Jodie Foster Interview | Money Monster, Wall Street Corruption, Filmmaking

welome to what the flick this is not not a big deal to me uh Jody Foster is Here There and uh I have a tremendous amount of admiration for you so I'm glad you're here um and uh delighted for the opportunity to get to talk to you uh we're going to talk about a bunch of things but among them uh you have a movie coming out and I just saw you be a director which was fantastic uh oh uh because we had a clip which we'll play eventually from the movie but the music was different and you were just on it you took you we played this clip like less there's no measurable amount of time for you to say that's not the right music back like that you know we've been living with it for a while um it's the best thing about being a director honestly is that it's a complete vision and it should be really from beginning to end from the time that you start developing the screenplay to the time you start going into production casting including budget and all the technical stuff editing and then the final process so you clearly love directing uh yet this is just your fourth movie yes right um uh I I sense I well I don't know are there going to be more does this a direction you want to take your career I hope so but you never know what happens in in a month from now maybe I'll never work again you never know that's true of course that I hope so it's definitely what I've always wanted to do ever since I was a little kid really more than acting yeah more than acting I mean I guess because I was a child actor I thought that by the time I turned 18 my career would be over that's what everybody kept saying that's what happens and then everybody said oh yeah but when you're 40 you'll never work again so um I I don't know it's hard for me to believe sometimes that I an actor even though I've done it for so long uh it's not really my personality I'm not that guy you don't um carry yourself in the manner that I am used to of a Hollywood star you you you you walked into this building today with my sandals on just just a you were just kind of a person um and and I and and much of that is unfair to many of your brethren in the community because many of them are are also regular people but we have an image and then when somebody meets the that image of sort of some sort of nuttiness or entitlement we tend to ascribe that behavior to all of them well they're entitled real estate brokers as well out there yeah um it's a funny job you know and it it's um it's a job that's allowed me a it's the best film school I could have ever had being an actor um but it also allowed somebody like me who lives in their head a lot um to express themselves emotionally and creatively in ways that I might not never have found before so I'm very grateful to having been an actor and um it's true it's a weird fit for me because it's not really my personality I'm not like the kind of person who dances on the table and does imitations right um but I think that's maybe what's ma made my work different that changes my next line of question I was gonna ask you to dance on the table okay just cross that maybe later cross that out um the uh so uh before we get to uh the movie I note I you have you've done four movies a little manate home for the holidays the beaver and and money monster um and but also Orange is the New Black and house cards so television because television when you started out when you were doing television you did a lot of TV as a kid television is it's a completely different world it's not even it's almost it's not even the same thing yeah well it's all changed and um you know it's we love about the movie business and the television business entertainment business it changes over time and and there have been a lot of changes in the film business um but right now narrative is really on cable yeah and it's uh really an exciting time especially for actors um because they can kind of go back and forth and they can have an arc in a season that runs for you know a television that runs for eight seasons right as opposed to a feature film where they're really you know they have an hour and a half movie and they're dedicated to that but it's all they can do is have a beginning at middle in an end and that's it but that 8 season Arc that existed when you were making shows in the early 70s and into the 80s but I suspect that that if you'd been asked in 1989 to direct an episode of I don't even know if ER was on the air but La law or ER you would have been like no I'm not gonna it's not the same and those were actually fairly good shows but it's not the same kind of Arc that we have now not true there they're they're doing all sorts of interesting things and um yeah the world has changed you know they don't have commercials there's uh they're not censored quite as much um there's yeah it's just it's it's new and different um it's an opportunity to express yourself differently I mean it's true I only made four feature films over a really long period of time I started when I was 27 and you know here I'm 53 I've only made four but I've I've not gotten off the ground many films oh good good for you lots of movies have ended up not getting off the ground and I had a big career and I you know had kids and did other things and um but I do feel like now is uh the time to really focus on directing so uh money monster where which opens on Friday the 13th yes it does an auspicious day an auspicious day what um I mean nowhere like in the in the Press notes is the the word Mad Money mentioned but Jim Kramer's show on CNBC seems like at least as an inspiration I well I know you're going to be surprised to hear that our our movie is not based on Jim Kramer um but he is you know he's the most famous Financial host that's out there and he does some pretty wacky things um George Clooney in the movie plays Lee Gates who's a who's a financial host uh a little smoother a little more swave and Georgie but um but but does