Jodie Foster : Working with Gen Z can be 'really annoying'

Jodie Foster : In an interview with the Guardian, Foster said that he sometimes had difficulty understanding the approach to work.

"He says, 'No, I'm not feeling it today. I'll be back at 10:30 in the morning.'

But he praised one Gen Z star, Bella Ramsey, and called the 20-year-old an example of an actor emerging into a new "vector of authenticity".

Foster, who was a child actor herself before going on to a glittering screen career, said she felt compelled to help young actors find their way "because it was hard growing up".

'Like limiting'
Speaking about Gen Z – a term commonly used to describe people born in the late 1990s and early 2000s – Foster, 61, joked: "They're really annoying. "Especially in the workplace."

"They say: 'No, I'm not feeling it today. I'll be back at 10.30 in the morning.'

"Or, like, in the email, I'll tell them it's all grammatically wrong, didn't you check your spelling?"

"And they say, 'Why would I do that, isn't that limiting?'

Speaking about the advice he would give to young people in the industry, he said: "They need to learn how to relax, how not to think about it so much, how to do something that's theirs."

“I can help them find that, which is more fun than being the hero of a story with all the pressure behind it.”

Jodie Foster and Bella Ramsey at the Hollywood Celebration, Image Source, Mario Anzuoni

image Caption,
Jodie Foster said that Bella Ramsey was an example of an actor emerging in a new "vector of authenticity".

Foster praised British actor Ramsey for the compliment, recalling how she first met The Last of Us and Game of Thrones star at Elle's Women in Hollywood event.

Foster described it as an "amazing event", but noted that everyone present was "wearing heels and eyelashes".

"There are other ways to be a woman, and it's really important for people to see that. And Bella, who gave the best speech, was wearing the most perfect suit, beautifully tailored, with a center parting And there was no makeup."

Foster said that when she was younger she would not have been able to dress like Ramsey in a suit and without makeup to a showbiz event.

He said, "Because we weren't free. Because we didn't have freedom. And hopefully the authenticity that's happening offers the possibility of real freedom."

Foster, who is up for another Oscar nomination for her role in Nyad, also talked about her two sons and her attitude toward women.

She explained that although she is now a "super feminist", at one time her eldest son believed that to be a boy he would have to be obnoxious to women.

The actor continued, "And I said, no! That's not what being a man means! That's what our culture has been selling you for so long."