Sasha talks about Jodie’s speech in the post above.
Jodie Foster gave an instantly legendary speech when accepting the Cecil B. DeMille award at the Golden Globes tonight. But although it was rambling and possibly a little batty, it was different to most legendary awards season speeches in one important way–it was sincere and meaningful. (via Vulture)
Read the full transcript after the cut.
Over ten minutes [actually seven minutes], Foster talked about how Hollywood has changed, how to survive as a star from childhood, the importance of privacy — and, oh yeah, she came out and seemed to retire from acting. Read the full speech, and watch the video below:
Thank you. Well for all of you SNL fans, I’m 50! I’m 50! You know, I need to do that without this dress on, but you know, maybe later. I’m 50! You know, I was going to bring my walker tonight, but it just didn’t go with cleavage. Robert, I want to thank you for everything. For your bat-crazed, rapid-fire brain, the sweet intro. I love you and Susan, and I am so grateful that you continually talk me off the ledge when I say I’m done with acting, I’m done with acting, I’m really done, I’m done, I’m done, I’m done. Trust me, 47 years in the film business is a long time. You just ask those Golden Globies, because you’ve been around here forever. You know, Phil, you’re a nut, Aida, thank you for honoring me tonight. It is the most fun party of the year, and tonight, I feel like the prom queen.
Looking at all those clips, you know the hairdos and the freaky platform shows, it’s like a home movie nightmare that just won’t end, and all of these people sitting here at these tables, they’re my family of sorts, you know. Fathers, mostly–executive producers, directors, my fellow actors out there. We’ve giggled through love scenes, we’ve punched and cried and spit and vomited and blown snot over one another–and those are just the co-stars I liked. But you know more than anyone else, I share my most special memories with members of the crew. Blood-shaking friendships, brothers and sisters. We made movies together, and you can’t get more intimate than that.
So when I’m here being all confessional, I guess I just have a sudden urge to share something that I’ve never really been able to air in public. So, a declaration… that I’m a little nervous about, but maybe not quite as nervous as my publicist right now, huh Jennifer? But you know, I’m just gonna put it out there, right? Loud and proud, right? So I’m gonna need your support on this. I am… single. Yes I am, I am single. No, I’m kidding. But I mean, I’m not really kidding, but I’m kind of kidding. Thank you for the enthusiasm. Can I get a wolf whistle or something? I hope you guys weren’t hoping this would be a big coming out speech tonight, because I already did my coming out about a thousand years ago, back in the stone age. In those very quaint days when a fragile young girl would open up to trusted friends and family, co-workers, and then gradually, proudly to everyone who knew her, to everyone she actually met. But now apparently, I’m told that every celebrity is expected to honor the details of their private life with a press conference, a fragrance, and a prime time reality show. You guys might be surprised, but I am not Honey Boo Boo Child. I’m sorry, that’s just not me and it never will be. But please don’t cry, because my reality show would be so boring. I would have to make out with Marion Cotillard, I would have to spank Daniel Craig’s bottom, you know, just to stay on the air. It’s not bad work if you can get it though.
But seriously. If you had been a public figure from the time you were a toddler, if you’d had to fight for a life that felt real and honest and normal against all odds, then maybe you too might value privacy above all else. Privacy. Someday, in the future, people will look back and remember how beautiful it once was. I have given everything, up there, from the time that I was three years old. That’s reality show enough, don’t you think? There are a few secrets to keeping your psyche intact over such a long career. The first: Love people, and stay beside them. That table over there, 222, way out out in Idaho, Paris, Stockholm, that one next to the bathroom with all the unfamous faces–the very same faces for all these years. My acting agent, Joe Funicello–Joe, do you believe it, what, 38 years we’ve been working together? Even though he doesn’t count the first eight. Matt Saber, Pat Kingsley, Jennifer Allen, Grant Iman and his uncle Jerry, may he rest in peace–lifers. My family and friends, here tonight and at home. And of course, Mel Gibson–you know you saved me too.
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, ski buddy, consigliere, most-beloved BFF of 20 years, Cydney Bernard. Thank you Cid. I am so proud of our modern family, our amazing sons Charlie and Kit, who are my reason to breathe, and to evolve, my blood and soul. And boys, in case you didn’t know it, this song, like all of this, this song is for you. This brings me to the greatest influence of my life, my amazing mother Evelyn. Mom, I know you’re inside those blue eyes somewhere and that there are so many things that you won’t understand tonight, but this is the only important one to take in: I love you, I love you, I love you. And I hope that if I say this three times, it will magically and perfectly enter into your soul, fill you with grace, and the joy of knowing that you did good in this life. You’re a great mom. Please take that with you when you’re finally OK to go.
