Jodie Foster on making 'The Beaver' and trusting Mel
Time to play Five Questions with Jodie Foster, the star and director of “The Beaver,” an edgy, daring drama about a suicidal family man (the controversial Mel Gibson) who regains his life through a hand puppet that takes on its own personality. The film opens Friday.
Q. You've created a film that operates on the power of tone more than any other element. How did you achieve this?
A. It has a very odd tone. That was the real challenge. Getting that right, to find the balance. I toned down the comedy as much as I could. We didn't allow the drama to veer into melodrama or the saccharine. It was a big balancing act. Some of it we got right by changes we made in the screenplay, others we got right in terms of casting. Each choice we made a long the way: What music? How the film was shot. What lenses do you use? The colors we used. We tried to veer the audience into taking this as seriously as a heart attack, and to allow themselves to be moved the same way the characters are moved.
Q. Why tackle something as artistically risky and commercially dangerous as this film?
A. I loved the challenge of it. It was a tough one. I love that. In a way, it's the story of my life, all about a spiritual crisis. A man is torn between two worlds, and at a crux in his life, he wants to live. He doesn't want to die. It causes him to create a survival tool to help him through the cruelest moments of his life.
All my movies are about a spiritual crisis. “Little Man Tate” is a spiritual crisis about a 7-year-old who must choose between his head and his heart. Give up his mind or give up love. It's a terrible cruel thing that's being asked of him. “Home for the Holidays” poses the question, “Are you a mother or are you a daughter?” You feel like a fraud because you're neither.
Q. What's the greatest joy you get from directing a film?
A. The greatest joy I get is watching actors surprise me and bring something I've never seen before. I admire how much they bring to the process.
Q. What was the toughest aspect of making this film?
A. The third act! That was it. Sometimes you make a movie that is quite difficult and has a difficult path. When you start the film, you think it's going in one direction, then you're halfway through and you think, “Wow! It's not going in that direction.”
By the end of the film, you're like, #8220;What am I trying to say?#8221; Then, the process, through editing the film and reshoots, we came to understanding what the film was about.
Q. What's the thing you like the most about Mel Gibson?
A. This sounds really narcissistic. He loves me. I know that. I know that if I banged my head at three o'clock in the morning, and that if I called him, he would run over with his little Tibetan bag of medicine and drive me to the hospital. I believe that. It's that kind of trust.