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Jodie Foster will be the first to tell you she's seen as a rare success story. In the public eye since age 3, she's managed to survive the lifelong Hollywood rigmarole and become all the things parents hope their children will eventually become: well-adjusted, down to earth, driven, etc. Foster has mostly avoided controversy through her 45-year career while still winning critical acclaim and choice roles.
But is Foster's story a function of her nature or of her environment and era? Turns out it's a bit of both. And in defense of her former co-star Kristen Stewart, Foster drew on the lessons of that Hollywood experience for a lengthy essay published Wednesday on the Daily Beast. The typically reserved Oscar-winner argues the unprecedented media scrutiny of Stewart's daily life, particularly her dalliances with her Snow White and the Huntsman director Rupert Sanders, isn't only unfair, it's dangerous.
"In my era, through discipline and force of will, you could still manage to reach for a star-powered career and have the authenticity of a private life," Foster writes. "Not anymore. If I were a young actor or actress starting my career today in the new era of social media and its sanctioned hunting season, would I survive? Would I drown myself in drugs, sex, and parties? Would I be lost?"
She suggests the answer is "yes." "I've said it before and I will say it again: If I were a young actor today, I would quit before I started. … I don't think I could survive it emotionally."
Foster's main beef is a familiar one for Hollywood A-listers — ubiquitous media attention is unfortunate, destructive, and an unnecessary byproduct of a career in the film industry. "Just to set the record straight, a salary for a given on-screen performance does not include the right to invade anyone's privacy, to destroy someone's sense of self."
Foster, who worked with Kristen Stewart on Panic Room when Stewart was 11, fears the "perfect little girl" she "fell in love with" back in 2001 has become hardened, cynical, and somewhat joyless in the face of the monumental media attention surrounding her — especially given her recent scandal (if a 22-year-old making out with her older director can be called a scandal). Foster bemoans Stewart's situation, but leaves her with a piece of timeless advice: "This too shall pass."
What's your take on the media's treatment of Kristen Stewart or on celebrity culture in general? Sound off in the comments below.
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