Although I’ve always been aware of Jodie Foster’s reputation as a “serious” artist in the Hollywood context, I’ve never actually been struck by her work. Honestly, if you put Helen Hunt’s career side by side with Foster’s, I think I’d probably be more inclined to celebrate Hunt. They both strike me as middle-of-the-road Hollywood figures, people who can play the role asked of them, but rarely elevate it into something unexpected. I don’t mean this as a knock, but simply as an illustration that I find Foster comparable to a large swath of Hollywood talent who are never treated with the same reverence that Foster has enjoyed throughout her career.
As far as I can tell, Foster’s iconic status was earned for surviving childhood stardom with fewer visible scars than most. This is no small achievement, of course, but it’s not exactly an artistic one. As one friend put it, we feel protective of Foster because we will always see her as the precocious child she was in her defining role in Taxi Driver, and because of this we shelter her.
On Sunday night Foster was given a lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes awards. (Helen Hunt, who received her fifth Golden Globe nomination this year was not) As many of you are probably aware, Foster’s speech was a weird, seemingly improvisational flight that had a polarizing effect on the audience at large. Those who instinctively shelter Foster or see in her a champion of intelligence and integrity loved it, while others saw it as a self-serving and deluded Hollywood indulgence. I would fall into the latter camp, I think.
Looking entirely healthy, beautiful and confident, she proceeded to congratulate herself on her appearance and then pretended to come out of the closet, all the while using a tone that diminished those who had previously come out of the closet as somehow self-interested or even vulgar. She then talked about how hard it was for her to lead a normal life, ignoring the possibility that it was hard for anybody to lead a normal life, made a self-important plea for privacy, and then seemed to enjoy flirting and teasing the audience by hinting at retiring from acting (what a national tragedy that would be!) — before publically and somewhat melodramatically, bringing attention to her mother’s dementia. And of course, she chose to do all this from the glittering pulpit of the Golden Globes.
She was a little mixed-up, I think, and far too fast to congratulate herself and dismiss the pedestrian efforts and realities of those who lived outside her bubble of privilege and popular acceptance. It was ironic, to say the very least, that she would choose this platform to champion Mel Gibson, her great friend, instead of pioneers within the LGBT civil rights movement. There was an angry piety to her words that suggested the megalomania of a person who saw herself as a kind of martyr. She seemed small, lonely and disconnected up there on stage, almost cruelly insulated, and it made me sad to see that celebrity had torn her so.
Comments
13 responses to “Jodie Foster’s Speech at the Golden Globes”
Well said, Michael! I felt exactly the same watching her speech. It was sad and also a little irritating. We’re all an accumulation of our choices. And, her choices have led her to enjoy things most of us can’t even imagine. I did feel sorry for her, but not for the reasons I think she was hoping for.
Thanks, Christine, and I felt the exact same way. I’d didn’t find myself admiring her strength or fortitude, but feeling pity for her for becoming so brittle, small and self-centered.
disagree. I think the speech was pretty genius. One of its appeals was its ‘insider feel’… using the podium seemingly to talk to the people who are special in her life and letting the rest of the world eavesdrop. it might not have been genuine, but i though it was masterful. It was targeted to interlocutors who agree that there are different ways to do both privacy and disclosure, even if you’re famous. It has doubtless been a huge drag to have people hounding her for decades to come out when she didn’t want to. And, ya, Taxi Driver!!! come ON! TAXI DRIVER! (+ Helen Hunt? really? really? You, Michael Murray, are not a lesbian 😉
The speech is clearly a matter in which both reasonable and unreasonable people can disagree. I have no opinion on the way that a person comes out, or if they do at all. I think being who you are, the best way that you can, is the greatest responsibility a person has to him or herself, and I believe in her way Foster was trying to say something along those lines, but her tone was so sneering and sarcastic that it felt unkind, and flat out weird with Mel Gibson sitting there like some sort of incubus. It was like watching somebody out of step with the world, somebody with contempt for a world she didn’t understand or care to understand.
Taking your comments (your thoughts on the matter are very much appreciated and carry all sorts of weight) I will have me another think about the speech, but as I said it reminded me of the corruptive forces of celebrity, and how sheltered and inappropriately famous (from the age of three!), she has little idea of what the external world looks or feels like.
As for Helen Hunt, I plucked her out of the ether because they kind of look alike, but I really don’t see Foster as a stand-alone talent. Taxi Driver was a great movie, and she was great in it, in a preternatural way, even, but since then?
Very well written. I totally agree, it was a very strange speech and I can’t imagine what made her decide to take it that route…Maybe it’s because she is 50 now and has to show that she is above anybody and anything? Not sure, but it was disturbing. I also don’t understand why some in the audience were touched or had tears in their eyes? Was that solidarity? Empathy? Did they feel sorry for themselves too? Weird!
I do think she has a few outstanding professional roles. Her Clarice Starling was definitely in my opinion one of the best performances ever by any actress….
Love your take on this. From my FB post, just to share with you a gay activist/comedian/broadcaster’s take:
Jodie Foster finally comes out. Or does she? That speech was as weird as Mel Gibson’s drunk ramblings. Almost. But in trying to understand what it must be like to be famous since you were a child, well, maybe this was just the ‘best she could do.’ What’s weird is that it’s so late in her story and in our lives, frankly, that you’d think she could just come out and be proud and not mince the words. But she can’t and that makes me feel sort of sorry for her. I think she thinks she came out. But having Mel as her prop looking like a deer in the headlights, a drunkyloo stare into space as the camera cuts to him as she says this, just makes me, again, feel sad. It’s 2013. That’s like 2060 in gay years.
Foster is icy and aloof. She is easy to admire – one cannot deny her talent or bravery in choosing roles – but she is hard to like. Had she been overtly emotional and seemingly more concerned with the plights faced by the LGBT population, it would have come across as sincere, if a bit contrived. As it is, the speech seemed self-serving and shallow.
Well written, Mr. Murray.
Michael, you are confusing me. All I know is that Jodie said she was single, but damn, she didn’t give out a phone number. What’s up with that? Do you have her number? …… Anyone?
Once again Michael you have clearly expressed my very thoughts. I wish I could tether you to my brain.
Nothing since Taxi Driver? Michael, you’ve clearly never seen The Hotel New Hampshire.
I need to go back and watch Hotel New Hampshire. Nastassia Kinksi is a bear!!
And that’s still not the kinkiest or most disturbing part of the movie. Of course, I realize that sultry goddess of Cat People fame really isn’t disturbing in (or out of) anything…
I am glad you were able to articulate my thoughts on this speech or lecture…or whatever it was. I was initially confused and then I stopped caring. After that, I tried to remember if there was ever a Jodie Foster film that I really liked.
Thanks for nailing it.