By Roger Ebert
Translator: Yi Ersan
Proofreading: Issac
Source: rogerebert.com (April 13, 1980)
I wasn't at all surprised to hear that Judy Foster was preparing to go to college (most likely to be admitted to Yale). Other 17-year-old actresses may want to stay in Hollywood and make three movies a year and make a TV series by the way. But I have a hunch that Judy Foster is different and that she's going to be as highly educated as possible because by her 20s she's going to do extraordinary things in the film industry.
Judy Foster
I've spoken to Judy twice this year, once at a healthy restaurant in Los Angeles and once at the American Film Festival in Dallas. But my vision for her future began to take shape four years ago, when she was 13 years old and attending the Cannes Film Festival. She played a young prostitute in Taxi Driver, a role that earned her an Oscar nomination and sat her at the long table at the Cannes press conference.
Taxi Driver
"Taxi Driver" is controversial. Jury president Tennessee Williams has vowed that the film will only win after his death (it eventually won the Palme d'Or; Williams narrowly escaped death). The main characters present at the press conference were the film's director, Martin Scorsese, and screenwriter Paul Schrader. French film critics threw complex philosophical questions at them in French, with English translations interspersed with them, and everyone was confused.
Finally someone condescended to ask a question to the little girl sitting at the end of the table – you might think that this is just a girl who was taken to France for sightseeing. The translator grabbed the microphone, but Judy Foster waved him away and answered the question himself in perfect French. Suddenly there was a surprising round of applause in the room: finally, an American who could speak French appeared! She's less than 5 feet tall yet!
Since then, Judy Foster has grown a little taller, though she still looks surprisingly thin and much smaller than the aura film role she played. She is a very smart, serious young actress who frankly claims that she is not prepared for the role in any way:
"I'm a technician. I don't like that kind of way of taking on a role. I read the lines and rehearse them. Any actor who has been in the industry for a long time should know how a shot is set up, how it should be positioned, and how the lines should be handled. I'm part of the crew, like a field assistant and an electrician. What I'm good at is just throwing a wink at the camera."
But is that really the case? In Taxi Driver, she had trouble playing against Robert De Niro. She was going to sprinkle a lot of jam on a slice of toast and tell De Niro why she was running away from home, why she liked her pimps, and why De Niro didn't understand the life she was living. Scorsese said the scene was mostly improvised.
De Niro in Taxi Driver
"Yes," Judy said. The dialogue in that scene was improvised by me. This seems useful. The collaboration with De Niro was impressive, he was a fantastic actor. I knew that no matter what I did in this scene, he would keep up with me."
But how can you get so deep into a role and still claim to be just a techie?
"Well, the key is to realize that she's not a real prostitute, she's a runaway, and her pimp means safety to her." But De Niro thought the pimps were exploiting her, so she tried to excuse the pimps."
Did you understand this when you were 13?
"In any case, in theory, a 13-year-old knows exactly what it's like to run away from home. Another actress may gain sympathy from the perspective of a child and woman. I wish the character looked more like a prostitute, even though she was actually just a runaway from home. People sympathize more with a child who pretends to be strong than a child who pretends to be vulnerable."
Throughout Her career, Judy Foster has played many other difficult roles as a teenager.
Hollywood movies are different from when Xiulan Temple starred in Little Trouble, with Judy's role (an early brief appearance in 1973's The Adventures of Tom) including not only the prostitute in Taxi Driver, but also the gun-wielding gangster in Dragon Snake Bully (a full-class gangster film), the girl who hid her mother's body and killed people in Black Lane Girl, the sexy sexy object in Carnival, and the upcoming Little Fox. The leader of the rebel girl quartet from the San Fernando Valley.
Carnival
The story of the four "Little Foxes" in the film is inspired by the teenagers who live in the valley, and the large middle class spreads from shiny Hollywood, Los Angeles and Beverly Hills to the mountains.
One of the children, who used to be a prostitute and is now serving a probationary sentence, has a habit of returning to Hollywood Boulevard to visit old friends. Another kid fell in love with a 29-year-old guy. There was also an alcoholic who rebelled against her suffocating mother.
The Little Fox
And then there's the character of Judy Foster, who is the only one with a cool head, a bit like a hen. She could see what the others were doing wrong. She's smart and cool enough not to make their mistakes, but she's just a kid, so she needs the security of the pseudo-family they've created. While their respective parents make a mess of their lives, the children spend the night in each other's homes, patronizing rock concerts and spitting in the clouds, and for adults, their lifestyles are troublingly dangerous.
I asked Judy the question about those little kids: Did she live that way? Does she know a child who lives like that?
