Jodie Foster defends Kristen Stewart, slams media

Kristen Stewart accepts the Best Movie award from Jodie Foster onstage during the 2012 MTV Movie Awards on June 3, 2012, in Universal City, Calif.

/ Getty

(CBS News) Jodie Foster has come to the defense of Kristen Stewart, slamming the media frenzy surrounding the young star since she admitted to cheating on boyfriend Robert Pattinson.

Foster, who co-starred with a then-11-year-old Stewart in the 2002 film "Panic Room," penned an essay for The Daily Beast in which she blasted the "gladiator sport of celebrity culture" and questioned whether she could have survived the constant public scrutiny and criticism young stars face today.

Pictures: Kristen Stewart

"I've said it before and I will say it again: if I were a young actor today I would quit before I started," Foster wrote. "If I had to grow up in this media culture, I don't think I could survive it emotionally."

"In my era, through discipline and force of will, you could still manage to reach for a star-powered career and have the authenticity of a private life," the former child star noted, but said that's no longer the case. She wondered, "If I were a young actor or actress starting my career today in the new era of social media and its sanctioned hunting season, would I survive? Would I drown myself in drugs, sex, and parties? Would I be lost?"

Foster recalled the five months she spent working with Stewart on "Panic Room" in 2001, telling readers, "I grew to love that kid."

She wrote, "I was pregnant at the time and found myself daydreaming of the child I might have soon. Would she be just like Kristen? All that beautiful talent and fearlessness ... would she jump and dunk and make me so proud?"

But now, Foster continued, "A beautiful young woman strides down the sidewalk alone, head down, hands drawn into fists. She's walking fast, darting around huge men with black cameras thrusting at her mouth and chest. 'Kristen, how do you feel?' 'Smile Kris!' 'Hey, hey, did you get her?' 'I got her. I got her!' The young woman doesn't cry. [Expletive] no. She doesn't look up. She's learned."

The Oscar-winner ended her piece by offering Stewart some advice.

"Eventually this all passes," Foster said. "The public horrors of today eventually blow away. And, yes, you are changed by the awful wake of reckoning they leave behind. You trust less. You calculate your steps. You survive. Hopefully in the process you don't lose your ability to throw your arms in the air again and spin in wild abandon. That is the ultimate F.U. and - finally - the most beautiful survival tool of all. Don't let them take that away from you."

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Kristen Stewart

[jbright9]

Jodie is right. All actors owe the public is great performances. Kirsten's life is her own and like all of us she is not perfect. When I read the ugly, judgemental things that are posted, it saddens me. I can only say to those people that when they make a mistake I hope others don't judge them as harshly.

[alright0417]

Alright...yes, Jodie is right. She is a master at the art of acting and is VERY well compensated for it. Which gives her the ability to do what the heck she pleases in terms of privacy or not privacy. She is so very well paid for play acting and has handled the media aspect of it with amazingly smart tactics. However, for her to have the nerve to think that her privacy and her life as she lives it on a day to day basis is any more mystic and amazing that requires some sort of "ultimate broad empathy" she can quite frankly go s herself. What about the single parent with kids at home that struggles to put food on the table and pay the rent. What if she is outside waiting for the bus and gets "taken advantage of" like Jodie said poor Kristen was? Will Jodie, in her multi-million dollar home be there for her? I think not. Quite simply, Jodie, I am not buying it.

[RealiteBites]

Kristin Stewart's lucky to be famous - I don't think she's got the star power to last once the Twilight saga is over.

[bolerafon]

Jodi Foster is confusing private life with someone making a fool of themselves IN PUBLIC. Kristin Stewart made a fool of herslef in public! If she cares that much, Jodi should teach her how to do that in private.

[TotalRecall9]

Shocker! A lesbian atheist wants to chastise people for condemning an adult tramp for committing adultery!

[Solarrays247]

Were Stewart and Pattinson married?

I'm curious what you would have said if it were reversed, and Pattinson was the one who had cheated on Stewart? Would you have just simply chuckled and said, "boys will be boys"?

I would hope not, but that seems to be the case more often than not today.

[skithebumps]

When is Foster going to release her last ten years of her income taxes? Inquiring minds want to know.

[RainyDayInterns]

It is amazing no celeb has got postal and taken an uzi to the paparazzi...

[MojitoMamma]

Yes, they're like human cockroaches and should be exterminated.

[Mick_from_Amsterdam]

I think that Jodie Foster's most valid point is that the "public" should not have had the opportunity to pass judgment and express their disapproval of what is most certainly the private business of the individuals involved...

Stewart is certainly guilty of forgetting that the gutter press is always in a feeding frenzy and on the prowl...and regrettably, of behavior that I personally would not appreciate in a partner...

But the public's "right to know and decide" should be limited to their judgment on the value of the person's performance. Was it worth the price of a ticket?

If not...stop paying to see them...

But if so...mind your own business

I've long admired Jodie Foster for her talent, her academic achievements, her courage, and her determination to keep her private life private

Good for her in speaking out