use some props and um uses a lot of um actually film images behind him to illustrate his point charts and crazy things and bells and whistles and Technology um but that's all over you know that's a all over the TV now why I'm mostly interested in this movie is because you know on the show on the on the Young Turks and and I started as a TV journalist I spent nine years that was how I came into this business and my brother is a correspondent on dine NBC and a really good one um but and and I to me date shows like Dateline are the best shows news shows on TV because at least that's honest there was a murder and you have the story of the murder it may not be important it may not be changing the world the way we sort of Imagine kronite Ed murl right but television news and that would includes financial news I think we should stop expecting let's stop expecting greatness because they haven't delivered greatness in a long time well it's an interesting time you know we talk about features and television changing well you know news has really changed and the idea of what a journalist is has changed dramatically and over the course of the last 20 years um are you know because of the Advent of digital technology um we've gotten into this groove where entertainment and news is starting to have a very fine line and the journalists that one had once had you know serious criteria for how they did their job are now kind of blurring into the you know how many funny hats can I wear and how many dancing girls can I have um it's a weird time for politics and for reality television and for narrative um all of them blending together and I don't think it's doing any favors to uncovering the truth no it's not nor democracy nor right we're not we're not a better place it I I I have an interview coming up I mentioned to you with Fay dway so I've been doing all this research on network and the reaction of and and I oddly this happens that you were also nominated for an Oscar the same year that network was for for taxi driver um and but there are comments about Network the mainstream media's reaction to network was so hosle Sydney who directed network was barred by NBC from going to a made for TV movie screening they were like no you're not welcome here because of what you've suggested about us Edwin Newman a great great great old school journalist from the kronite era was outraged this would never happen right and now we look at Network now and you think well yeah that seems about right maybe okay they're not plotting a murder right but it's pretty close well at the time I mean it was really satire and Americans aren't that comfortable with satire that's always been more of a European uh form uh but that was real satire and you know beautifully written and and maybe that kind of thing might not have happened but it was pretty preent because that kind of thing could definitely happen now our film is in the tradition of Sydney LT the great Sydney LT I mean we could never make a movie as beautiful as either Dog Day Afternoon or network but um we certainly live in his shadow and and what an honor um so in this movie Jack o' Connell plays a somebody who we learn about as the movie goes along but is we're we'll take a look at the clip but he bursts into the studio with a show hosted by Clooney and his executive producers is Julia Roberts uh out a gun he's a regular guy who um who listened to what Lee said on his program and uh has always done the right thing and decided to invest as a as a as a stockholder and um there was a glitch and he happened to lose everything that he had um so disgruntled and upset he comes on to the television broadcast all right let's take a look boom him in what Happ for the last few months listen to little birdie you got delivery don't move is this a union thing oh Jesus cut Jesus turn those cameras back on turn those cameras back on Jesus Christ whoever's in there turn those cameras back on right now I I I can't once I turn them off you're in his head turn the cameras off Patty turn them off hey right I'm going to count to three and I swear to God I'm pulling this trigger one what do you want me to do turn up P what do you want me to do put it up wow and then she doesn't turn them on and Geor K is killed that's a I would gone a different route but you're a professional you know um so uh uh Jack O conell was in unbroken yes yes and many other wonderful British movies including uh the television stent he done on skins everybody's British everybody's freaking British um so now again the idea that a gunman would come in outraged and it would broadcast on television it's not again like we saw it in network and it did it seemed outrageous it was satire thank you for pointing that out and now 40 years later I don't know it seems well there is a satirical Bend to the film too you know there's a bit of absurdity in it um but for mostly it's really you know that is the backdrop um the backdrop of Wall Street in the financial world and a disgruntled man coming to sort of figure out what happened to his money um but mostly it's a character drama you know it's a a character drama about these two men this sort of strange Brotherhood that happens uh while he while Lee Gates is being held hostage George Clooney's been held hostage um and then the producer of the show played by Julia Roberts who's kind of producing their survival and um doing a little bit of a better job than the police at the time of figuring out what's going to happen right and so I also Imagine and trying to figure out what what happened that's what's going to be the story and and and again this backdrop in the middle of this campaign I mean that I guess why this movie is well timed that we have a we didn't do it on purpose uh no but I mean well you T then then you successfully tapped into the same anger that Bernie Sanders did yeah well um you know the the film has been around for for a little while and we brought on a young uh writer to come in and and really in