Jodie Foster Takes Up Role Of Nun

It's the film Jodie Foster wasn't supposed to be in.

“The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys” follows the adventures of two misguided Catholic school boys who meet two influential women in their lives. Foster plays their teacher, Sister Assumptia, and Jenna Malone is Marie, one of the boy’s girlfriends.

The two actresses made a stop at The Early Show to help promote the independent film based on Chris Fuhrman's original and audacious coming-of-age novel.

Foster says she was not intended to act in this film, but to produce it. As the production moved forward, she says, she found herself attracted to the role of the boys' arch nemesis. Foster was intrigued by the role of someone who had devoted her life to something outside of herself.

"There are reasons why Sister Assumpta is authoritative and mean," Foster explains. "It's not coming from hatred of the kids; it's coming from a love of the kids. It's her way of guiding them through life, and we want to show that."

She also believed in the movie’s honesty. The two characters are boys, but they are not treated like juveniles.

“I guess what I look for in a film is truth", the producer observes. "What's true and what's real? These are the questions I ask. The film is really true to what happens during that time in your life when you don't have all the answers and you don't know what you're going through. And you don't know if you will ever get to the other side."

“The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys” is a '70s-era drama featuring two charming but irreverent Catholic high schoolers who confront the mysteries of adulthood. Francis (Emile Hirsch), Tim (Kiernan Culkin), and their friends are adolescents who see the world as a clear and simple place.

In their limited experience, the universe is comprised of heroes and villains and it is always possible to tell the difference between the two. Sister Assumpta (Foster), the nun, who has become the emblematic authority figure in their lives, is the enemy.

Seeing only her rules and daily efforts to subvert their fun instead of the genuine concern she has for their souls, the boys use their artistic talents to create a hard-edged comic book that depicts Sister Assumpta as a fiendish, motorcyle-riding villain who battles their animated alter-egos.

Throughout the story, their fantasy universe comes to life in animated sequences, paralleling the live-action tale of friendship, first-love, and inevitable loss.

In their real lives, Francis and Tim experience a series of misadventures that lead them closer to maturity. When Francis experience first love with Margie (Jena Malone), a beautiful young classmate with a sad and surprising secret, he discovers that life is rarely what it seems to be.

In the novel, Francis and Tim escape the repressive routine of their lives through the fantasy world of the superhero comic strip they create, where their alter egos battle with evil versions of Sister Assumpta and Father Casey.

For Francis, a gifted young artists, the secret comic book becomes an outlet for his creativity, rebelliousness, and hormonal confustion. The filmmakers bring this element of the story to life through ambitious and wildly imaginative animated sequences created by master animation artists Todd McFarlane.

"The minute we introduced animation, everything in the story made sense, Foster observed. "It's wild and crazy with abandon, and has such energy and melodrama, showing all of the longing and confusion that these boys feel, but aren't really allowed to express in life. It's everything taken to the nth degree so if you see Sister Assumpta as being rigid and authoritative in real life, when you see her in the animation, she's insanely that way."

As a former child actor, Foster probably had some advice for her young co-stars. Emile Hirsch was the first actor who embodied Francis for the filmmakers. "Emile is really the perfect Francis. There is a real unconsciousness to him, where he doesn't know why he feels the way he does,” says Foster. “When you're 14 or 15 years old, you have all of these enormous feelings and you don't really know where they are coming from or where they are leading to, and I don't really think that's something you can fake."

Similarly, Kieran Culkin was the filmmakers' ideal choice for Tim. Foster had known Culkin when he was a child. "It's so funny to see him all grown up now," she said. "I think he's very similar to who Tim is. And I think he is going through a lot of similar things and that really makes my heart go out to him. He is an incredible talent."

Fast Facts About Jodie Foster:

• 1962: Born Nov.19, Alicia Christian Foster in Los Angeles, Calif.
  
• 1966: Foster makes professional acting debute in a Coppertone suntan commercial
  
• 1969: Foster makes TV acting debut on the sitcom, "Mayberry R.F.D."
  
• 1969-1972: Appears as a recurring character, Joey Kelley, on the ABC sitcom, "The Courtship of Eddie's Father"
  
• 1972: Makes feature film acting debut, "Napoleon and Samantha"
  
• 1976: Plays breakthrough role in Martin Scorsese's film, "Taxi Driver"
  
• 1980: Works as summer intern for Esquire magazine.
  
• 1985: Graduates as class valedictorian, magna cum laude,
  at Yale University in New Haven, Conn.
  
• 1986: Co-produces first feature, "Mesmerized"; directs and writes documentary, "Hands on Time", for the Time-Life/BBC series
  "Americans"
  
• 1991: Makes feature directorial debut, "Little Man Tate", in which she also stars
  
• 1992: Forms three-year production deal under her Egg Pictures with Polygram Filmed Entertainment with the power to greenlight her own projects
  
• 1994: Produces and stars in first production under Egg Pictures banner, "Nell"
  
• 1998: Debuts as TV producer, "The Baby Dance", a telefilm based on Jane Anderson's stage play; production earns an Emmy nomination as Outstanding Made for Television Movie
  
• 1999: Casts as Anna Leonowens, the 19th Century woman who traveled to Siam to serve as governess to the monarch's children in "Anna and the King"
  
• 2000: Serves as executive producer of "Waking the Dead", helmed by Keith Gordon; Turns down opportunity to reprise role of Clarice Starling in "Hannibal", the proposed sequel to her "The Silence of the Lambs"
  
• 2001: In November, closes Egg Productions
  
• 2002: Produces and co-stars as a one-legged religious in "The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys"
  
• 2002: Portrays a woman terrorized by burglars in the thriller "Panic Room.” Replacing an injured Nicole Kidman in the leading role
  

Fast Facts About Jena Malone

• 1984: Born Nov. 21 in Sparks, Nevada
  
• 1995: Moves with mother to L.A.; Appears in Michael Jackson's music video "Childhood"
  
• 1996: Plays Bone, the title character, in Anjelica Huston's "Bastard Out of Carolina"
  
• 1996: Co-stars as Beau Bridges' daughter in "Hidden in America"
  
• 1997: Relocates to New York
  
• 1997: Plays Jodie Foster's character as a child in "Contact"
  
• 1997: Appears in Goldie Hawn's directorial debut, "Hope"
  
• 1998: Co-stars in "Stepmom" with Julia Roberts and Susan Sarandon
  
• 1999: Cast as Kelly Preston's daughter in "For Love of the Game"
  
• 2000: Sues mother for alleged mishandling of earnings and mismanagement of career; became an emancipated minor
  
• 2001: Stars opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in "Donnie Darko"
  
• 2001: Acts opposite Mary Stuart Masterson in the drama "The Book of Stars"
  
• 2001: Co-stars as a precocious teen-ager in "Life as a House"