Jodie Foster Is Done Competing With Her Past

At 61, Jodie Foster is having more fun professionally than she ever has before. “There’s a kind of contentedness that you have,” she says of entering her sixth decade. Fittingly, her latest film, the biopic Nyad, in which Foster plays long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad’s (Annette Bening) best friend and coach, Bonnie Stoll, is a triumph not just for its depiction of Nyad’s historic swim from Cuba to Florida at 64 years old, but also for how it celebrates the immutable bond of two women of a certain age. “There's something really beautiful about this long-term friendship,” Foster tells W’s editor at large, Lynn Hirschberg. “They've been friends for over 40 years. They were lovers a hundred years ago when they were kids, and they stayed together as a family. They see each other every single day—even today.” Here, Foster discusses the film, for which she received Golden Globe and Critics Choice Awards nominations, her new season of HBO Max’s True Detective: Night Country, and defying her mother’s expectations.

How did Nyad come into your life?

I knew Bonnie and Diana for years, running into them at Christmas parties and barbecues, and I just loved them. I thought they were quirky and interesting. And then Diana’s amazing feat happened—swimming 110 miles from Cuba to Florida. When they approached me with the script, I couldn’t resist.

Do you like water?

I love the ocean, but I don’t really like to swim; I don’t like to put my head underwater. So that was good for Nyad: All I had to do was stand on the boat and scream at her.

And wear a lot of sunblock.

I do wear a lot of sunblock, although Bonnie does not believe in sunblock. There is one moment in the film where she takes, like, a ChapStick that has sunblock in it and puts it on the tip of her nose. That's about the only bit of sunblock that Bonnie has ever seen. Diana says that Bonnie is a tanorexic, which, if you actually take that apart etymologically, makes no sense. But Bonnie is addicted to tanning.

When you did Silence of the Lambs, few serious actresses were cast in horror films. Were people surprised when Silence of the Lambs swept the Oscars, winning all the major awards?

We didn’t expect that at all! We were backstage at the Oscars, kind of sweating all over each other. I already had an Oscar [for The Accused], but that was for a film where I was the only one nominated. So Silence was a completely different experience.

How old were you when you started acting?

Three. I did my first movie at 6.

What was the hardest transition agewise during your career?

The biggest transition was going from being a young person, to college, and then becoming an adult actor. The work that I did between 16 and 22—that is the most awkward place. But my mom just kept telling me, "By the time you're 40, you'll never work again, so you should work as much as you can now because by the time you're 40, you'll be over." Now I've never been busier. The fifties are awkward, especially for an actress. People don't know what to do with you, and you don't know what to do with you. You're completely confused about what your relevance is in the world. You just keep trying to compete with your past and who you used to be. And suddenly, sixties, the perfect thing happens: At 60, you suddenly realize you don't care about all the things that you cared about in your fifties. You get to support other people because you know it's not your time. There's something about being the wise one in the room that it's just so much more fun.

When we last spoke, you mentioned that in some ways you were the wise one in the room in Taxi Driver, and you were only 12.

I first worked with Martin Scorsese when I was about 10, on Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. By the time I was 12, I’d made a lot more films than De Niro or Scorsese. They were definitely scared of me: “What do we do with this 12-year-old?” I was in my hot pants and corkies, or whatever those platform shoes were called.

You’re starring in the latest season of True Detective premiering this month. What can you tell us about it?

I've seen all the True Detectives, and of course, season 1 is pretty awesome. But our season, season four, is my favorite, of course. We shot in Iceland, in the freezing cold, and I couldn't have loved it more. There’s a great groundedness and humor to it for a show that has this eerie quality and some scares here and there. It really centers the Indigenous experience, this place in Alaska that so many of us in the lower 49, which is the United States, don't know very well.

Are you a Halloween dress-up person?

Are you kidding me? I’m a huge Halloween fan. I was a Smurf for many years. I kept my Smurf mask until it smelled really bad.

Which Smurf were you?

Papa Smurf, of course! With the beard and the blue and the whole thing.

Do you have a go-to karaoke song?

I do not. When my first son was born, I used to sing to him "Big Spender.” That seemed to be the song that I sang to him in his bassinet. So that would probably be my karaoke song.

What astrological sign are you?

Scorpio. Scorpios are strong, hypersexualized. They are attackers, and they’re quite the fighters. They can be vindictive. [Laughs] That’s me. Ready?

Senior Style Editor: Allia Alliata di Montereale. Senior Fashion Market Editor and Menswear Director: Jenna Wojciechowski. Hair for portfolio by Mustafa Yanaz for Dyson at Art+Commerce; makeup for portfolio by Emi Kaneko for Tom Ford at Bryant Artists; manicures for portfolio by Michelle Saunders for Chanel. Set design by Peter Klein at Frank Reps. Special thanks to Ms. Bebe at Outfitters Wig Shop in Hollywood.

Produced by Connect the Dots; Executive Producer: Wes Olson; Producer: Zack Higginbottom; Production manager: Nicole Morra; Production coordinator: David Cahill; First photography assistant: Trevor Pikhart; Second photography assistant: Jeremy Eric Sinclair; Digital Technician: Brendan Pattengale; Postproduction by Lucas Rios Palazesi at Quickfix; Fashion assistants: Tori López, Tyler VanVranken, Molly Cody, India Reed, John Celaya, Kaamilah Thomas, Emily Cancelosi, Allie Kessler, Juliana Bassi, Karla Garcia, Jacqueline Chen, Cosima Croquet; Production assistants: Mateo Calvo, Aspen Miller, Nico Robledo, Griffin Koerner, Danielle Rouleau, Nicolo Battaglini, Juanes Montoya, Juan Calvo, Lily Cordingley, Nathan Gallie, Cameron Hoge, Jack Fahey, Cole Ewing, Karlie Ofstedahl; Hair assistants: Takao Hayashi, Andres Copeland; Makeup assistants: Amelia Berger, Willie Huang; Manicure assistants: Rachel Messick, Marissa Asprer; Set assistants: Christopher Crash Richard, Winston Willingham; Tailors: Irina Tshartaryan, Elma Click, Gayane Mnatsakanyan at Susie’s Custom Designs, Inc.