some ways make it more relevant and say what's what's really happening today and um the world of technology and the world of Finance you know the melting of those two and all of the problems that come out of that was something that he really wanted to explore and it just so happens that you know all of that is is part of the dialogue today in this new political campaign um is this the craziest uh campaign you witnessed you are you political at all you have you're somewhat political I am not um I just make movies it's all I ever wanted to do is make movies um I do tend to make movies about the world so and not about space and Mars and all that so I do tend to make more movies about what's happening now and um I'm always more interested in the dramatic side and in the character side and how that reflects the backdrop you know but we are at a time obviously when there is a widespread dissatisfaction with Wall Street and interestingly in what I imagine is going to work in this movie is that we know there's we know that it's unfair but getting regular people myself included and you I imagine to explain exactly why it's unfair is very difficult to do but there's this sense of frustration and outrage that hey this wasn't whatever this was this wasn't right and it's not a game and it's not a little fun TV show yeah and the outrage is shared by all by left and right as well I mean it's not you know it's not like we're taking one side um all the the film really you know the one of the ways that uh that the financial world has been able to uh orchestrate the power that they have is by making it all so complicated that regular people can't understand it so they created the rules the impenetrable rules they created the system that is impossible to understand so that they can benefit from that misunderstanding right because when something's impossible to understand it is almost impossible to change and there is a few people that have the keys to that and those people that have the keys to that are the ones that are benefiting the most financially um you know we know that's true we've known that's true for a very long time that is how the system works and um for the most part it works pretty well and uh I think this film you know doesn't say the system doesn't work I think what it says is there are lots of abuses and there lots of opportunities for abuses we certainly saw that in 2008 and um now the financial world just has to find new ways to abuse abuse the system and uh we're going to be looking at that uh that those you know bubble crash bubble crash bubble crash for a long long time yeah and we just have to hope that the crashes aren't so dramatic because but in the Quest for for larger returns in the Quest for larger margins um those crashes are going to have to be more dramatic if you want to make if you want to make mum lets you got to break some eggs I got to be honest Jody that makes it sound like the movie's a little bit political a little bit a little bit uh you know no I mean I think you'll take away from it no I don't mean like it's advocating one candidate but I mean it is recognizing a a specific problem as a very serious problem that affects regular people in a very serious way well and there's a character in the movie that really represents Wall Street and uh at the end of the day when we track him down and say you know what do you have to say to all this he says you know it's funny you weren't complaining when we were making you money that's right you were happy happy to lap up as many stocks as you possibly could and um you were looking the other way when everything was you know when when you were making those massive returns and if you really want to be competitive if you say that you want to be competitive then you have to take these risks and you have to go uh over the over what you know the regulations are because if you don't it's just going to be the Chinese and the Russians that are going to win um that's true too so we do have all points of view I think in all of my films there really are everybody's point of view matters um yes though there are and there are and I think one thing that is is certainly frustrating for me in a in a campaign especially even in this office where I argue with a lot of people consistently uh is that there are multiple truths existing at the same time that's why they call it drama well that works well for you guys um so the the obvious questions I have to get out of the way sure that I don't like but I mean you're you know come on you're like it's George Clooney and Julia Roberts there's a degree of just like they're awesome they're awesome and uh they're wonderful together and it's you know they they're really aren't on screen for most of the movie they're on on screen for two minutes in the beginning and two minutes at the end and yet they have this virtual relationship in the film where Julia speaks into his ear through an earpiece and he her speaking to her when you shot was no no no they were nowhere near each other and yet um sort of the magic of their chemistry and their Dynamic really shines through in the film they really are brother and sister this uh fourth I think the fourth movie they've done together a couple of oceans movies and uh confessions of the Clooney movie right Confessions of a dangerous mind um so um but I read some interesting things about just how you put this together so was it shot sequentially is that right no not really well it kind of was we had to do all the stuff that was on the uh on the money market St uh the money monster stage we had to do that Al together and so that ended up being the first two two and a half weeks of shooting and uh red again this is more for I suppose deep film Buffs but some of it like the stuff that's on television shot with television cameras so it will look the texture will literally be different than it is through we wanted to figure out how to really separate the dramatic eye so the film eye in some ways uh from