Jodie Foster, an Oscar winner, has provided some insight into the making of Martin Scorsese’s 1976 masterpiece Taxi Driver, claiming that no one, including the filmmaker, knew how to approach her character.

In the 1976 psychological thriller, which also starred Robert De Niro as loner Travis Bickle, the then 12-year-old child actor played teen prostitute Iris. The film was panned for its hyper-realistic representation of s-x and violence, and concern was expressed for the young actress, who underwent psychiatric assessment at the time to guarantee she wouldn’t be mentally damaged by her performance, as required by the California Labor Board.

The actress reflected on her experience making the film while appearing on The Graham Norton Show.

“I was 12 years old and had made more movies than anyone else on the film at that point,” she explained.

“They were very uncomfortable about my character. Nobody knew how to direct me.

“Scorsese would say something like ‘unzip his fly’ and just start laughing and not know what to do so he would hand it over to Robert De Niro and then Robert would tell me what to do.

“And he was even more ‘Robert De Niro’ then, even quieter and more strange.”

Working with the great filmmaker, however, quickly altered the young star’s attitude, and after a 40-year career, she’s now firmly in the director’s chair, much like her former mentor.

“I’d done a lot of it and I guess I thought acting was a dumb job because all I ever did was say lines that someone else wrote,” she pondered.

“I thought that was a terrible way to make a living and I couldn’t imagine I would do that when I grew up. But he (Scorsese) took me under his wing and taught me how to improvise and I realised there was more to acting than just saying lines.”

Both performers received Oscar nods for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress for their roles in the film.

She also talked about working with Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs during her visit on the chat program.

She added, “I never spoke to him because he was so scary. The first day we had a read-through and by the end of it I never wanted to talk to him again – I was petrified.

“We got to the end of the movie and really had never had a conversation.

“I actually avoided him but on the last day he came up to me and I said, with tears in my eyes, how scared I was of him and he said, ‘But, I was scared of you!”‘