Jodie Foster Recalls De Niro on Taxi Driver Set

Jodie Foster shared candid memories of her early collaboration with Robert De Niro on the set of the 1976 film Taxi Driver during a conversation at the Marrakech International Film Festival on Sunday, after receiving a lifetime achievement award. The 63-year-old actress, who was just 12 at the time of filming, described De Niro's intense method acting approach as initially unengaging, though it ultimately transformed her understanding of the craft.

Foster recounted how De Niro, then 32 and already an established star, mentored her by taking her to coffee shops to rehearse lines for their roles in Martin Scorsese's psychological thriller. "We'd run the lines and run the lines a second and third time," she told the audience. "One of our greatest American actors, so proud to have worked with him, not the most interesting person on earth." Deeply immersed in his character as Travis Bickle, the isolated and troubled night-shift cab driver, De Niro remained in role even off-camera, leaving young Foster puzzled during their lunches. "He was really uninteresting," she recalled. "I remember having these lunches with him and being like, What is happening? When can I go home? And he...