the from the broadcast eye and so we separated that uh visually and um and also sort of psychologically by the lenses we used and and by how we position the cameras so um all of these cameras are going simultaneously the the four broadcast cameras uh sometimes there's three but actually there's four broadcast cameras and then the one what we call the film camera although it's not film um the film camera which is uh the dramatic eye of the film and they do look different right there' be some they do look different um you know what's interesting about our film is that there is it's all in real time much like a lot of those Sydney Li movies and um it's one action happening and it's happening all over the world so we'll see something happen on the broadcast that we're watching we'll experience it but other people are watching it everywhere around the world including the control room that has all of those monitors the the police that are watching downstairs a coffee shop uh somebody in Korea somebody in South Africa somebody in Iceland um all of them are participating in one event the way you can do these days in the modern world and um for all of our for all of the things that are that bug us about technology one of the best things is that it's it's really a democracy uh and um all of these people are allowed to influence what happens on the screen so you shoot this so the movie takes place in real time like what like a 100 minutes something like that it's uh an hour and a half yeah um that's night like two hours so there's a little bit of cheating in there somewhere well that gets to a little like you it's somewhat like it's really hard to do movies that take place in real time well people go to the bathroom we never showed anybody going to the bathroom right well we got they eat they snack the call home I just got to send a quick text there's probably not a lot of that um you wouldn't believe what's happening at work today hang on I'll be right there um uh but it is it can be limiting because you can it can it can it can screw up uh uh it can screw up your sequencing it's hard to you're you get bound to that way of story it's a real challenge as a director because you have to create tone with the story you can't just say you can't just cut and go meanwhile right you know you each each each piece let's just say it's in threea or it's in seven a all of them have to have their own organic engine right so uh if the film starts off a certain way then it has to gain in speed and momentum and it has to keep that momentum until the end um I'm reading into this a little bit I talked about this with Matt atch who's the Editor in Chief of Rotten Tomatoes this morning we did a Game of Thrones review no no it's just but like so in these these four movies you've directed like there's a there's a significant Outsider in at least two of them certainly in in Tate right yes uh and in the beaver like they're with with Mel Gibson's character and I for the holiday and home for the holidays also certainly with Robert dowy Jr and and and maybe to some by the way let me just say a little B home for the holidays it's like my favorite uh holiday movie I mean and so you probably don't watch but whenever we do uh uh like Christmas movies and I realize it's Thanksgiving but whenever we do holiday movies at at at Turner Classic Movies and we list the best ones I always mention a I always mention so you got to just I'm just saying pay attention and least get me by the way I know many you probably haven't seen 1995 jie Foster's over with all is great I don't know why I love it so much but I do um I mean I love it because it's good but for some reason it's just every time well maybe because you're an outsider you know I mean I think it's a it was it was designed from the perspective of a 30 some year old person who once a year has to go back to their family and is completely infantilized right and um is torn in all the ways that they were when they were young and and can't make sense of all this chaos and so you have it again here to some extent well I mean you could well I I haven't seen the movie yet uh but but but Jack O connell's character obviously is has been at least has been rendered an outsider by the circumstances that have happened to him anybody who goes in with a gun into a live TV studio is is certainly making themselves that way yeah um May character he's he's the wisest character in the movie and yet he's the one that has because uh he doesn't have an intellectual conversation you know he's the guy who comes in and says I this isn't fair and um everybody else says oh yes it is it was it was a glitch it was computers it's too difficult for you to understand and he says no I'm not going to take that answer I want to know what happened to my money you know look I don't know you but you seem super well adjusted so uh but does that but does that outside thing does that do those types of stories did are you were you drawn to those stories I think that's more true of my my first three films and I think this film is a bit of a departure in that area but there are a lot of there are a lot of things that I I find again in this film um you know uh certainly the film has uh an intellectual side and an emotional side and it's equally divided um that's something that's true of all my films um it's yeah I I suppose it's a group of unlikely people that come together almost like a little funny subset family people that shouldn't Belong Together kind of come together to solve something right and that's true television even in in I mean I've been working on TV all my life and you always there is a connection with the people you know not here obviously could care less about these people um no you Bond you right you Bond and it's a part you know it's any time any job that's a particularly stressful environment and where you feel and that's certainly true here like you're doing something important yeah um that brings you together um so uh I uh in we