Jodie Foster has never been one to play by Hollywood’s rules. But her story about how she got the lead role in ‘Hotel Artemis‘ shows that sometimes you just have to go after what you want without waiting for someone to give you permission.
In interviews around the time the movie came out in 2018, Foster talked about how the part of The Nurse was originally written for a man. Sean Penn was actually the one they had in mind, so how did she end up with the role? Apparently, she found the script before anyone else could get to it.
How Jodie Foster Turned a Male Role Into Her Own at Age 55
The writer and director Drew Pearce hadn’t even sent the script out to agencies or talent when Foster got her hands on it. “He didn’t track me down—I tracked him down,” Foster told Newsday. “I’d read the script through mysterious circumstances… and I said, ‘I want to play it.'” She said this is something she does on purpose. She reads everything that comes her way for her age group, “male or female,” just to find characters that have real substance and independence.
Related: The Real Reason Why Jodie Foster Avoided Anthony Hopkins During ‘The Silence Of The Lambs’
At 55, Foster was drawn to a character who was supposed to be a man in his seventies. The Nurse runs a secret hospital for criminals in a city torn apart by riots. She is tough, emotionally complicated, and nothing like the typical wife or girlfriend roles that actresses her age usually get offered. “It was written for a man,” Foster confirmed. “And I thought, ‘Why can’t I play it?‘”
This says a lot about how she thinks about her career. Foster said she is “not as interested in the abstract goal of being successful” as she is in finding a “full transformation.” She has always been frustrated by the lack of good parts for women, especially in action movies. She pointed out that even if she is not playing a “sheriff or a police man,” she has always wanted to be the “central character.” Going after ‘Hotel Artemis‘ the way she did shows how she works around the industry’s limits by taking roles that were never meant for her in the first place.
Jodie Foster’s Bold Move Brought an All-Star Cast Together
The director backed up her story and said Foster was the first actor to sign on. Her involvement helped bring in a great cast, including Dave Bautista, Jeff Goldblum, and Sterling K. Brown. “It was surreal,” Bautista admitted, remembering the first time they all read the script together. “I couldn’t believe I was sitting to read with Jodie.”
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‘Hotel Artemis‘ became a project she truly cared about, and it let her break the usual expectations. By going after a part that was never written for her, Foster gave a strong performance and showed that the best roles are often the ones you make for yourself. As she said, she has always been interested in the character “who should fascinate me,” no matter what gender the script says they are.
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