Richard Phibbs Flashes 'Silence of the Lambs' Actor Jodie Foster For Harper's UK December 2017

Actor Jodie Foster is honored as a Harper's Bazaar UK December 2017 Woman of the Year. Miranda Almond styles the multiple-Oscars Foster, considered one of the best actors of her generation, in images by Richard Phibbs./ Hair by Perrine Rougemont; makeup by Sharon Dowsett

In her Harper's Bazaar UK interview, Foster reflects on Hollywood, including . . . 

On the shortcomings of male directors

“Even with the number of movies I’ve made, I’ve never made a movie that was about women, made by women, that was seen through women’s eyes… I think it’s very hard for [male directors] to imagine women’s lives, and when they do, I think they have this either idealised idea or this victim idea.

“And there can be a lack of sophistication about how they approach women in the text. I was saying recently that there was a time in my life, for 15 or 20 years, during which every single script I read, the motivation for the female character was that they had been raped or abused as a child. I don’t think it’s an on-purpose thing, but it’s like, ‘What can I give that woman that will feel meaningful? Oh I know – she’s been raped as a child.’ So is that the only thing they can think about us that feels deep or something?”

On how she learnt to be comfortable in her own skin

“You get to a certain age, and you think – hey, I’m good! I don’t have to be doing this over and over again! So maybe there’s a way of being less hard on myself, and more flexible about what the rules are.”

On the benefits of aging

“I’ve learnt how much joy comes from passing on what you know, even in the smallest of ways. After 50 years, you have an obligation to give your knowledge away – that’s the next level of pleasure.”