talked a little first of all before we get to that last thing about this movie because we talked about TV and you got couple of big people who've succeeded enormously in this new world of TV Dominic West of course on the affair uh on Showtime and what Katrina B from Outlander right and right from Outlander which I've only seen one episode of but right and uh and Gian Carlo Esposito Breaking Bad and based on what we've now know coming up in season three of Better Call Saul he's gonna he's finally gonna show up well and George Clooney from me are and George Clooney was on the program ER it's on the television program er um but again like it's a different like yeah whatever you're when you were making movies in the 80s we weren't looking to TV to find stars but these guy and and Dominic West was on The Wire that's right right yeah it's liberating isn't it I mean that actors can just act and they can act in lots of different places and play lotss of different characters and over longer periods of time and that's a wonderful thing right now um so nobody hardly anybody goes from being a successful child star to a to a successful grown-up actress I don't I don't really know why it it's you know I'm interviewing at the film festival um oh man I'm going to blow his name so that's that's a shame well you'll be EDI it's okay well no it's okay cuz it's uh it's the the GU in did you see Cinema Paradiso yes the kid yeah so I don't know the kid's name right so Toto the young Toto who was the Toto who you're left with I mean he was the adorable one he of the three people who played that guy in the movie and I'm interviewing him at the festival and he said like yeah he gave it a shot he said no bitterness whatsoever that he didn't succeed as an actor he was in a bunch of movies he's like and look at the movie I made it's like this great wonderful thing and I'm so happy to be a part of it but when you're a kid he's like you just react and then as you get to be a certain age you realize oh I have to now it's work now it takes work it's not just that it is work but that it takes work it takes planning and that is something that some people just can't do was there a ever a moment for you is that ring true first of all um well that's definitely true because I I you know you at 12 or 13 years old it's not like you're sitting there going like hm I wonder if this is going to add it what's this going to add up to and you know maybe I should send that person a note and tell them about these Impressions I can do right um but I I think the the biggest reason that child actors don't grow on to be uh adult actors is that it's a different style of acting and uh most child actors are are just asked asked to be the child actor you know they're not really asked to grow into you know a full character and I got lucky because I did get to play some really full characters I didn't really as you mean like in Alice and and in taxi more Taxi Driver busing Malone you know even little girl was down land I mean those were all movies were uh it was in incidental what age they were you did four movies in 1976 you mention bugs alone taxi driver but those again those were those were those were characters I mean I guess you were 14 then I think something like that I was 12 when I did taxi driver and bugs Malone but those are real those were grownup Parts I guess so I guess so and you know my mom was amazing my mom was really amazing at she was an incredible movie buff and she really wanted me to have a career of somebody who was respected and who had a long career and um so she chose maybe selfishly or or for a vicarious thrill in some way she wanted me to be meaningful and to have a a meaningful career and I think that that ended up allowing me to have a better transition to adult acting is there a movie that you consider like your transition or is it no I mean I had some awkward periods I uh um I made some I didn't make some I made some movies that weren't that great and then I went to college and I thought that oh well my career will be over but I guess I'm going to go on to write and hopefully someday to be able to direct films so um I'm gonna keep trying to squeeze this acting thing but I know it's not going to pan out and the people who say the people who say I went to college and don't mention the college always went to a gr did go to yell which an awesome place um but I really didn't think I would St acting right when you went to you pretty much made five movies while I was I'm anidi I did yeah they weren't they didn't do very well but I did five movies while I was there and um and then I came out and I did the six months of sleeping a lot when you finish saying you know what am I going to do next and um eventually I did the accused and and my career started over again so that was the so post College that's where things I think so yeah I think the accused was the big one um you still as pleased with that performance as I imagine you were at the time is it I I thought it I thought it was terrible in that movie and um I don't know what was wrong with me I mean I guess I I I had my own prejudices about myself on screen and I was young I didn't really understand what I was doing maybe and um I was kind of embarrassed by the performance and I thought oh I think I should go to grad school is that right so I did my Gres thinking oh well that's the end of me I guess I'll go to grad school and then the movie did well and I kept acting um uh can you tell me a little bit about that Oscar Knight do we oh the first Oscar night uh the first Oscar night the first Oscar night it was fun but I was by myself I was the only one from the movie so I was you know running around trying to figure out what to do because there wasn't there wasn't anybody from the movie so the second time I won for Silence of the Lambs I think was more fun because everybody from the movie had won we won all five categories the top five categories and we were all kind of running around with each other