Golden Globes 2013: Transcript of Jodie Foster's speech

By OIiver Gettell
January 13, 2013, 8:45 p.m.



Here is a transcript of Jodie Foster's acceptance speech in receiving the Cecil B. DeMille award at Sunday night's Golden Globes:

"Well, for all of you 'SNL' fans, I’m 50! I’m 50! You know, I need to do that without this dress on, but you know, maybe later at Trader Vic’s, boys and girls. What do you say? I’m 50! You know, I was going to bring my walker tonight but it just didn’t go with the cleavage.

"Robert [Downey Jr.], I want to thank you for everything: for your bat-crazed, rapid-fire brain, the sweet intro. I love you and Susan and I am so grateful that you continually talk me off the ledge when I go on and foam at the mouth and say, 'I’m done with acting, I’m done with acting, I’m really done, I’m done, I’m done.'
"Trust me, 47 years in the film business is a long time. You just ask those Golden Globes, because you crazy kids, you’ve been around here forever. You know, Phil you’re a nut, Aida, Scott — thank you for honoring me tonight. It is the most fun party of the year, and tonight I feel like the prom queen.



"Thank you. Looking at all those clips, you know, the hairdos and the freaky platform shoes, it’s like a home-movie nightmare that just won’t end, and all of these people sitting here at these tables, they’re my family of sorts, you know. Fathers mostly. Executives, producers, the directors, my fellow actors out there, we’ve giggled through love scenes, we’ve punched and cried and spit and vomited and blown snot all over one another — and those are just the costars I liked. But you know more than anyone else I share my most special memories with members of the crew. Blood-shaking friendships, brothers and sisters. We made movies together, and you can’t get more intimate than that.

"So while I’m here being all confessional, I guess I have a sudden urge to say something that I’ve never really been able to air in public. So, a declaration that I’m a little nervous about but maybe not quite as nervous as my publicist right now, huh Jennifer? But I’m just going to put it out there, right? Loud and proud, right? So I’m going to need your support on this.

"I am single. Yes I am, I am single. No, I’m kidding — but I mean I’m not really kidding, but I’m kind of kidding. I mean, thank you for the enthusiasm. Can I get a wolf whistle or something? [Audio is silent for seven seconds] ... be a big coming-out speech tonight because I already did my coming out about a thousand years ago back in the Stone Age, in those very quaint days when a fragile young girl would open up to trusted friends and family and co-workers and then gradually, proudly to everyone who knew her, to everyone she actually met. But now I’m told, apparently that every celebrity is expected to honor the details of their private life with a press conference, a fragrance and a prime-time reality show.

"You know, you guys might be surprised, but I am not Honey Boo Boo Child. No, I’m sorry, that’s just not me. It never was and it never will be. Please don’t cry because my reality show would be so boring. I would have to make out with Marion Cotillard or I’d have to spank Daniel Craig’s bottom just to stay on the air. It’s not bad work if you can get it, though.


"But seriously, if you had been a public figure from the time that you were a toddler, if you’d had to fight for a life that felt real and honest and normal against all odds, then maybe you too might value privacy above all else. Privacy.  Some day, in the future, people will look back and remember how beautiful it once was.

"I have given everything up there from the time that I was 3 years old. That’s reality-show enough, don’t you think?

"There are a few secrets to keeping your psyche intact over such a long career. The first, love people and stay beside them. That table over there, 222, way out in Idaho, Paris, Stockholm, that one, next to the bathroom with all the unfamous faces, the very same faces for all these years. My acting agent, Joe Funicello — Joe, do you believe it, 38 years we’ve been working together? Even though he doesn’t count the first eight.

"Matt Saver, Pat Kingsley, Jennifer Allen, Grant Niman and his uncle Jerry Borack, may he rest in peace. Lifers. My family and friends here tonight and at home, and of course, Mel Gibson. You know you save me too.

"There is 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. Thank you, Cyd. I am so proud of our modern family. Our amazing sons, Charlie and Kit, who are my reason to breathe and to evolve, my blood and soul. And boys, in case you didn’t know it, this song, all of this, this song is for you.

"This brings me to the greatest influence of my life, my amazing mother, Evelyn. Mom, I know you’re inside those blue eyes somewhere and that there are so many things that you won’t understand tonight. But this is the only important one to take in: I love you, I love you, I love you. And I hope that if I say this three times, it will magically and perfectly enter into your soul, fill you with grace and the joy of knowing that you did good in this life. You’re a great mom. Please take that with you when you’re finally OK to go.

