During the Taxi Driver 50th Anniversary Screening and Panel event at the Tribeca Film Festival last Friday, June 5, Martin Scorsese reflected on making the 1976 film and working with a young Jodie Foster.
“Jodie, it’s like so funny, because when I first met you, you came in a little office I had and just came saying hello for Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” Martin Scorsese recalled about their first collaboration in 1974, perPeople.
Jodie Foster was just 12 years old when she filmed and starred in the 1976 film Taxi Driver. The film starred Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle as a disaffected taxi driver while Foster played Iris, a 12-year-old who’s being sex trafficked by her boyfriend. Despite her young age, Jodie was already a pro in Hollywood with numerous film and TV credits to her name. This was evident by her taking “control on set.”
“She had more control on set and I kind of depended on her in a way. She had authority. I’m not kidding, an authority that was like, ‘Yeah, I’m gonna go there, good, I’m there,’ ” he laughed. “It was really quite, quite, quite supportive, put it that way, because it was all hard to shoot.”
Jodie was also at the event and recalled her experience on set, telling the crowd about a “funny moment” making Taxi Driver. “Marty was trying to explain to me how I was supposed to pull down his fly and then they couldn’t stop giggling,” she explained before adding that Robert De Niro also tried to give her advice but he couldn’t stop giggle. “And then the two of them just couldn’t stop laughing and they just couldn’t give me a note because I think they were just so nervous that I was so young.”
“It felt fun. It felt like a game and it felt important but also whimsical, which I think if you’ve directed and made art and you’ve made art with your friends, that’s that feeling of feeling like this is the most serious thing on earth, but it’s also, I cannot stop laughing. I remember Marty was, thought the blood stuff was very funny.”
Photo by Screen Archives/Getty Images
Jodie Foster was Oscar-nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Iris in Taxi Driver. The film also earned a Best Picture nod, as well as De Niro landing a Best Actor nomination.
Jodie Foster Already Knew Scorsese’s Work When She Was Cast
Foster was not a stranger to Scorsese’s work, even at a tender preteen age. “The truth is, I saw Mean Streets and I was a kid, my mom went and took me to the movies,” she said.
“She took me to Mean Streets and that was it. I just wanted to be a part of this. So, anything that you would have offered me, I would have done that. And in fact, I think I tried to be an extra in New York, New York, but it didn’t work out because I was under 16 and they wouldn’t let me work at night or something,” she explained.
In the panel, she also recalled De Niro teaching her how to improvise. “I remember getting all like happy and I came home, came up the elevator and came to the hotel and I knocked on the door and I said to my mom, ‘Oh my God, I think I might want to be an actor. This is amazing.’ “
Related: 1976 ‘Taxi Driver’ Star Robert de Niro Revealed He Improvised This Iconic Line 50 Years Ago