Jodie Foster

And, you know, my mom, who grew up in a pre-feminist time, just didn't – she didn't have those opportunities to be able to play a part in the next role that women were going to play.

Oh, yes, yes.

And filled with mixed messages, like everybody of that era, you know.

It was always very confusing, which, you know, anybody who's my age probably has the same stories of their mom saying, you can do anything.

You can be a doctor, you can be a lawyer, you know, but, you know, make sure you don't ever make a man mad.

OK, because, you know, try to manipulate him and say nice things about, you know, flatter him rather than make him mad because making a man mad is dangerous.

You know, there was just a lot of mixed messages of, you know, you can do anything, but you won't be able to take care of yourself.

So who are you going to marry that's going to take care of you?

And, you know, that's what we do as kids is you rebel against your parents for the things that you feel are not true to your life and that you feel are all fear.

They're just throwing fear at you and you reject that to become your own person.

So did you ever take her advice of always flattering men?

No, but I certainly knew when there was a drunken guy in a bar who I knew to say something nice and try to change the subject and leave as quickly as I could.

I think like any woman who wants to save their life, we know that historically we are in danger.

Well, you know, at 12 years old, my mom, if you saw Paul Schrader at that time, he really was Travis Bickle, right?

He wore that army jacket and he mumbled a lot and he stayed up all night and stayed up for hours and hours at a time.

My mom didn't want me anywhere near Paul Schrader.

She was like, don't talk to him, whatever you do.

Well, yeah, look, I was an actor.

I finally understood through working with Robert De Niro, because he really took the time to show me what acting was, that it wasn't just saying lines that somebody else wrote, that it actually was creating a character.

I didn't know that before I was 12.