"You see, Charlie and Kit, sometimes your mom loses it too. I can’t help but get moony, you know. This feels like the end of one era and the beginning of something else. Scary and exciting and now what? Well, I may never be up on this stage again, on any stage for that matter. Change, you gotta love it. I will continue to tell stories, to move people by being moved, the greatest job in the world. It’s just that from now on, I may be holding a different talking stick. And maybe it won’t be as sparkly, maybe it won’t open on 3,000 screens, maybe it will be so quiet and delicate that only dogs can hear it whistle. But it will be my writing on the wall. Jodie Foster was here, I still am, and I want to be seen, to be understood deeply and to be not so very lonely.

"Thank you, all of you, for the company. Here’s to the next 50 years."

                     il coming out commuove i Golden Globe


Durante il discorso di ringraziamento per il premio Cecil B. DeMille alla carriera l'attrice ringrazia la sua ex compagna, la produttrice Cydney Bernard e i due figli avuti con lei, presenti in sala. Le sue parole, dopo una vita all'insegna del riserbo sulla privacy, provocano un'ondata di commozione

di ALESSANDRA CLEMENTI

AI SETTANTESIMI Golden Globe non ha vinto Modern Family, ma sicuramente chi la Modern Family l’ha sperimentata e vissuta in prima persona: Jodie Foster. E il suo discorso tocca l'argomento che divide l'Europa: ieri la grande manifestazione in Francia, la settimana scorsa la sentenza della Cassazione e le proteste dei vescovi sull'affidamento dei figli a coppie gay. A soli 50 anni l'attrice ha ricevuto il premio Cecil B. DeMille alla carriera, toccato prima di lei a Steven Spielberg e Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese e Sophia Loren, dopo 47 anni di lavoro, grande cinema e impegno nel sociale, per i suoi "fondamentali contributi al mondo dello spettacolo".

Jodie Foster, che della discrezione e della riservatezza ha fatto uno stile di vita, questa volta ha oscurato la cerimonia di assegnazione dei premi con il suo discorso 'privato'. L'attrice, regista e produttrice ha pronunciato un discorso di ringraziamento molto personale e pieno di sottintesi, che ha lasciato interdetti e commossi tutti i colleghi presenti nel parterre del Beverly Hilton Hotel. Per la prima volta ha parlato esplicitamente, e delicatamente, della sua vita privata, dei figli, della madre, e della ex compagna di vita Cydney Bernard.

La divertente introduzione è toccata all’amico Robert Downey Jr. che ne ha ricordato l’intelligenza, la formazione universitaria, la passione anche nel salvare "reietti ed ex reietti" dello spettacolo come lui. Un adorante Mel Gibson è seduto al tavolo dei familiari e dell'entourage dell’attrice proprio sotto il palco. La Foster ha preso la parola con un tono tra lo scanzonato e l’introspettivo, facendo il punto sulla sua vita e la sua carriera: "Credo di avere un bisogno improvviso di dire qualcosa che non ho mai detto in pubblico.  Sono un po' preoccupata ma non così nervosa come il mio agente. Come tutti sanno sono... single," - ha detto l’attrice sorridendo, mentre la regia indugiava sui figli Charles e Christopher -  Ho già fatto il mio coming out mille anni fa, nell’età della pietra, prima a parenti e amici e poi via via a chi incontravo nella mia cerchia".

La Foster ha proseguito ironizzando sul fatto che ci si aspetta che le celebrità rivelino di essere gay "con una conferenza stampa, un profumo o un reality in prima serata. E voi ragazzi potreste essere sorpresi, ma io non sono Honey Boo Boo Child (una bambina protagonista di un reality statunitense in cui si raccontano i suoi sforzi per diventare una reginetta di bellezza, ndr). No, mi dispiace. Questa non sono io, non lo sono mai stata e mai lo sarò. Ma per favore non piangete, perché il mio reality show sarebbe davvero noioso". Ha quindi aggiunto con aria di sfida: "Se foste stati una figura pubblica sin da bambini (ha debuttato a 3 anni nella pubblicità del Coppertone) anche voi valutereste la privacy sopra ogni altra cosa".