You see Charlie and Kit, sometimes your mom loses it too. But I can’t help but get moony, you know. This feels like the end of one era and the beginning of something else. Scary and exciting, and now what? Well, I’m never going to be up on this stage again. On any stage, for that matter. Change, you’ve gotta love it. I will continue to tell stories, to move people by being moved: the greatest job in the world. It’s just that from now on, I may be holding a different talking stick. And maybe it won’t be as sparkly. Maybe it won’t open on three thousand screens. Maybe it will be so quiet and delicate that only dogs can hear it whistle. But it will be my writing on the wall: Jodie Foster was here, I still am, and I want to be seen, to be understood, deeply, and to be not so very lonely. Thank you, all of you, for the company. Here’s to the next fifty years.
(alternate video source)
Jodie and Mel Gibson look so good together, on a very deep personal level. AFAIK she’s just bi, so good luck Mr. Gibson!
I knew it. She likes Modern Family!! I had a gut instinct about it for some reason.
I love Jodie Foster. Love her for being true to herself. She comes from a different generation and sounds like she hasn’t come out to her Mom yet so she chose a middle ground last night on National T.V. Doing what felt comfortable to her. She doesn’t owe us anything but a good performance.
What an outplaced, boring, overlong speech. She’s a frikkin actress for Pete’s sake and judging by her speech she went through WW3 and freed the slaves. She shouldn’t have won to begin with, she had a decent career don’t get me wrong, but far from being exceptional and she’s been below average the past 15 years.
I for one like Foster but last night speech although nicely presented seem out of place for the award she was receiving. Where does GAY or LESBIAN enter into all of these. WHO Fricking CARES? Oh, you all do. OK.
^^ I have to agree. But I also agree that something has been weighting on her – whether it’s her mom’s health or something else – and she felt the need to “let it out.”
I for one like Foster but last night speech although nicely presented seem out of place for the award she was receiving. Where does GAY or LESBIAN enter into all of these. WHO Fricking CARES? Oh, you all do. OK.
wow. just – wow.
I have always admired – and always will – the work and career of Jodie Foster. How can you not? It is for the most part terrific. I personally could care less about her personal life – and to that end the personal life of any celebrity. That being said while I have always greatly admired Jodie Foster as an actress and director and think she is off the charts intelligent, she DOES tend to babble and ramble WHENEVER she gives speeches. A few years ago at separate tributes to De Niro and Scorsese she went on and on and on with whatever story she was telling. It is clearly a nervousness – which is completely normal and understandable – I tend to do the same thing when I have to give speeches.
I have a sneaking suspicion – I obviously could be wrong – she intended to come out directly and say she is gay, but probably out of nervousness said it the way she did which still gets the point across. But then she just went on and on – again, heart in the right place. I shouldn’t be too hard on her, I guess it is understandable to be a little nervous in that case. 🙂
Still a great artist in film anyway you slice it.
I guess every once in a while something like this happens – one of these rare moments of honesty, possible even in show business. No bs, no hiding. And that’s so comforting, because sometimes you can’t bear to see another fake smile on their faces. Sometimes you just want to see an actual person – maybe flawed and hurt and tired, like all of us are. A true human being, not some perfect freak that we see on the covers.
And I think you don’t necessarily need to understand everything she said to get what she was saying.
I love Jodie Foster. Anything, and I mean anything, she says just makes me love her more.
You guys are lucky to grow up now. Back in the 80s and 90s, gays really had a pariah status, which playwrights like Tony Kushner and Larry Kramer captured so well. Back then, as a 2-time Oscar winner, Jodie could have moved mountains, as Magic moved them when he announced he was HIV+. it’s true that it was never her obligation. But I also don’t blame queer activists for grumbling about her for decades now. They were right to complain – and they did, though rarely by singling out Foster, more often as a general lament that most people understood to include Foster.
You guys are lucky that the most heartbreaking of those battles seem to be behind us now. Jodie could have helped, but she didnt. Then again, most of us aren’t so different.
Well said Paddy.
‘Open secret’ isn’t the right phrase at all because her private life was neither Open nor Secret. Imagine that. Just like a normal person’s private life!
I’ve always respected those who don’t feel a necessity to ‘come out’. There’s nothing to come out from – you’re born with your sexuality, and it’s nobody’s business but one’s own. If people stopped assuming that everyone is straight until proven gay, life would surely be so much easier for those among us who have the sense to recognise their own sexuality, and the bravery to refuse to conceal it.
