Jodie Foster's 14 Most Iconic Moments

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Taxi Driver, Martin Scorsese's Oscar-nominated film of urban paranoia. The film has stood the test of time for many reasons, one being the revelatory performance by 13-year-old Jodie Foster, playing a child prostitute who Robert De Niro's troubled character tries to save from the streets. Taxi Driver launched Foster's career, which would lead to two Academy Awards, a directing turn, and a memorable pseudo-coming-out speech. See her most iconic moments on the next pages.

Other actresses were considered for the role of Iris, a 13-year-old prostitute working the streets of New York in Scorsese's Taxi Driver. A child actress with few roles under her belt, Foster expertly captured the essence of the wordly, damaged teen and nabbed her first Oscar nomination for the part.

After Taxi Driver, Jodie took a sharp turn down wholesome road with Disney's Freaky Friday. The plot — redone in a 2003 film of the same name starring Lindsay Lohan — is now known to just about the entire world: A sparring mother and daughter switch roles, ultimately becoming more empathetic to each other's struggles. Kids of the '70s and '80s loved the concept and the kooky gags, including waterskiing and Jodie showing off her field hockey skills.

"They dare to do what others dream of … they're foxes!" That was the titillating tagline for the 1980 movie Foxes, costarring Jodie and the Runaways' Cherie Currie. Jodie endeared herself to early '80s gay men with the film, which centered on four foxy friends living it up in L.A.'s San Fernando Valley (tubular!) and encountering sex, drugs, and rock n' roll.

This quirky adaptation of the John Irving novel of the same name saw Jodie entering adult territory (though not to the scary effect seen in Taxi Driver). Akin to The Royal Tenenbaums, The Hotel New Hampshire focuses on an eccentric family and includes an incest subplot in which Jodie's character has sex (repeatedly) with her brother, played by Rob Lowe. And how can we forget: Jodie makes out with Nastassja Kinski! 

One of the reasons we love Jodie is that she's so cerebral. Unlike most young actresses today, Jodie took time off to go to college, graduating magna cum laude from Yale University in 1985. The braniac (she's fluent in French!) nabbed a degree in literature and wrote her senior thesis on Beloved author Toni Morrison.

Sadly, Jodie Foster had no shortage of stalkers during her time at Yale, but one — John Hinckley Jr. — was especially sick. Hinckley became so obsessed with the young star that he believed killing the president would impress her. In March 1981, Hinckley shot Ronald Reagan and several others in Washington, D.C.; the president surivived the shooting, but press secretary James Brady was paralyzed in the attack. Hinckley was committed to a psychiatric facility, where he remains, and Foster has since spoken very little of the event, clearly affected by her unintended connection to it.

Not long after graduating from Yale, Jodie would be cast in one of her most lauded roles: gang rape survivor Sarah Tobias. Partially based on a true story, The Accused followed Sarah's fight for justice, aided by a female district attorney, played by now-out actress Kelly McGillis. The women work to convict not just the rapists, but the men who stood by and cheered the attackers on. Foster would win an Oscar for her portrayal of Sarah, and the film would change the public's perception of rape and its victims.

Three years after winning her first Oscar at age 26, Jodie would win her second, and for what would become her most iconic role. In The Silence of the Lambs, Foster played young FBI trainee Clarice Starling. Hunting one serial killer and matching wits with another, Jodie would emanate equal parts power, vulnerability, and morality. The feminist tale made her the heroine; she faced down evil and saved the day. While the film was met with criticism for its depiction of a transgender serial killer, it's remembered as one of the smartest, scariest, most psychologically complex films of the late 20th century.

After her Lambs triumph, Jodie refused to rest on her laurels. She made her directing debut with 1991's Little Man Tate, about a young genius torn between two women with different ideas how his intelligence should be fostered. In addition to helming the well-received film, Foster portrayed the child's mother. Many saw a parallel between Foster's life and the story of a young virtuoso trying to find his place in the world.

Though Nell didn't rise to the level of The Accused or Lambs, Foster offered up a memorable performance as a woman who was raised without the benefit of human company and developed her own language. It hasn't aged that well, but Nell did net Jodie another Oscar nomination.

Many were disappointed when Jodie declined to reprise her role as Clarice Starling in 2001's Hannibal, the sequel to The Silence of the Lambs. Jodie would later say the shoot dates for another film project presented a conflict, but then would later suggest she found the sequel too ghastly. Foster also, like many, suggested that the novel on which the sequel was based "betrayed" the character of Clarice, likely by (spoiler alert!) having her run off romantically with Hannibal Lecter.

In 2002's Panic Room, Jodie returned to the thriller genre with a vengeance. She played a woman separated from her spouse and raising a preteen tomboy daughter (portrayed by Kristen Stewart, the future queer Twilight superstar) who must contend with three violent burglars fighting for a cache of drugs inside her Manhattan mansion. Director David Fincher ratchets up the drama to an almost unbearable level as Jodie once again plays a force to be reckoned with.

Who didn't love it when Jodie directed two episodes of the female-led prison dramedy Orange Is the New Black? Foster helmed "Chapter 22" and "Lesbian Request Denied," the latter of which centered around the gay character Crazy Eyes, the bi protagonist Piper, and trans inmate Sophia. "Lesbian Request Denied" netted Jodie an Emmy nomination and "Chapter 22" a Directors Guild nom. 

Accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 2013 Golden Globe Awards, Foster used the forum to talk about her desire for privacy, while also sharing much-desired details about her life.

"There is no way I could ever stand here without acknowledging one of the deepest loves of my life, my heroic co-parent, my ex-partner in love but righteous soul sister in life, my confessor ... most beloved BFF of 20 years, Cydney Bernard. Thank you Cyd. I am so proud of our modern family, our amazing sons Charlie and Kit, who are my reason to breath and to evolve, my blood and soul. And boys in case you didn't know it, this song, all of this, this song is for you."

Foster said she didn't need to come out, because she had years ago. Regardless, it was wonderful and cathartic to finally hear her discuss a subject that for too long felt taboo.

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