Jodie Foster won a Golden Globe yesterday evening for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture. It was for her role as real-life attorney Nancy Hollander in The Mauritanian.
This year’s ceremony was largely a virtual event, with winners accepting their awards from the comfort of home. Foster was shown in her pajamas, on her couch, with wife Alexandra Hedison by her side, and cradling her dog, Ziggy.
“Are you kidding me? I think you made a mistake. I’m a little speechless. I just never expected to ever be here again and wow, I have to thank all of my amazing filmmakers,” Foster, 58, said when she was announced as the winner, after planting a kiss on Hedison.
Jodie Foster wins the award for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture at the #GoldenGlobes. pic.twitter.com/UZlX7q7lu3
— Golden Globe Awards (@goldenglobes) March 1, 2021
The Mauritanian is based on the 2015 memoir of Mohamedou Ould Salahi, who was held for 14 years at Guantanamo Bay detention camp without being charged.
Foster thanked her co-stars Kevin Macdonald, Tahar Rahim, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Shailene Woodley, as well as the woman she plays in the movie: Hollander. She also paid tribute to Salahi.
“Mohamedou, you’ve taught us so much about being a human being, about being joyful and loving and forgiving. And that’s a lesson that you bring to everybody.”
She then thanked her wife: “I love my wife! Thank you, Alex, and Ziggy [her dog] and Aaron Rodgers.”
Green Bay Packers player Rodgers is the fiancé of Foster’s Mauritanian co-star, Shailene Woodley. Last month, during his NFL MVP acceptance speech, Rodgers had said: “I’ve got a great group of people that support me, so I’d like to thank my team,” and included Foster, a big fan of the Packers, on this list. Foster’s mention of him was presumably her returning the compliment.
Related: TV features more LGBTQ characters than ever before
For many years, Foster kept quiet about her private life. In 2013, she publicly acknowledged a former long-standing female partner during the Golden Globes ceremony.
“There’s 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.”
Foster and Bernard had two sons together, Charlie and Kit.
By 2013, the women had already gone their separate ways. Foster married Hedison, 51, the following year.
Related: Jodie Foster Marries Girlfriend Alexandra Hedison, Remains Extremely Private
In the last decade, Foster had made only three movies. In a recent interview with the New York Times to promote The Mauritanian, Foster was asked why she appeared to have taken a step back from acting.
“I grew up in the film business, and I thought making films was the most meaningful thing anyone could do. More than being a soldier. More than being a doctor. And the world around me kept confirming that. That confirmation was a little like a steroid where you keep taking more and you’re like, I like the way that looks. Then you make a decision to stop the steroids, and you don’t recognize who you’ve become. I made that change in my life, and it was hard because I didn’t know who I was. It turns out that there are other things that are as meaningful as making movies.”
Listen. Going from Jane Fonda to Jamie Lee Curtis to Jodie Foster to Gillian Anderson was quite simply *A LOT* FOR MY GAY HEART IN A ROW.
I have now retired to my fainting couch. Good day. pic.twitter.com/lrRbilmFdN
— Carmen Phillips (@carmencitaloves) March 1, 2021
The big winners at last night’s Golden Globes were Nomadland, Borat, Schitt’s Creek and The Crown, with Gillian Anderson picking up an acting award for her role as Margaret Thatcher in the latter.
Queer women get it done. 🌈 Congrats to both Jodie Foster and Gillian Anderson on your #GoldenGlobes wins!
— Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) March 1, 2021
Most of the nominees accepted the awards via video. The smaller-than-usual live audiences of the bicoastal event were made up of frontline workers and first responders of the Covid-19 pandemic. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler hosted the ceremony from New York and Los Angeles.
MiguelInVanCT
I struggle with Jodie Foster as a human being, Contact was one of those movies that really opened my eyes to the transformative nature of films. However, Jody is an acting legend in her own right but her staying in the closet instead of providing visibility to lgbtq+ was a shame.
I also understand that people have their own journeys that can not be dictated by anyone else, but, one thing that we’ve learned from the Trump presidency is that you need to take action when it matters, not when everyone else has done the work.
Grifxx
This is what’s wrong with WOKE Culture within the current generation of LGBTQ+. You lack any sense of the particular era she lived in. Coming out at that time was a career killer.