"Non potrei mai stare qui, senza riconoscere uno dei più profondi amori della mia vita: la Foster ha quindi ringraziato Cydney Bernard, produttrice cinematografica che ha identificato come "la mia eroica co-genitrice, la mia ex-partner in amore e sorella dell'anima per la vita". La Bernard è stata la sua compagna per 20 anni, da quando si incontrarono sul set di Sommersby nel 1993, una relazione che non ha mai nascosto e nel corso della quale sono stati concepiti i due figli della coppia (Charles nel 1998 e Christopher nel 2001).

L'attrice ha poi ha poi avuto un momento di intensa commozione quando ha parlato della madre ottantaquattrenne Evelyn Almond, che soffre di demenza senile. "Mamma, lo so che sei dentro quegli occhi azzurri da qualche parte", ha detto con le lacrime agli occhi. "Ti amo, ti amo, ti amo, e spero che se dico questo tre volte, le parole sapranno magicamente raggiungere la tua anima, e potranno riempirla di grazia, con la gioia di sapere che hai fatto bene in questa vita, sei una mamma grande!

Infine il pensiero e le parole ai due figli: "Charlie e Kit sono la mia ragione di vita e di evoluzione... Ragazzi, nel caso non lo sapeste, questo discorso, tutto questo è per voi. Sono così orgogliosa della nostra Modern Family!" - ha esclamato.

La Foster ha quindi concluso il discorso con un riferimento indiretto a un cambiamento di priorità nella sua carriera. Ma dietro le quinte con i giornalisti ha smentito ogni ipotesi di ritiro: "Sento questo momento come la fine di un'era e l'inizio di qualcos'altro, un momento spaventoso ed eccitante". "Il mio discorso parla per sé - ha poi aggiunto, spiegando perché abbia deciso questo luogo e questo momento per discutere pubblicamente della sua vita privata - è un grande momento, volevo dire quello che ho più a cuore".

A testimonianza di quanto il discorso di Jodie abbia inciso sulla serata la battuta finale delle due conduttrici Tina Fey e Amy Poulher che si sono congedate dal pubblico dicendo: "Noi andiamo a casa con Jodie".

 Είμαι πενήντα. Θα έφερνα το πι μου μαζί στην σκηνή, αλλά δεν πήγαινε με το ντεκολτέ μου. Σαράντα εφτά χρόνια στο σινεμά είναι πάρα πολλά. Κοιτάζοντας αυτά τα αποσπάσματα είναι σαν οικογενειακή ταινία που σε κάνει να ντρέπεσαι. Γιατί όλοι εδώ είστε σαν οικογένειά μου. Αλλά μοιράζομαι τις καλύτερες στιγμές μου με το συνεργείο κάθε ταινίας. Εχω κάνει φίλους εκεί. Θα πω κάτι που δεν έχω πει και για το οποίο χρειάζομαι την υποστήριξή σας. Αλλά θα το πω και είμαι περήφανη γι αυτό. Είμαι ελεύθερη. Αλήθεια. Συγνώμη που δεν κάνω ένα μεγάλο coming out, αλλά έκανα το coming out μου εδώ και χρόνια σε φίλους και συγγενείς. Σήμερα όμως χρειάζεται να το κάνεις με μια πρες κόνφερανς με ένα εξώφυλλο ή με ένα άρωμα. Αλλά το reality show της ζωής μου θα ήταν πολύ βαρετό. Θα έπρεπε να κάνω σεξ με την Μαριόν Κοτιγιάρ και να δείρω στον πισινό τον Ντάνιελ Κρεγκ για να γίνει θεαματικό. Αλλά δουλεύω μπροστά στις κάμερες από τριών χρόνων κι αυτό είναι το δικό μου reality show.

Εχω μια ξαφνική επιθυμία να μοιραστώ κάτι που δεν έχω πει ποτέ δημόσια. Μια εξομολόγηση για την οποία έχω λίγο άγχος. Αλλά όχι τόσο άγχος όσο η publicist μου! Θα το πω απλά, δυνατά και περήφανα. Εκανα ήδη το outing μου εδώ και μια χιλιετία, πίσω στην παλαιολιθική εποχή. Σ’ εκείνες τις πολύ γραφικές μέρες, όταν ένα νέο κορίτσι μπορούσε ν’ ανοιχτεί μόνο στις έμπιστες φίλες της, την οικογένειά της, τους συναδέλφους της και σταδιακά, περήφανα, σε όσους τη γνώριζαν. Σε όποιον συναντούσε.