sweating and moving from thing to thing and we all went to the same designated place so it was a little bit more of a family had you won all the things that lead up to it before the accused like so did you have a sense that you this was a good bet yeah a few of them um I won the Golden Globe but nobody else did so they were all bummed um yeah I think we you know it was an amazing year I mean silence was an amazing experience and uh I just recently it's the 25th anniversary of Silence I just got to see everybody Jonathan Demi and and Ted tally and you know all the actors I got to see them in New York and um you know you you you forget that um you just forget it you forget it all you forget what an incredible wild ride it was what's your best movie what movie are you most proud of not directing uh you know I don't know I'm I'm probably taxi driver I mean I think taxi driver is really just a great American classic and I'm just can't believe that I got to be a part of the 70s in the Golden Age of American Cinema we were talking before I'm interviewing Fay onway at the festival and I was telling her that like look think that meeting Fay is from 1967 to 77 if you go from like Bonnie cly to Star Wars like the 10 most important years maybe in American Cinema and she was and and yeah and I'm I'm realized I'm telling you the story and I'm like oh wait you were you count you're in I I guess I count but I was so young I think I was just wide-eyed you know I couldn't believe either at the time well the point is we don't know it then we know it now so you count believe me I I news for you um so uh uh did you give an answer there what oh Taxi Driver yeah taxi driver I think Taxi Driver um and and tax D and silence you know uh um silence I I feel like the beauty of that movie really came out of Thomas Harris's typewriter when he when he created the book and and all of us did our best work and who knows maybe we'll never be as good as we all were in that movie when we came together um it was just the book was so inspiring that I think everybody especially Ted tally who wrote the screenplay it just came out of his just came out of as typewriter and into everybody's mouths you know because everybody would like me to make this interview about me so whenever anyone calls me ever I mean this has happened 78 times in my life and and they're not there I just say into the phone Dr Lecter Dr lecor Dr Lector uh and it always makes people laugh it always makes every time I hear it which is a lot yeah I'm sure it always usually I hear the Kean the FAA beans and the Kean that seem the one that's not for me I just like the do Lector I like that um um so uh uh can I ask you so first of all I want to ask you about Mel Gibson but I hope it's okay but because I you know I don't know him so my reaction all that stuff was different I so admired your loyalty because he's your friend and I think that speaks volumes um about you that makes this an easy question did you feel any Fallout from that or was that an easy call for you to make because look this is your friend and this is what you do um well there's two sides to him I mean yes he's my friend and he's somebody who's shown me great loyalty over the years and who um who I really love and who's shown me a lot of love and um who's been there for me and who's been supportive um and continues to be so that's a no-brainer right um I can't stand up for his behavior but I can certainly stand up for the man that I love um but he also is a great artist um he is a a phenomenal director and uh a wonderful actor too as we know but he's a phenomenal director and um he is uh if you've ever run into anybody who's ever worked with him he's probably is the favorite actor director that anybody ever works with he's heard favorite favorite person for technicians as well as other we started talking about this world that we live in and and if we expand that to the internet and this instant reaction like you said there are two sides but and and of course I I agree with you and you don't have to you can have both those sides you can say that was horrible and I'm gonna give you a hug now or whatever that whatever that effect is and I'm going to or and I'm going to cast you in the movie I want to ask you about because the beaver was so interesting and good um you don't have to choose you can do both you can have both those reactions somewhat related to what the the very there there are multiple truths we don't have to decide one truth about people or events shaping the world yes and um you know he takes responsibility for his own behavior and he's had to and and he'll live with the consequences of that for the rest of his life but um he has really shown up as an artist for me and for the movie movie he was wonderful wonderful in the beaver and he gave everything and he was the easiest person in the world to direct and always on time and only two or three takes so I I that's that's the man that I have to present is the man that I know that was uh that movie was so weird different weird but I mean weird in all the ways that you want it to be weird right yeah I mean I I know that movie wasn't for everybody I know that there were uh lots of people that like their genres nice and simple you know and they uh I don't know what I don't know what genre don't know but the the filmm had the tone of the main character and the main character was unstable um he's somebody who goes from being uh deeply deeply deeply depressed chemically depressed to somebody who uh the only way he can survive is to become completely diluted and uh and have a you know a complete fantasy about himself and then he falls off the cliff at the end and has to accept himself for who he is and the film has that tone so it goes from from being um sort of seeming like it's going to be like a happy py Hollywood movie to um sort of a disturbing uh fantasm to a film that really is about uh regenerating yourself and and surviving um and also you know I mean so it's it's