I’m so tired of people like you and your historical illiteracy.
There were also other things involved, like the rise of stalkers of Celebrities. After the release of Taxi Driver, Jodie Foster had multiple stalkers. One of these stalkers was John Hickley Jr. who wrote a long manifesto before he gun downed President Ronald Reagan in Jodie’s name. He really wanted to get her attention.
Maybe instead of telling your elders to “Get Educated” maybe should do that yourself.
Cam
@Grifxx
Cool your jets. Foster didn’t just stay in the closet, she actively defending sexist/racist Mel Gibson multiple times. She could have stayed quiet.
Also, Crazy Taxi Driver fans when she was 12 have what to do with her denying she was a lesbian when she was in her 30s?
Kangol2
Given the era in which she was born and began acting, and her early fame, I do understand Jodie Foster’s late(r) coming out. She was a child star, and then ascended to even greater fame, with a matching hetero image, as a young woman. I can remember how when she was a student at Yale there were rumors about her being a lesbian, but let’s not forget, Hollywood wanted her to be viewed as straight for career purposes. After college, maintaining that face, she won an Academy Award when she was just 26 for The Accused, and then one three years later for The Silence of the Lambs. Were she out would she have even gotten those parts? Who knows, though given the era, I doubt it. Even when Queer Nation outed her, she was hesitant, but then again, VERY few high profile lesbian actresses, including Lily Tomlin, Sandra Bernhard, Kristi McNichol, etc. weren’t really out. Ellen DeGeneres caused an uproar by coming out publicly, but she was nowhere near as famous as Foster. I’m not making a case for her being on the DL but to be fair, she followed the trends of the time as opposed to breaking the mold.
twomen4u
What is the big deal about a woman kissing her wife? For me, that is as natural as apple pie and ice cream.
Mehki
About time.
Girl I know you were gay when you were a preteen.
Like my sister told her BIL after 30 years, even the dog knew you were gay and none of us give a damn and neither did the dog.
cuteguy
Had Jodie Foster come out during her peak of her career, it would’ve been career suicide back then. She wasn’t even the first choice for the accused and for the silence of the lambs. Michelle Pfeiffer turned down both those roles among other actresses, so imagine had Jodie been out, the studios wouldn’t have hired her. Sad but true. No one can say that Jodie was brave bc she wasn’t as far as when it came to lgbt issues but I understand her reluctance to come out back then. At least she didn’t put up a fake story like Ricky Martin and his reluctance to come out during his la vida loca days. He was another coward but understandably came out when his career was non existent and he had nothing to lose. These are not LGBT heroes but at least they’re representation. I just couldn’t stand when Ricky Martin was saying that he had a revelation when he came out. He did it bc he was looking to revitalize his DOA career and it wasn’t a stigma to be gay anymore.
DennisMpls
Are we seriously still talking in negative terms about Jodie Foster’s “delayed” coming out, eight years after it happened? Three years before Trump became president (to address a comment earlier in this thread)? After eight years we still can’t simply celebrate her win as a gay actress, and the understated simplicity (which nonetheless spoke volumes) of kissing her wife on international TV?
I’m reminded of when George Takei came out. I remember reading the comment from a guy who ripped him for being so late, for doing it when it was “safe,” as opposed to when he was on Star Trek and could have made a difference. That comment still resonates with me today in my understanding of my community.
Tim
And it’s always interested me how people think coming out makes your being accepted easier. it did in the straight community; it sure as hell didn’t in the queer community, because the first person I told didn’t believe me, and I was forever being told how I’d need to change to really belong. And people were shocked when I said: ‘Then I’d rather not belong.’ And for the most part, I still don’t, some 34 years later…
Donston
The only issue I have with Jodie Foster is her continued support of Mel Gibson and that time she embarrassed herself at the Golden Globes with that drunken, pseudo “coming out”.
Tim
I’m curious as to how you know she was in the closet. Do you know every person she knows? Not every person needs to be publicly known as queer in order to be ‘out’ to your satisfaction. I could easily have lived without ever knowing about Roy Cohn or Camille Paglia, for example. Very judgemental and so missing the point.