Αλλά τώρα, όπως μου λένε, κάθε celebrity οφείλει να τιμήσει τις λεπτομέρεις της ιδιωτικής του ζωής με μια συνέντευξη τύπου, ένα άρωμα κι ένα ριάλιτι σε prime time. Εσάς μπορεί να σας κάνει έκπληξη, αλλά εγώ δεν είμαι η Honey Boo Boo.

Αν κι εσείς βρισκόσασταν στο επίκεντρο της δημοσιότητας απ’ όταν ήσασταν παιδιάκι, αν είχε χρειαστεί να πολεμήσετε για μια ζωή που θεωρούσατε αληθινή κι έντιμη και φυσιολογική παρά τις αντιξοότητες, τότε ίσως κι εσείς θα υπολογίζατε την αξία της ιδιωτικής ζωής περισσότερο απ’ οτιδήποτε.

Ιδιωτική ζωή. Μια μέρα στο μέλλον οι άνθρωποι θα κοιτάξουν στο παρελθόν και θα θυμηθούν πόσο όμορφη ήταν κάποτε.

Υπάρχουν κάποια μυστικά για να κρατήσεις άθικτη την ψυχή σου στη διάρκεια μιας τόσο μακροχρόνιας καριέρας. Πρώτα, ν’ αγαπάς τους ανθρώπους και να στέκεσαι δίπλα τους. Δε θα μπορούσα να σταθώ εδώ χωρίς ν’ αναγνωρίσω μια από τις πιο βαθιές αγάπες της ζωής μου, την ηρωική συν-μητέρα των παιδιών μου, την πρώην σύντροφό μου στον έρωτα, την ηθική αδελφή ψυχή μου στη ζωή, την εξομολογήτριά μου, παρέα στο σκι, σύμβουλο, πιο πολυαγαπημένη καλύτερη φίλη μου για 20 χρόνια, την Σίντνεϊ Μπερνάρντ. Σ’ ευχαριστώ τόσο πολύ. Είμαι τόσο περήφανη για τη δική μας «modern family», τους δυο απίθανους γιους μας, όλο αυτό εδώ, να ξέρετε, είναι για σας.

Μαμά, υπάρχουν τόσα πράγματα που δε θα καταλάβεις απόψε, αλλά αυτό είναι το μόνο σημαντικό που πρέπει να κρατήσεις: «σ’ αγαπώ σ’ αγαπώ σ’ αγαπώ». Κι ελπίζω ότι αν το πω αυτό τρεις φορές, με τρόπο μαγικό και τέλειο θα μπει στην ψυχή σου και θα σε γεμίσει με χάρη και με τη χαρά της γνώσης ότι έκανες καλό σ’ αυτή τη ζωή, είσαι καλή μητέρα. Αυτό να το πάρεις μαζί σου όταν πια θα είσαι έτοιμη να φύγεις.

Δεν μπορώ να μη συγκινηθώ, αυτό εδώ μοιάζει με το τέλος μιας εποχής και την αρχή μιας άλλης. Τρομακτικό κι ενθουσιαστικό και τώρα τι; Δε θα ξανανέβω σε καμιά σκηνή. Αλλαγή, πρέπει να την αγαπήσουμε. Θα συνεχίσω να λέω ιστορίες, να συγκινώ τους ανθρώπους και να συγκινούμαι μαζί τους, κάνοντας την ωραιότερη δουλειά στον κόσμο. Απλώς μπορεί από δω και πέρα να μιλώ διαφορετικά, ίσως οι ταινίες μου να μην είναι τόσο λαμπερές ή να μην ανοίγουν σε 3.000 αίθουσες, ίσως θα είναι τόσο ήσυχες και λεπτεπίλεπτες που μόνο τα σκυλιά ν’ ακούνε το σφύριγμά τους. Αλλά θα είναι η δική μου γραφή στον τοίχο. Η Τζόντι Φόστερ ήταν εδώ. Ακόμα είμαι. Και θέλω να με βλέπουν και να με καταλαβαίνουν βαθιά και να μην είμαι τόσο τρομερά μόνη. Σας ευχαριστώ όλους για την παρέα. Στην υγειά των επόμενων 50 χρόνων!»Τζόντι Φόστερ