated movie that unsophisticated people are going to see, and how are they going to react? We had the same thing on Taxi Driver, on Silence of the Lambs, on The Accused. That8217;s a very similar situation. What if in the movie theatre, someone claps and cheers during the rape scene? My feeling is, 8216;Yeah, I8217;m glad that I8217;m not there.8217;8221;

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Undeniably, the issue of women and violence runs like a ragged stream through her work 8212; from The Accused and The Silence of the Lambs, which won her Oscars, to more recent popcorn fare such as Panic Room and Flightplan.

Aside from Clint Eastwood, Foster might be the most solitary figure in American cinema. The reward for a cinematic history of brutality, of wrestling with evildoers, is not catharsis but loneliness.

8220;It8217;s hard to drag me to make a movie,8221; Foster explained. She has two young sons, 5 and 9, and has spent the past few years prioritizing their existence. She works infrequently. 8220;Part of that is terrible and lonely 8230; to do something you can8217;t really explain to people,8221; she sighed.
Rachel Abramowitz LAT-WP