Years of speculation came to an end on Sunday night when Jodie Foster casually announced that she is gay during her Cecil B. Demile award acceptance speech at the Golden Globes. Robert Downey Jr. announced and presented the award to Foster. She then said the following:
“While I’m here being all confessional, I just have the sudden urge to say something I’ve never been able to air in public. A declaration that I’m a little nervous about. Not quite as nervous as my publicist, huh, Jennifer? But uh, you know, I’m just going to put it out there. Loud and proud. I’m going to need your support. I am — single!”
“I already did my coming out a thousand years ago, in the Stone Age,” she said. “Those very quaint days when a fragile young girl would open up to trusted friends and family and co-workers and then gradually to everyone that knew her, everyone she actually met. But now apparently I’m told that every celebrity is expected to honor the details of their private life with a press conference, a fragrance, and a primetime reality show.
“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. But please don’t cry, because my reality show would so boring.”
She added, “If you had been a public figure from the time that you were a toddler, if you had to fight for a life that felt real and honest and normal against all odds, then maybe then you, too, might value privacy above all else. Privacy.
“I have given everything up there from the time that I was three 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.”
Foster made sure to thank her ex-partner and co-parent, Cydney Bernard. She also noted that she would only work on projects that would challenge her creativity. That statement caused many media outlets to wonder if Foster was announcing her retirement at the same time. When she went backstage following her acceptance speech, Foster told the Associated Press, “I could never stop acting. You’d have to drag me behind a team of horses. I’d like to be directing tomorrow. I’m more into it than I have ever been.” Foster also said that she “wanted to say what’s most in my heart.”