Jodie Foster, who began her career aged three, calls acting ‘a cruel job’ she never would have chosen

Jodie Foster has spoken out about parents who encourage their children to act, saying she “know[s] how dangerous it is”.

Speaking at the Marrakesh film festival, Foster said that she “would never have chosen to be an actor, I don’t have the personality of an actor. I’m not somebody that wants to dance on a table and, you know, sing songs for people.”

She added: “It’s actually just a cruel job that was chosen for me as a young person that I don’t remember starting.”

Foster’s first booking was at age three, on a commercial for the sunscreen lotion Coppertone . She had not intended to appear but accompanied her elder brother to the audition and charmed the casting agents.

More adverts followed, before she began sitcom work in 1968 and made her first film at age six. Her childhood was fi