Jodie Foster is a two-time Academy Award winner, for The Accused and Silence of the Lambs, and her string of dramatic credits include: Taxi Driver, which marked her first Oscar nomination at the age of 14, to more recent films Panic Room, Flightplan, Nell and The Brave One. Now the 45-year-old Yale University graduate is showing off her comedy chops in the adventure comedy film Nim’s Island, based on Wendy Orr’s 2002 novel. Nim (Little Miss Sunshine’s Abigail Breslin) is a feisty, young girl who lives on an uncharted island with her father (Gerard Butler), a marine biologist. Her only friends are animals and the characters in the books by her literary hero, Alex Rover, the world’s greatest adventurer. But when her father is lost at sea and her island is threatened, she reaches out to him via email for help. In reality, the books are written by Alexandra Rover (Jodie Foster), and she’s a nervous, reclusive woman locked away in a big city apartment who reluctantly ventures out to rescue Nim.
How afraid are you of germs?
I am not afraid at all of germs. We have the 50-second rule at my house. If it falls on the floor and it hasn’t been there for more than 50 seconds, you can pick it back up and eat it! I have no germ issues, no phobias really - although I don’t like snakes very much!
How did you feel doing such a broad comedy after so much drama?
I don’t know why I don’t do it more often, except that people don’t want me for comedies. I think that good comedies are really hard to write but its fun to explore the lighter part of your personality, but I had to really knock down some doors in order to get this.
So did you really have to go after this role?
Yes, the directors were all for me but I think the studio was like, ‘Oh, really? Jodie Foster in comedy?’ I understand and probably would make that decision too but sometimes though, when an actor is really tenacious because they know that it speaks to them, you always have to be careful because you know that’s going to be the person you end up with because when all the chips fall down, that’s the person that’s still standing going, 'I’ll do it! I’ll do it!'
Why does it speak to you so much?
There are a lot of reasons. I’ve wanted to make a movie that my kids could see, and that they could be a part of, and that they would love and I’m tired of the kind of CGI digital laser beam stuff, and I think that kids are yearning for this kind of ‘back to nature’ simple idea of building their own hut and making their own food.
This movie is about the idea of real independence; that you can take care of yourself as a kid. I also liked what it said for young girls. But about halfway through the shooting, I realized all my dramas are about people dealing with fear, and these solitary characters that are trying to find a heroism within themselves in order to be fully flesh characters, and there’s a heroism that they didn’t know that they had, or that they learned through this survival. And I was like, ‘wow, that’s exactly this character, except in a comedy!’ So it’s actually like doing a dramatic performance and making fun of yourself.
Do you consider yourself an outdoor sort of person?
I’m surprisingly outdoorsy actually, but I like organized outdoor stuff. I like hikes that have little signposts. I ski a lot but I don’t ski out of bounds. And I like hot showers and room service!
Did you have to do anything specific to get into shape for the action and water stunts in this film?
My life is pretty sporty so I love physical movies. I loved the stuff I had to do in Panic Room and Brave One and I like being able to use my body in order to express myself, because it’s very primal and you don’t really get that opportunity in life. Certainly women don’t get that opportunity that often.
There’s a line that says, 'Courage is something you fight for everyday.' What do you fight for everyday?
I think the one driving force for me right now is doing the right thing. What does that mean? When I was younger, I made movies about doing the right thing, but they were quite black and white, because I was younger.
My idea about what that meant was very like, 'Here’s a bad guy. Here’s a good guy.' And as time goes on, it gets more and more complicated, and I’m more interested in the darker sides of that and the complexity of that.
You said the movie has a nice message for girls; do you feel a responsibility to carry that to girls?
It touches me in that I was a girl, and that I didn’t know I could take care of myself. There really weren’t models for me, and it’s wonderful to see a young girl in a movie who climbs a volcano and fixes a satellite dish, and uses tools in order to build something.
It’s great just to teach girls that they don’t have to depend on someone else, that they actually have everything they need inside themselves and it’s not about brawn, it’s not about having big muscles, it’s about their brains.
Have you ever envisioned becoming someone else like your character does in the film?
I get to fantasize about characters that I would play. I don’t know that I would live them for the rest of my life, but I definitely get to fantasize about characters that I would play.
I always wanted to play somebody who had this expertise at something that they had to practice for their whole lives. Like a world-class violinist or somebody who speaks Portuguese and that’s something that I’ve never been able to do, which is to really train, and spend eight weeks, or ten weeks learning how to play the trumpet, or learning how to do something to play this other person.
I think one of the biggest joys about acting that I didn’t realize as a younger person, but I know now, is that so much comes from the physical. So much of what the character is really comes from what they do, and what their obsessions are, and what their physical obsessions are, so in order to prepare to do a movie playing a violinist, you’ve just got to play the violin and that’s pretty much going to tell you what it is. I like that idea, and that’s something that I’ve always wanted to do.
In the film your character says, 'You must be the hero of your own life.' Are you the hero, or do you tend to look to other people?
I think I am. I think that I’ve been fortunate enough to have been given the confidence to think that I can actually change my life, or I can at least be a force in my own destiny. That comes from a deep place; that’s something that you’re born with, but that’s also promoted by your relationship with your parents.
And for me, that’s been the positive side of being a child actor that at a very young age, I got to have real creative relationships with adults that took my ideas seriously, and there was a real communication between us.
I had this idea, and probably from playing characters that were effective, I had this delusion that I was effective too. When you have delusion long enough, it becomes a part of who you are.
Did you offer Abigail Breslin tips because of your own background as a child actor?
