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Jodie Foster leads the French movie Vie Privée, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 20
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Foster, who attended a French prep school growing up, is fluent in the language
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At her film’s press conference in Cannes, Foster spoke about being afraid to take on leading French-speaking roles before now
Jodie Foster has never had a lead film role spoken entirely in French, her second language, until now.
Vie Privée (in English, A Private Life) premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday, May 20, starring Foster, 62, as a therapist becoming convinced that a patient’s suicide was actually a murder. Speaking — mostly in French — at the film’s press conference, the Oscar winner recalled previously being “afraid” to take on more than “secondary parts” in the language.
“A number of directors offered me projects but I was too scared to act in French,” Foster told the crowd, per Variety. “I thought someone who was more familiar with French should do so.”
Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival/Georges Lechaptois
Jodie Foster in ‘Vie Privée’
Leading a French film like the Rebecca Zlotowski-directed Vie Privée was a longtime goal for Foster despite the “huge challenge” of learning dialogue. “The great thing is that when I act in French, I’m a totally different person,” she said. “I have a much higher voice, I’m much less confident and I get very frustrated because I can’t express myself as well. And so it actually creates a new kind of character for me.”
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Foster attended a French-language prep school which made her fluent in the language. In addition to supporting roles in films like 2004’s Audrey Tautou-starring Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles (A Very Long Engagement), the Silence of the Lambs star has provided the French dub of her English-language performances.
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Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu via Getty
(Left-right:) Daniel Auteuil, Rebecca Zlotowski and Jodie Foster at the Cannes Film Festival on May 21, 2025
Following her first Emmy Award win last year for True Detective: Night Country, Foster has among her upcoming producing projects the upcoming miniseries The Beast in Me starring Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys. When the topic of her next onscreen goals came up at the Vie Privée press conference, the actress-filmmaker expressed an interest in something comedic: “The older I get, the more I want to be more lighthearted.”
Vie Privée, to be distributed by Sony Pictures Classics on a to-be-announced date, received an eight-minute standing ovation after its world premiere screening, outlets reported. Co-written by Zlotowski, Anne Berest and Gaëlle Macé, it costars Daniel Auteuil, Virginie Efira, Mathieu Amalric, Vincent Lacoste and Luana Bajrami.
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