Hollywood

Finally Someone Realizes She’s Only Human: Jodie Foster Defends Kirsten Stewart

Most would agree that the Kristen Stewart cheating debacle has been over-publicized and blown out of proportion, but what we haven’t really seen yet is someone come to the actress’s defense. Though nothing justifies canoodling with a married man, it’s also unacceptable to label a young lady a “tramp” for such an indiscretion, and it’s also rather disturbing that no one seems to care that Stewart has reportedly lost her role in the “Snow White and the Huntsman” sequel as a result of kissing its married director, who has come out of the scandal relatively unscathed. He still has his job and his wife. Meanwhile, Stewart has reportedly been ousted from her home, been dumped by longtime boyfriend Rob Pattinson (for the time being, at least), and been shamed internationally for making a mistake with which most people are familiar. Somebody should have spoken out against the rabid abuse Stewart has been getting weeks ago, but thankfully the 22-year-old’s “Panic Room” cast mate Jodie Foster has risen to the challenge.

In a new Daily Beast column, Foster talks about the difficulties of growing up in the public eye, having started acting at age 3, adding that she would not have entered the entertainment industry as a child today because of the way society obsessively follows famous folks:

“I’ve said it before and I will say it again: if I were a young actor today I would quit before I started. If I had to grow up in this media culture, I don’t think I could survive it emotionally. I would only hope that someone who loved me, really loved me, would put their arm around me and lead me away to safety…Just to set the record straight, a salary for a given on-screen performance does not include the right to invade anyone’s privacy, to destroy someone’s sense of self.”

Foster also recalls working with Stewart on the set of the “Panic Room,” where the “Twilight” star celebrated her 11th birthday. The pre-teen was free back then, Foster attests, and happily traipsing around a basketball court:

“[Stewart's mother and I] watched her run around the court for a while, both of us silent, each thinking our own thoughts. I was pregnant at the time and found myself daydreaming of the child I might have soon. Would she be just like Kristen? All that beautiful talent and fearlessness…would she jump and dunk and make me so proud?”

Foster contrasts this blissfulness by describing Stewart of today, a celebrity trying to lay low and ignore the noise as the public tries to tear her apart:

“A beautiful young woman strides down the sidewalk alone, head down, hands drawn into fists. She’s walking fast, darting around huge men with black cameras thrusting at her mouth and chest. ‘Kristen, how do you feel?’ ‘Smile Kris!’ ‘Hey, hey, did you get her?’ ‘I got her. I got her!’ The young woman doesn’t cry. Fuck no. She doesn’t look up. She’s learned. She keeps her head down, her shades on, fists in her pockets. Don’t speak. Don’t look. Don’t cry.”

The subject of a cheating scandal or not, that’s a terrible way to go through life, and it’s Foster hope that Stewart can return to her 11-year-old ways and be happy again:

“You survive. Hopefully in the process you don’t lose your ability to throw your arms in the air again and spin in wild abandon. That is the ultimate F.U. and–finally–the most beautiful survival tool of all. Don’t let them take that away from you.”

Yes.

[Daily Beast]

TAGS: kristen stewart | Robert pattinson

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