Why Jodie Foster's Taxi Driver Attire Almost Brought The Actress To Tears
Jodie Foster's starring role as a child sex worker in "Taxi Driver" was the most controversial character in her long career, but it wasn't the dark subject matter that scared the young actress the most. Foster already had several years of work under her belt at age 12, having landed small parts in television like "The Addams Family" and films like Martin Scorsese's "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore." Just two years after her first collaboration with the "Goodfellas" director, the pair teamed up again to make "Taxi Driver." But despite being the best actress ever, one aspect of the role was so challenging for Foster that it brought her to tears.
There's a lot about "Taxi Driver" that's unconventional, from the dark subject matter to the groundbreaking cinematography, and the performances were no exception. Scorsese wanted Iris to feel authentic, so he drew inspiration from a few sources, including Foster herself.
"As a kid, I thought it would be a job like all the others, but when I got there, I realized it was creating a character from scratch, which I'd never done before," the actress recalled in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "I'd just been asked to be myself. It was eye-opening for me."
Although Foster lent Iris her own personal humor and charm, that was about all she had in common with her character. The "Silence of the Lambs" actress had a signature sense of style already, and it was very different from Iris' distinctive wardrobe cultivated by costume designer Ruth Morley.
"At the fitting, I was sniffing back tears because I had to wear those dumb shorts, platform shoes and halter tops," she continued. "It was everything I hated. I was a tomboy who wore knee socks. But I got over it."
Foster was a tomboy who hated showing too much skin
The actor-director cried the first time she saw her "Taxi Driver" wardrobe, but thankfully, her mom was there to talk her off the ledge. In fact, Foster's mother was there every step of the way in her early career as a child actress.
"My mom was always on set with me, which is part of the law, you have an appointed guardian or your parent on set with you all the time," she explained in a 1999 interview. "And since I grew up on sets with her, it became kind of a partnership. She was never physically there on set with me, she liked to stay in the trailer and read magazines, that was her thing. She was there to shelter me and protect me but she wasn't there to kind of grab my career and say, 'It's mine.'"
The two-time Oscar winner typically tried to show as little skin as possible and dressed fairly masculine. When confronted with crop tops on a shopping trip with her mother and Morley, Foster was "completely embarrassed" by the revealing clothing and started to cry. Her mom understood her frustration and stepped in to comfort the young actress, reminding her that Iris "is only a character, it's only a part, and you have to remember that."
Foster was "absolutely mortified" by Iris' costumes, she told Vulture, and that wasn't the only struggle she faced making "Taxi Driver" before shooting even began.
"The Board of Education didn't want to give me a work permit," the "Black Mirror" director continued. "Every time a young actor has to do a movie, they have to get a work permit. They said no, I couldn't have one, and we hired a lawyer and they decided to determine whether I was psychologically sane enough to play the part, and I guess I passed!"
Iris' wardrobe was inspired by a real-life sex worker
Iris' wardrobe might not have been Foster's outfits of choice, but it was inspired by the character's real-life counterpart — a young woman who also appears briefly in the film. Foster can blame her distaste for her "Taxi Driver" costumes on Garth Avery, a young sex worker that screenwriter Paul Schrader met while doing research for the film. He spoke about her at length to The Hollywood Reporter:
"During preproduction, I headed uptown, just talking to people on the street, looking for the great white pimp, and in the middle of it all I ended up at a working girl's bar and struck up this conversation with this girl [Garth Avery] who was kind of strung out and very, very thin. Very close to this character that I wrote. I asked her to come back to the hotel — we were staying at the St. Regis because it was cheap — and told her I'd pay her, but it was not about sex. Around 7 o'clock in the morning, I slipped a note under Marty's door that said, 'I'm going downstairs to have breakfast with Iris. You must join us.' We watched her pour sugar on top of her jam, the way she talked, and a lot of that is in the diner scene in the movie."
The "True Detective" season 4 star was also asked to meet with Avery, although they didn't find much in common. Foster says she didn't speak to the young sex worker much herself. Instead, the filmmakers were more focused on incorporating "her mannerisms, how she dressed and walked" into the character.
Avery also appears in the film herself, albeit only for a split second. In the first moment that Iris appears on-screen, nearly run over by Travis' cab, a blonde-haired female companion pulls her away from the headlights. The blonde, of course, is Avery.
The brilliant designer behind Taxi Driver's costumes was Ruth Morley
Despite Foster's qualms with her wardrobe, the costume design for "Taxi Driver" is among many elements of the film that have been the subject of critical acclaim. Iris' look in particular — a wide-brimmed hat, large sunglasses, hotpants, and chunky heels — has inspired many a Halloween costume. It is perhaps the most memorable uniform of the entire film, after Travis Bickle's mohawk and army jacket. But Foster wasn't the only actress in the 1976 Palme d'Or winner whose costumes attracted some attention.
Cybill Shepherd stars in the film as Betsy, the straight-laced object of Travis' affection and easily one of Shepherd's most memorable roles in a long list of New Hollywood staples from Peter Bogdanovich's "The Last Picture Show" to Elaine May's "The Heartbreak Kid." Betsy's style is defined by one designer piece that is often credited with kickstarting a trend. However, the incomparable dress was not sourced by Morely this time — it came straight from Shepherd's closet.
"That Diane von Furstenberg wrap dress I wear, that was my own dress that I brought to the set," she revealed to The Hollywood Reporter.
Morley may not have been the one to source this dress in particular, but it's safe to say she knew what she was doing. She designed costumes for some of the most critically acclaimed films of her day, including "The Miracle Worker," which earned her work an Oscar nomination, and "Tootsie," which snagged her a BAFTA nomination. She is also responsible for costuming other hits of late 20th-century cinema like "Ghost" and "Kramer vs. Kramer."
There are a lot of things to credit the success of "Taxi Driver" to, but Morely's thoughtful costume design is one of the unsung heroes of the film. Iris' wardrobe might not have made Foster feel like herself, but isn't that the whole point?