

- Silence of the lambs author driver#
- Silence of the lambs author skin#
- Silence of the lambs author tv#
Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), who’s obsession with devouring a person’s psyche manifests in a desire to literally devour them.įoster has never discussed if her performance in The Silence of the Lambs was influenced by her ordeal with Hinckley a decade before, but the experiences she details in Esquire feel so relevant to what Clarice goes through in the film.
Silence of the lambs author skin#
The film follows the FBI agent as she encounters two different kinds of obsessive psychopaths in Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine), who flays female victims to wear their skin like fine silks, and Dr. Ten years after the Hinckley incident, Foster was cast in what would become her most famous role as Clarice Starling in Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs. If they wanted weakness, I wasn’t about to give it to them.”

When I saw them waiting silently and solemnly for my statement, I knew I had to play cowboy - once again. I was supposed to be “tough,” like cowboys, like diplomats, like “unaffected actresses” - not because anyone asked me to but because I wanted to show them (God knows who) that I was strong… I can’t say that I didn’t feel exploited by these friendly men and women with Nikons and with mikes clipped to their lapels….when I saw them assembled before me, I knew that these were the faces, the uncomfortable, fascinated eyes, that I would have to meet for the rest of my life. There were things to be done, secrets to keep. Hinckley’s 1981 assassination attempt was unsuccessful, but it ignited a media frenzy around Foster that she personally detailed in an Esquire story entitled “ Why Me?“. He decided to assassinate then-President Ronald Reagan.
Silence of the lambs author driver#
The stalker became infatuated with the actress after her performance in Taxi Driver and wanted nothing more than to be acknowledged by her.įeeling spurned by Foster’s warranted hostility to his advances, Hinckley concocted a plan to win her attention. While attending the university, Foster began receiving unwanted phone calls and love letters from John Hinckley Jr. It was there that her career, and her life, would take a dramatic turn. She can get into the headspace of a character as complex as a child prostitute and then turn right around and apply that same intuition and curiosity to a precocious tween that accidentally body-swaps with her mom.īut the movies that followed soon after her success in 1976, such as Carny and Foxes, were less than memorable, leading Foster to take a sabbatical from acting to pursue an English degree at Yale in 1980. What is so impressive about this year-long run of film performances is that it shows the range Foster had at an early age, fueled by her inherent ability to approach a role intellectually. That same year saw Foster star in three more films, including Alan Parker’s musical gangster comedy Bugsy Malone and the original Freaky Friday. Her mother, knowing how tumultuous a career a child actor can have when transitioning into adult roles, encouraged Foster to take the Taxi Driver role as a way to force audiences – and casting directors – to take her seriously.

Silence of the lambs author tv#
Up until that Oscar-nominated supporting role, she had been mainly known as a Disney star and TV actress appearing in everything from Gunsmoke to the small-screen adaptation of Paper Moon. It was the year she smashed audience expectations with her performance in Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. In this entry, we examine Jodie Foster’s Academy Award-winning performance as Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs.Ī turning point in Jodie Foster’s career came in 1976. Welcome to The Great Performances, a bi-weekly column exploring the art behind some of cinema’s best roles.

Acting is an art form, and behind every iconic character is an artist expressing themselves.