Well, I don’t really need to give Abigail any tips, she’s pretty solid; she’s got a great family and she’s very well-adjusted, and she’s just a great kid.
But there’s a lot about her that’s different than me. I can honestly say that I feel Abigail was born to be an actress because she has this well of emotion that’s completely available to her. I did not have that edge; it did not come naturally to me, it was something that I had to learn, and as an adult, I’m not even sure I have learned that completely.
So would you say that acting helps you to be more extraverted?
Not necessarily extraverted, but at least to have a touch with your internal place. I think as a person, if I hadn’t been an actor, I don’t know that I would have ever realized that side to myself.
How was it shooting in Australia and how much time did you really spend on an island?
There was an island but we were on a sound stage for a really long time. There are a lot of exteriors where there’s no way you could do it anywhere but a sound stage. For example, to build a tree house like that - which means cutting live trees someplace - and being able to put a 1000-pound camera, and 75 people up there, you can’t do that in the forest, plus most of those shots were at night, so you have to have lights, you have to have all that.
Where was the real island?
It was Hinchenbrook Island. It’s this huge, 300-mile island, and it’s completely uninhabited. It’s a nature preserve tended to by the regional Aboriginal tribes, and there’s one little hotel that has 15 rooms and they’re all in tree houses where some of us stayed.
Otherwise, the crew came in from a hotel, and they came on a 45 minute-ride ferry everyday so they would arrive at sunrise, and they’d see this beautiful sunrise. The beaches are just long, long white sand beaches, and you just go out, and there’s nobody there so it was just incredible being there, such a blessing, and I’ve just never had a location quite like that.
Where did you do the water stunts?
Most of the exterior stuff was on the island but for the sea storms at night, obviously that was a tank.
You can’t do that in a real sea because the underwater stuff had to be in a tank because you’ve got a child, and you’ve got scuba divers, and they have to be able to see in order to rescue you if something happens. So there was some bit of it done on sound stages in Queensland.
What do you think the difference is between a child actor that makes it as a successful adult actor, and a child actor who doesn’t?
I don’t know if that’s really the final goal. Do we all have to make transitions into being adult actors? I know a lot of really great ex-child actors who are now real estate brokers and dentists, and they went on to do other things in their lives.
They had this career, and for whatever reason at 16 or 17, they changed it into something else. I wouldn’t say that’s an unsuccessful story. The fear, of course, is you want to be a well-adjusted person, and you hope that your child-actor will evolve into a well-adjusted person who’s sound and safe.
But in terms of actually making the transition, I think the key was to play characters whose age is not really the point of the story, and when you turn 18 or 19, that allows people to see you as a character and not just as your age.
What were the most difficult scenes in the film?
Well, by far the hardest stuff we had to do but in some ways, the most interesting and the most fun, was the stuff that was done in the tank.
It was winter in Australia, so it was cold. It was 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning and I’m only wearing a tank top. I couldn’t wear a wetsuit, or anything like that. Then there were all the wind machines, and all the wave machines, and being underwater with all the scuba divers, and holding your breath for hours and hours at a time, was just so cool. You really felt like you went through something when you’re done for the day.
How was it working with this cast and crew?
One of the nicest experiences was watching Abigail change. She’s a great actress, of course, and she’s so talented. But she’s a kid from Manhattan, and she had never swam in the ocean before.
She was a little bit afraid of things like heights too, so there were a lot of challenges for her and little by little, through the course of the movie, it was sort of like having like a really great kids camp, where she had to learn how to do all these things, and to get over her fear of heights.
By the end of a take in the ocean one day, I looked at her and said, 'Come on!' and we jumped into waves, and she had no fears, and she didn’t want to get out. It was just a different Abigail by the end of the movie. Gerry is a funny guy and I really had a great time with him.
Did you children go with you to Australia?
Yes, they were on the Gold Coast with the mini-golf, and the outback rodeo show, and they loved it! It was fantastic; they got to pet the koalas, emus and the kangaroos; I got all these pictures of them just hanging out with the kangaroos so it was fantastic!
Could you relate to Alexandra as a practical person who also daydreams for a living?
I am a pretty practical person, but I’m an actor too, so I, of course, have that side of me. I like Alexandra. I also like creating in this very solitary world. I like to thin and don’t necessarily need somebody else to be a part of that process. I sometimes like to keep it from other people and have it just be mine so I suppose that’s the part of Alexandra that I like.
What do you like most about your children, and being a mom?
I like watching them surprise me, and I like to see the parts of them that are completely separate from me that have evolved just because of who they are. I love watching them discover the world in a new way, and be gifted at something that I’m not necessarily so good at.
My older son has an amazing sense of humor. He’s just so funny. He’s always come up with jokes, even since he was a baby when he could hardly talk. And my younger son is very special. He likes really sour pickles, and he likes ginger, and he likes truffles and he won’t eat any chicken! So they have such different ways of being, and I love them both for things that are completely opposite from me.
How hard is it to juggle motherhood and your career? Can you have it all?
Well, you can do everything, but you can’t do everything well. I think we all struggle with that, especially with kids because it’s not a black or white area.
Your first assistant cameraman is either in focus, or out of focus, but it doesn’t work like that with kids. It’s not just like, 'You did it right,' or 'You did it wrong.' There’s a whole complicated journey in between.
How do you raise boys in this era of feminism?
Well, men have their places as well. Freedom is a nice thing for men to learn, that they don’t have to constantly protect and worry about other people, and that they can actually make free choices that are right for them. It’s not about what’s expected for them. They have a different route. I think that’s something that I’ve always been interested in.
Nim's island is released 2nd April