Jodie Foster thought Robert De Niro was 'really uninteresting' when they first met on Taxi Driver

Jodie Foster found Robert De Niro "boring" when they first met during the making of Taxi Driver.

The Oscar-winning actress was only 12 years of age when she was cast as a child prostitute alongside the Hollywood legend in Martin Scorsese's 1976 psychological thriller but admits that she found De Niro's Method acting dull initially.

Speaking at the Marrakech Film Festival on Sunday (30.11.25), Jodie said: "We'd run the lines and run the lines a second and third time. And I'm sure maybe some of you have been here when Robert De Niro was here. One of our greatest American actors, so proud to have worked with him – not the most interesting person on Earth.

"And at that time, he was very much in character, the way he was in those days. So he was really uninteresting and I remember having these lunches with him and being like, 'What is happening? When can I go home?' And he wouldn't really be able to talk to me, so I would talk to the waiters and the people in the restaurants."

However, Jodie recalled how De Niro "opened (her) eyes to what acting could be" when he gave her an insight into his preparation.

The 63-year-old star said: "He finally walked me through improvisation by the time we had our third lunch together, and it opened my eyes to what acting could be.

"And I realised at 12, 'Oh, it's my fault because I haven't brought enough to the table.' I've just been saying lines and waiting for my next line and acting naturally, but building a character is something different.

"And I remember how excited I was, I remember being kind of sweaty and excited and giggly and coming back up into the hotel room to meet my mom and saying, 'I've had this epiphany.' And I think from there, everything changed."

Foster made her film debut at six years old but revealed that she would never have "chosen" to become an actor.

The Silence of the Lambs star explained: "I would never have chosen to be an actor, I don't have the personality of an actor. I'm not somebody that wants to dance on a table and, you know, sing songs for people.

"It's actually just a cruel job that was chosen for me as a young person that I don't remember starting. So right there, it makes my work a little bit different because I am not interested in acting just for the sake of acting. If I was on a desert island, I think probably the last thing I would ever do is act. So I was just trying to survive."

Despite not choosing to become an actor, Jodie explained that she has always been "drawn to very strong characters" and only wanted "central" roles in movies.

She said: "I didn't want to be the sister of, the wife of, the daughter of, the girlfriend of. I just wanted the movie to be about me.

"(I was also) reacting to a second wave feminist interest of saying, 'I want to matter. I want to make movies that matter.'"