That was one of the most memorable speeches ever. In anything. Moving, honest and funny, even if often very confusing.
Loved the speech. Loved it to pieces.
I think we’re reading too much into it.
The only bit I found a bit cryptic, was the movie she is going to make that only dogs can hear…or something similar
I hope everything goes well. I think she’s a great person.
I have to say I’m a little worried… like some others above there…
This speech sounds a little like Bilbo Baggins…
Again, hope it is all good, really hope so
Hat off!
Wonderfully touching speech with full of beauty, grace, humanity, sensibility, intelligence, sense of humor and love given by a legendary icon.
Most of my Lesbian friends knew or rather strongly suspected that Jodie was gay but no one really pushed for Jodi to make that big coming out speech and even if they had she just always seemed so private that chances are it was never going to come anyway. I remember when I first heard the comment years ago I was like no way and then when you got the pieces of her life, and I do mean pieces because she never really shared a lot it made sense. And actually even though she pretty much made it clear tonight she really never even said it tonight either. I’m sure like many other in the public eye there was that pressure to “come out” as if everyone has to be the flag bearer for some movement. Not everyone is comfortable carrying the banner and they should be left alone if they don’t desire to carry the flag.
But it’s clear that whatever the health issue with her mother might be it’s playing a very big part in her life right now. I came away from the speech tonight thinking here was a daughter telling her mother goodbye and that her mother was in mental state where she probably could not comprehend that emotion. And yes perhaps she had one glass of wine too many or maybe one drink too many. But she wasn’t a slobbering drunk so I think we can forgive her for her what appeared to be ramblings.
It’s kind of like the Grace Kelly Princess Diana syndrome you’re damned if you keep your life private you’re damned if you don’t.
I came away from the speech tonight thinking here was a daughter telling her mother goodbye and that her mother was in mental state where she probably could not comprehend that emotion.
Almost feels icky to try to decipher a speech that was obviously crafted to be deliberately cryptic. I wondered in the beginning why Ms. Foster was playfully artfully dangling the word we all expected — the word that she never finally spoke. I suspect it might be a lingering gesture of respect for her mother who’s of the generation when people used to know about a lot of things that were never explicitly named. (The C-word, for instance, and I’m talking about the 6-letter C-word).
Pure speculation that I should probably not indulge, but it seems entirely possible that maybe this is a matter Jodie and her mother were never able to discuss, at the same time that it was perhaps a subject she has wished for years she could broach.
If the time for that talk to happen is fast slipping away because of her mother’s ill health (and obvious reference to mental decline), Jodie probably knows for certain if her mother has the capacity to be watching and understanding tonight’s tribute. I can imagine myself in a similar situation feeling the need to drop enough clues for a parent to understand if she wanted to understand, but still remain vague enough so the parent could continue to deny the hints to an unspoken word that a parent might still be unready to face and unwilling to hear.
PS to everyone. See my previous comments.
This speech is just weird. While I find it monumental, the atmosphere is just different. It didn’t feel like any other “lifetime achievement award” where everyone is full of joy. Yes, we can say that Jodie is going through tough times maybe. What it made weirder is her friendship with Mel Gibson who gone through tough times in his life and faced a lot of controversy. Maybe he still is, but who knows…
Again, I hope Jodie is okay. I hope this is a “goodbye” speech in a good way. This speech made me worried.
@antoinette
Yeah. This is what I felt too. I mean she’s standing before the world on a stage looking absolutely beautiful, most people like her, she’s getting a lifetime achievement award and in the middle of all that, she said she was lonely. With the world watching. In a room with friends and admirers. It’s bothering me. I hope she’s okay too.
exactly. Very ironic. I hope she’s okay. It’s clear that there is something going on that she SHOULDN’T tell in the public but her speech gave us something to think about. to summarized that, in a hidden context, she basically told us that there is something we don’t know that is going on but everyone knows about it. There is something she is urging to tell but she didn’t because she can’t.
This post is a little bit hard to comprehend but please understand it. thanks!
I felt a weird sadness while listening to this speech. I hope Jodie is okay. I hope she’s not being manipulated, surrounded, or pressured by someone big in hollywood…
Yeah. This is what I felt too. I mean she’s standing before the world on a stage looking absolutely beautiful, most people like her, she’s getting a lifetime achievement award and in the middle of all that, she said she was lonely. With the world watching. In a room with friends and admirers. It’s bothering me. I hope she’s okay too.
