Terry Gross

Because you play a 12-year-old, and you were 12 when you shot this.

And you are what would then be called a prostitute and today a sex worker who has a pimp played by Harvey Keitel.

And Robert De Niro plays Travis Bickle, the taxi driver.

And De Niro sees this, and so he wants to buy some time with you to save you.

He kind of has a savior complex.

So here's a scene where he has tried to talk with you and rescue you, take him away from the pimp, but you don't want to be rescued.

So he ends up taking you to a diner.

He's trying to convince you to go back home, be with your parents, and just live a better life.

And you speak first.

I think Paul Schrader doesn't ever get quite enough credit for writing this.

I mean, people who really know movies think he's made terrific movies, but Scorsese did a brilliant job directing it, but Paul Schrader did a brilliant job writing it.

You know, God's Lonely Man and all of Travis's monologues.

Did you get to talk to Schrader about the screenplay?

How did your mother feel about playing a 12-year-old sex worker?

And how did you feel about it?

How much did you understand what that meant?

And also the film has some pretty explicit violence.

Did adults in the ladies' room ever look at you and say,

What are you doing here?

But you've also said that it was hard for you to express emotion unless you were acting.