Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#910
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Jodie Foster represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 51 years in, and Jodie is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Jodie Foster appears in 27 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Jodie. The Silence of the Lambs is the clearest case: a film rated 9.2 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for mystery, crime, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Rebecca Zlotowski, Morgan Neville, Camille Juza and others, Jodie Foster helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
The Silence of the Lambs (1991) as Clarice Starling · The Silence of the Lambs (1991) as Clarice Starling · Jodie Foster: Hollywood Under the Skin (2021) as Self (archive footage)
Career snapshot
Ranked #910 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
27
1974–2025
Career length
51 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
9.2
The Silence of the Lambs
Average Nutevio score
6.7
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.6
The Silence of the Lambs
Most frequent director
Jonathan Demme
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Jonathan Demme
Most common genre
Drama
20 titles
Average runtime
1h 46m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
7.2
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
7.2
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1990s
7.5 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. Anna and the King, Contact, Maverick — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
7.5
Across 6 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
7.4
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1970s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. Bugsy Malone, Freaky Friday, The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane.
Most productive era
1990s
6 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1970s | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 6.73 films | 7.25 films | 7.05 films | 6.64 films | 6.73 films |
| Action | 6.51 film | 6.91 film | — | 6.32 films | — |
| Thriller | 6.81 film | 8.13 films | 6.93 films | 6.32 films | 7.41 film |
| Comedy | 6.32 films | 6.91 film | 6.32 films | 7.21 film | — |
| Crime | — | 8.82 films | 7.22 films | 6.11 film | 5.51 film |
| Romance | 6.81 film | 6.71 film | 7.31 film | — | — |
| Horror | — | 9.21 film | — | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio
1974Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Audrey.
First Nutevio masterpiece · Highest rated performance · Career peak
The first film here to clear 9.0 on our scale — a threshold fewer than one film in ten reaches. 9.2 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2025Breakdown: 1975
The current state of the argument, as Narrator (voice).
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
27 of 27 films
as Clarice Starling
Directed by Jonathan Demme
as Clarice Starling
Directed by Jonathan Demme
as Self (archive footage)
Directed by Camille Juza
as Ellie Arroway
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
as Penelope Longstreet
Directed by Roman Polanski
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Showing 24 of 38 titles · 42 total credits · active 1972–2025
A Private Life
2025 · Lilian Steiner
Breakdown: 1975
2025 · Narrator (voice)
Mr. Scorsese
2025 · TV · Self
Smartare än hjärnan
2025 · TV · Self
The Beast in Me
2025 · TV · Executive Producer
NYAD
2023 · Bonnie Stoll
Off Script with The Hollywood Reporter
2023 · TV · Self
Beau geste
2023 · TV · Self
Jodie Foster: Hollywood Under the Skin
2021 · Self (archive footage)
The Mauritanian
2021 · Nancy Hollander
Tales from the Loop
2020 · TV · Director
Love, Antosha
2019 · Self
Henry Louis Gates Jr.: Uncovering America
2019 · Self - Actress and Director
Hotel Artemis
2018 · Jean Thomas / Nurse
Money Monster
2016 · Director
True Detective
2014 · TV · Liz Danvers · Executive Producer
Elysium
2013 · Delacourt
Orange Is the New Black
2013 · TV · Director
House of Cards
2013 · TV · Director
Carnage
2011 · Penelope Longstreet
The Beaver
2011 · Meredith Black · Director
Black Mirror
2011 · TV · Director
Nim's Island
2008 · Alexandra Rover
Inside Man
2006 · Madeleine White
The defining work
#1
Clarice Starling
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Performance score9.5
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Clarice Starling gives Jodie Foster a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Clarice Starling
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Performance score8.9
The Silence of the Lambs asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Clarice Starling is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Self (archive footage)
Jodie Foster: Hollywood Under the Skin (2021)
Performance score8.1
Jodie Foster: Hollywood Under the Skin asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Self (archive footage) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Ellie Arroway
Contact (1997)
Performance score8.1
Contact asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Ellie Arroway is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Clarice Starling
Start here. The Silence of the Lambs is the clearest statement of what Jodie Foster does — accessible, 118 minutes, and rated 9.2 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Jodie at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Same director as The Silence of the Lambs, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Contact (1997)
Keeps the drama register of The Silence of the Lambs but asks for a colder reading of it.
Carnage (2011)
Keeps the drama register of Contact but asks for a colder reading of it.