"Of course there are children who live like that." It's impossible to live in Los Angeles without knowing many of these kids. But that's not the case with my own experience. I had a well-protected childhood. I don't live that way. I went to a private french school, and it wasn't like the public school in the movie. For example, we need to wear uniforms. When school ends at five o'clock, the day is over. The environment is much more serious. But the kid in the film... I can totally understand them. They are not bad people; they are victims. If people see "little foxes" and say they're just noisy, depraved children, smoking cigarettes and going to concerts, they're going to misunderstand me."
She was silent for a second, trying to analyze these 16-year-olds who were living very different lives than hers.
"You might feel that way... Their character was formed from the very beginning. One of them, my character, will get back on track, but the lives of others may be wasted. A lot of people I know are like that. It's common to meet a girl who's going to get married at 16 and nothing can stop her. You might run into it 25,000 times a day. It has a lot to do with California... They think they're missing out on staying in school. They live in the car. Los Angeles is like Disneyland on wheels. "I slept in the car for three days, which is a very Los Angelesian saying."
Have you ever slept in a car for three days?
"It was uncomfortable, I was driving a jeep."
We were talking about it at a healthy restaurant on Sunset Boulevard, and Judy ordered whole wheat English muffins without coffee — she didn't touch them at all. It was ten o'clock in the morning on a Saturday, and she was getting ready to go playing tennis with a friend. I asked her what her life was like.
The Silence of the Lambs
"My mother and I live in our home in the valley. I also have two older sisters and an older brother. My mother took care of my career and we had a great relationship with no generation gap. I could communicate with her — and I really talked to her all the time. I don't go out very often. I do have some friends who play tennis and rollerblading together. Sometimes there are special events. I'm going to the mosque tomorrow to eat East African food."
"It's unlikely I'll get married before I'm 26. I don't have the time, and besides, I'm not mature enough to treat people well. I like to be alone. What if I marry someone who won't leave me alone in my room and read for six days?"
"Time-lapse Contact"
"I probably spend more time studying than I do anything else. I read about three books a week. I'm reading James Joyce right now... Portrait of a Young Artist. I love all of Zola's work. Milton is not bad either. The problem with Los Angeles and the film industry is that people think it's only 16mm and 35mm, and the rest are desert. I like people who talk fast, so L.A. is a bit stuffy... Most people have nothing to say. But I love the way Los Angeles can leave people alone. I can go home and read all day without anyone bothering me."
"But because of that, I started to stop taking Los Angeles seriously." I travel a lot. When I made a film in France that no one had ever heard of, my family lived in France for nine months. I went to a lot of places... Not as a tourist, not as a kid, not as a filmmaker, walking into a place in jeans and embarrassing everyone, but as someone who lived there for a while and immersed themselves in it."
"Raiding Pear Blossom"
Do you want the university to feel the same way?
"Of course. I wanted to go to school in the east because things were so different there. Schools are also very different. Going to Berkeley or USC is like not leaving home."
Are you thinking about Yale?
"I visited several Ivy League schools, and one of them liked Yale the most. Yale guys aren't the nasty "like to whistle at girls." To me, Harvard was too polite; I think they nurtured all the polite people. Princeton...... It's so pretty. Student dormitories on Yale campus have separate entrances, unlike many large dormitories on campus. They even have rooms for men and women." She thought for a moment, "It's not that I want to live in a co-ed room." She paused again and grinned. "On the other hand, I don't particularly want to live with a lot of girls. Everything was fine for summer camp, but..."
Napoleon and Samantha
Do you have any expectations for the next five years?
"It's mainly school-centric. I shouldn't be going to any film classes. Yale's Drama School is great, and I want to take this course. I only performed once on the school stage. I play an old man. I want to take a lot of classes about writing and literature. I may become an English major. I love books."
What about your career?
"I probably make one every summer. If a suitable role appears, it may also be suspended for a semester. I'd love to make Woody Allen movies – who wouldn't? And the plays produced by Joseph Pap – who wouldn't want that? Other than that, honestly... I'm kind of an aspirant and I want to be the best. I would never give up acting, even if I earned a PhD in anthropology. Acting is what I'm best at."
"The Girl in the Black Alley"
Do you think it's going to be hard to get on campus as Judy Foster? Do people know who you are? As the new student in people's mouths?
"I'm not that famous," she replied. "I'm not the only one going to college. And...... A little bit of popularity is also an advantage, because you don't have to say hello to everyone and explain or present yourself in every detail, which is basically all about the first day of college. If people have seen you in a movie, they will feel a little understanding of you. My reputation in the film industry is like having a little shadow with me, and this shadow is not bad."