Jodie Foster
When Jodie Foster accompanied her latest directorial effort, The Beaver, to its world premiere at Austin's South by Southwest festival in March, there was ample reason for the two-time Oscar winner to be apprehensive about her film's reception. The story of a depressed, middle-age man who begins communicating only through a beaver puppet was already a hard sell because of its tricky tone, and it didn't help matters when tapes of star Mel Gibson's shocking private phone calls went very public last summer. "It was a struggle, this film," Foster said, the day after The Beaver debuted to a warm reception at Austin's Paramount Theatre. "I think it was the hardest professional experience I ever had." The Beaver opens in theaters Friday.
1 How did you first become involved with The Beaver?
We have this thing called the Black List in Los Angeles: the 100 best unproduced screenplays. And usually they're very quirky films that have trouble getting off the ground, and the reason is because they're unusual. So I read this script and I loved it, and I knew there was another director that was attached. He hadn't done any work on the script or anything, but he was attached and trying to figure out when he could fit it in. And I said, 'Listen, if he falls out, please call me.'
2 Were you looking at this as something to direct or something to act in, or both?
Only to direct. I never thought about acting at all until Mel came aboard, and I thought, 'Who am I going to get to play the wife?' For me, the wife's character was really the audience -- the audience's perspective. It was important that whoever played that part could anchor the drama, and wasn't going to go to some comedy place. Somebody I felt could be a real protagonist for the audience to hang onto.
3 How worried are you about audiences bringing their preconceptions about the recent tabloid news about Mel Gibson into the movie with them?
Well, there's just nothing I can do about it. Whatever baggage an actor has, they bring into the film. I do believe that his personal struggles in some way inform the kind of empathy that he had for this part, the passion that he had for this part, and the fact that he was able to find the drama and the reality in this character. And I feel lucky for that. I feel that really allows you to come to understand somebody who's ill.
4 Did he come in with the beaver's voice, or were several things tried?
He did, but there was a process of coming up with that. You know, we talked about people -- is it Ray Winstone, is it Michael Caine, is it the Geico guy? How fast does he talk? How gruff is he? You know, we changed a lot, and we refined it a lot from the beginning to the final result.
5 How hard was it to find the balance between funny and disturbing?
Hard. There are people who will enjoy the tone of the film and like the fact that it doesn't have to decide between the two, and it slowly descends into drama just as he does. And then there are people who won't like that at all, and say 'I wish it was a comedy.' And I don't know what to tell them. [Laughs] I didn't make that movie, you know?
-- S cott Von Doviak, Special to the Star-Telegram
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