Jodie Foster: Hollywood Under the Skin (2021)
A deliberate change of key after Carnage — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Jonathan Demme
Director
2 films together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Martin Scorsese
Director
1 film together
Notably Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Nicolas Gessner
Director
1 film together
Notably The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane
Gary Nelson
Director
1 film together
Notably Freaky Friday
Alan Parker
Director
1 film together
Notably Bugsy Malone
Michael Apted
Director
1 film together
Notably Nell
Richard Donner
Director
1 film together
Notably Maverick
Robert Zemeckis
Director
1 film together
Notably Contact
Andy Tennant
Director
1 film together
Notably Anna and the King
Peter Care
Director
1 film together
Notably The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys
David Fincher
Director
1 film together
Notably Panic Room
Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Director
1 film together
Notably A Very Long Engagement
Robert Schwentke
Director
1 film together
Notably Flightplan
Spike Lee
Director
1 film together
Notably Inside Man
Mark Levin
Director
1 film together
Notably Nim's Island
Jodie Foster
Director
1 film together
Notably The Beaver
Roman Polanski
Director
1 film together
Notably Carnage
Garret Price
Director
1 film together
Notably Love, Antosha
Kevin Macdonald
Director
1 film together
Notably The Mauritanian
Camille Juza
Director
1 film together
Notably Jodie Foster: Hollywood Under the Skin
Morgan Neville
Director
1 film together
Notably Breakdown: 1975
Rebecca Zlotowski
Director
1 film together
Notably A Private Life
Anthony Hopkins
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Scott Glenn
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Ted Levine
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Anthony Heald
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Brooke Smith
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Diane Baker
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Kasi Lemmons
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Frankie Faison
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Tracey Walter
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Charles Napier
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Danny Darst
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Alex Coleman
Actor
1 film together
Notably The Silence of the Lambs
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Jonathan Demme
Director
2 films together · 8.8 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
The Silence of the LambsCamille Juza
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Jodie Foster: Hollywood Under the SkinSpike Lee
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Inside ManRobert Zemeckis
Director
1 film together · 7.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
ContactKevin Macdonald
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The MauritanianGarret Price
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Love, AntoshaJean-Pierre Jeunet
Director
1 film together · 7.3 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Very Long EngagementRoman Polanski
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
CarnageMorgan Neville
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Breakdown: 1975David Fincher
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Panic RoomRichard Donner
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MaverickNicolas Gessner
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Little Girl Who Lives Down the LaneMartin Scorsese
Director
1 film together · 6.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Alice Doesn't Live Here AnymorePeter Care
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Dangerous Lives of Altar BoysAndy Tennant
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Anna and the KingMichael Apted
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
NellAlan Parker
Director
1 film together · 6.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Bugsy MaloneJodie Foster
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The BeaverRobert Schwentke
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
FlightplanGary Nelson
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Freaky FridayMark Levin
Director
1 film together · 5.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Nim's IslandRebecca Zlotowski
Director
1 film together · 5.5 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
A Private LifeSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Recognition
24 wins · 3 nominations
2 wins · 3 nominations · latest 1992
as Actor
as Actor
as Actor
as Actor
as Actor
5 wins · latest 2025
as Actor
as Actor
as Actor
as Actor
as Actor
3 wins · latest 1992
as Actor
as Actor
as Actor
1 win · latest 1995
as Actor
2 wins · latest 1994
as Actor
as Actor
2 wins · latest 1997
as Actor
as Actor
1 win · latest 1996
as Actor
1 win · latest 1992
as Actor
1 win · latest 1989
as Actor
1 win · latest 1997
as Actor
1 win
as Actor
1 win · latest 2026
as Actor
1 win
as Actor
1 win · latest 2005
as Actor
1 win · latest 2016
as Actor
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
The Silence of the Lambs
as Clarice Starling
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
A Very Long Engagement
as Elodie Gordes
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
The Silence of the Lambs
as Clarice Starling
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Love, Antosha
as Self
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
The Silence of the Lambs
as Clarice Starling
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Jodie Foster has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
| Nutevio Performer Score | 8.1 | 9.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Career ranking | #348 of 681 | #1 of 681 |
| Awards on file | Unknown | 3 recorded |
| Oscar wins | Unknown | 1 |
| Oscar nominations | Unknown | 5 |
| Average Nutevio score | 9.2 | 9.1 |
| Genres | Thriller, Crime, Horror | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, History |
| Directors | Jonathan Demme | Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorsese |
| Performance DNA | Intensity, Screen presence, Villain presence | Transformation, Drama, Screen presence |
| Career timeline | 1991–1991 | 2006–2026 |
| Most iconic role | Clarice Starling — The Silence of the Lambs | Odysseus — The Odyssey |
| Most rewatchable film | The Silence of the Lambs | Interstellar |
| Filmography | 1 catalogue film | 4 catalogue films |
Films together
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared directors
Nothing in common in the library yet.
Shared collections
Thriller Movies, Crime Movies
Matt Damon edges ahead here — a higher floor across a comparable body of work.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
51 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Drama Legend
Awarded
20 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
The Silence of the Lambs
as Clarice Starling
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
The Silence of the Lambs
as Clarice Starling
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
A Very Long Engagement
as Elodie Gordes
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane
as Rynn Jacobs
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Silence of the Lambs
as Clarice Starling
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Maverick
as Annabelle Bransford
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Bugsy Malone
as Tallulah
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
The Silence of the Lambs
as Clarice Starling
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
Across the library
Every Nutevio collection this name turns up in, and how high they rank there.
Collection footprint
Appears in 5 Nutevio collections
Keep reading
genre
Best Psychological Thrillers
Features The Silence of the Lambs at #1
Read the collectiongenre
Best Horror Movies
Features The Silence of the Lambs at #2
Read the collectiongenre
Horror Movies
Features The Silence of the Lambs at #2
Read the collectiongenre
Thriller Movies
Features The Silence of the Lambs at #3
Read the collectiongenre
Crime Movies
Features The Silence of the Lambs
Read the collectionFrom the magazine
If you like this performer
Matt Damon
Works with the same directors — Martin Scorsese
Morgan Freeman
Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Robert Downey Jr.
Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: adventure and drama
Edward Norton
Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Zach Grenier
Works with the same directors — David Fincher
Have your say
Community
Which Jodie Foster performance holds up best?
Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
Join the conversation
Reference
Continue exploring
Trending performers
Directors they work with
Collections to read next