Thank you for singling out this one for a thread.
This is a highlight du jour a moi, indubitablement! [A Japanese username throwing in some pseudo-French patois in random lol]
Having watched it live, even though I found her speech a bit all over the place (then, in real time; but I might change my mind on a second watch), she seemed candid and honest. And that, to me, was more important.
I am so glad for her […] achievement as well as her being recognized for that; finally to have garnered Cecil B. Demille award.
—
Ms. Foster, thank you for continually entertaining the world for so long […]. Please do not quit acting.
I love Jodi – she’s a classy women, with great integrity. I also love how she invited Gibson…whatever you think about him, he seems to be someone who is important to her….their friendship seems to unlikely on the surface and its nice to see people who are genuinely supportive like that. I thought she was poignant. Get a grip people….some of these people are human, and not just ass-kissing starf**ing twits.
As a long time admirer of Jodie and her work, whilst the speech started out bat shit crazy in a way, it quickly moved on to become one of the most honest, raw and emotional speeches I’ve ever witnessed a celebrity give. Very moving indeed.
It was goofball. Seriously.
I guess I’m in the minority (and it’s trending all over the internet) but — what did this have to do with Lifetime Achievement Award? I didn’t hear her say any thanks to directors, to people who helped her….I heard her ask for work in that speech and ask for privacy….but this was not the venue for that type of speech.
“Well, I’m never going to be up on this stage again. On any stage, for that matter.”
^^ Was that a retirement speech?
Jodie Foster was here, I still am, and I want to be seen, to be understood, deeply, and to be not so very lonely.
^^ Is she asking for companionship?
I think she had one too many.
That speech is a suicide note… I just felt it. She’s gonna die for suspecting reasons…
So many people on social networking and blogs are saying ‘shes on something’ , ‘she’s drunk’, ‘she’s off her meds’.
Just because you don’t understand the way a genius communicates , don’t be dismissive. Some people are more than one dimension.
This is a beautiful speech and some of her statements actually shed light on why there are so many ignorant one dimensional people in the world today.
She will be missed
Beautiful. Moving. Pointed.
I felt a weird sadness while listening to this speech. I hope Jodie is okay. I hope she’s not being manipulated, surrounded, or pressured by someone big in hollywood…
This is a MONUMENTAL speech. There was a different feeling when I heard it for the first time in TV. I just listened quietly because her words felt very important. This speech is one of the best speeches I’ve ever heard. This is revealing a culture that once was unseen. She told us to dream a culturally progressive WORLD but without having to deal with anyone’s personal instances.
She retired and unretired more times than the Who just in the course of that speech. Thanks, Ryan I needed to read it to sort of understand it.
Like I said in the other thread that seemed really difficult for her. I don’t know who was putting her under pressure to make some kind of declaration in that speech. But for a public figure, she has kept it pretty low key. I knew she was a mom but I didn’t know she had two kids. I mean I don’t really read tabloids either. But it clearly is a problem for a lot of these people. You’d think the money would make it okay but I guess it doesn’t.
But it clearly is a problem for a lot of these people.
I don’t know that it was such a problem. Seems Foster was able to find ways to prevent it ever becoming a problem. She just lived her life and hid nothing, but finessed it so she never revealed much either.
Surely you guys remember her and Anderson Cooper on the cover of OUT magazine in 2007.
‘Open secret’ isn’t the right phrase at all because her private life was neither Open nor Secret. Imagine that. Just like a normal person’s private life!
This isn’t the first Hollywood awards event speech where Jodie Foster thanked her life partner, but offhand I can’t recall the other occasion .
I thought it was weird, off-the-wall, a bit defensive, and two or three years too late, but what a great moment! I guess her mother is ill?
The gay Odyssey Disco sounds amazing. They need to bring that back.
It was right across the street from the corner where Beverley Center stands now. Somebody burned it down because it was a tad too amazing for the evolving gentrification of the neighborhood.
That was a beautiful speech. I’m 42, and have so many memories of Jodie Foster in both movies and interviews. She was always a class act, eloquent, and fascinating to listen to in interviews. Heartfelt mention to her mom. And she revealed a fair bit about her private life in that speech. Love her. She always been a great influence.
I loved it.
Unforgettable!
Classy, intelligent, brilliant woman!
A remarkable moment!
We’ve pretty much known Foster came out long before this; since Contact, perhaps?
A lot of people who partied at the gay Odyssey 1 Disco on Beverly Boulevard in the 1980s knew more than rumors. And most people who knew did a nice job respecting her privacy for decades.