got Mel Gibson it has you Anton yeltz Jennifer Lawrence I forgot had Jennifer Lawrence until I went back and my favorite person uh you know this is a silly question too are just a a rudimentary question so I hate asking them although I've asked a lot um the uh uh do you see her greatness early I mean she's it's not like you discovered her but 2011 still do we see like wow this is a oh yeah it's undeniable I mean she uh she really sent us uh a tape really I mean I didn't even get to meet her she sent in a tape herself that she made herself and uh I was like wow she's amazing I I went to see uh uh Winters bone I went to see a couple C of pieces of Winter's Bone and I said wow she is so extraordinary um we should re I would like to bring her on to this movie and I'd like to rewrite the character for her so there was not a part for her yeah there was but it was different and I and I saw I saw how great she was and um I wanted to rewrite the part uh to reflect what's great about her and um and that that's something that you know you can do when you see somebody who's extraordinary for the last like even I guess because of the nature of TCM and the older stars that I interact with many most of whom overwhelmingly are wonderful and just they tell great stories and they're appreciative and but there is a degree of I don't go to the movies anymore yeah right and the movies are terrible and they don't tell any good stories and they all the stars are all you know they and they use some horrible pejorative word and I for years I would say you know I used Clooney I was like look if George Clooney had been 35 years old in 1935 he'd have been Clark able like it's not he would have been a classic star then but I think she would have also so I for you you know tried to get them be like don't don't rule again don't rule out Jennifer L see her and appreciate that sort of she has a classic Hollywood way about her yeah and you know um those two things being a real creative moving actor and being a movie star don't have to be incompatible um and um you know they don't have to be on opposite sides of the fence I think uh and money monster is a good example of that I mean hopefully you can make a film that's a a general public film that's a genre film that's a taught Thriller um that performs for people in some ways that way but that also is really intelligent and that allows them to u to be challenged allows an audience to be challenged couple more questions that's hard to do now though isn't it I mean we have every movie is a you know we all know what the big successful movies are the franchises and this is obviously not about to be a franchise one as a oneoff um uh but you still have you know you still got the big stars in it you got many of the things needed to make a hit but it's like you either make a movie like the beaver which by the way everybody who hasn't seen should go see but that not a lot of people see right or you have to make a you have to make a Superman movie and then you try to find this acceptable Middle Ground yeah it's a weird time in the film business Lots has changed um people's habits have changed you know what going to the theater has changed for people people a lot of people don't go to the theater anymore or if they do they want to only see a franchise film and so um and that really is a byproduct of how the studio end of the industry has kind of changed its own industry um but I just make movies and uh I make small ones I make big ones I make comedies I make dramas um I do television uh that's all I've ever really wanted to do and I feel like if you're a creative person you know you're going to figure out how to tell your stories because I work at TCM I have to ask you about two people before we go James Garner oh I love James Garner he my favorite I did Maverick with James Garner but I also did a little known uh Disney movie with him years before I was probably about 10 years old and it was me and a camel and uh and him in the west um just a great guy fun bright uh great sense of humor just a lovely lovely man uh anybody who works at TCM you your first credit I think you were on the door stay show I don't know if that was my first credit but yeah I was on the door stay show I don't remember anything about it but yeah I was no door day memories not really sorry it's okay I had I gotta ask I yeah I did a lot of shows that I had vague memories you know I was on the Lucille Ball show I was how were you so The Partridge Family all these shows how were you not on The Brady Bunch what gives yeah I don't think I was on The Brady Bunch that's an outrage um I don't know how that happened I I did my three sons I did um I did I did pretty much every television show in the 70s um but that was a show about kids and you were a kid yeah I don't know I think maybe I was the wrong you know cuz I I was blonde and look kind of like them I think they were like let's avoid her you could have been a you could have been a sister may maybe maybe um your I think actually I think I I actually auditioned for that and didn't get it oh really yeah I'm pretty sure I remember that you couldn't uh you couldn't hold up to those guys they were too good it was a team hold up to it uh you're a mench for coming in and spending this much time my pleasure my pleasure so great uh jod Foster everybody uh uh money monster Friday May 13th uh also Freaky Friday Freaky Friday so before then uh go first of all rent home for the holiday everybody and go see the the beaver it's super weird and super good uh and great pleasure to have jod Foster thanks everybody

Channel: What The Flick?!

Views: 104,219

Keywords: jodie foster, interview, money monster, jodie foster movies, clarice, silence of the lambs, jodie foster interview, what the flick, wtf, sony, pictures, george clooney, julia roberts, good interviews, the young turks, tyt, pop culture, film

Id: 0JRgayOLQyE

Length: 39min 35sec (2375 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 29 2016