Jodie Foster Admits She Worried ‘Silence of the Lambs’ Would Not Resonate with Fans

Jodie Foster’s role in The Silence of the Lambs might be iconic now, but the actress was worried the horror thriller wouldn’t find an audience.

The star, 62, caught up with PEOPLE on Sunday, Oct. 5, at the New York Film Festival screening of her new film A Private Life at Alice Tully Hall. Directed and co-written by Rebecca Zlotowski, A Private Life is Foster’s third French-language film.

“There are very few rainbow experiences where everything’s right and you know it from the beginning,” Foster told PEOPLE. 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs was one of them. In the movie, she plays Clarice Starling, an FBI trainee who interviews Anthony Hopkins’ Dr. Hannibal Lecter, hoping that his insight can help her track down another serial killer, Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine).

“Those films are easy and you never forget them I think. Even the relationships that you had on the film are so tight because you’re making something meaningful,” Foster said of making the movie. “I think we all felt that way.”

The Silence of the Lambs was directed by the late Jonathan Demme and written by Ted Tally, based on Thomas Harris’s 1988 novel.

Still, that didn’t mean the creative team was sure the film would be well-received. “We didn’t know if people were going to like it, but we knew that it was going to be meaningful,” Foster said. “I’m so proud of that film. I’m so proud that it actually holds up all these years later.”

The Silence of the Lambs made over $130 million during its original theatrical run. It received widespread critical acclaim and became just the third film in history to win the “big five” Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Hopkins, Best Actress for Foster and Best Adapted Screenplay. 

Foster’s trophy was her second Oscar, after her win for The Accused in 1989. It was Hopkins’ first. Back in 2024, Hopkins, 87, opened up about how he ended up cast as the legendary psychiatrist and psychotic cannibal. It started when his agent gave him the script while he was starring in a play in London. 

“He said, ‘I want you to read this,’ ” Hopkins told PEOPLE. “I said, ‘Is it an offer?’ He said, “It’s a film with Jodie Foster called The Silence of the Lambs.’ ” Because of the title, “I thought it was a children’s story,” he said. 

“So I opened it. I sat in the dressing room in the theater, and I read through the first scene of Lecter. I said, ‘Is this an offer?’ He said, ‘I’m not sure.’ I said, ‘I’m not going to read anymore, because this is one of the best parts I’ve ever read.’”

Demme, who died in 2017 at age 73, ultimately did want Hopkins for the role. “So we talked, but I knew how to play the part,” Hopkins said of connecting with Demme. “And I don’t know. I do have an instinct about these roles. I could understand Lecter. I could understand the mystery of the man, the loner, the isolated voice in the dark, the man at the top of the stairs who’s not really there.”

Hopkins also praised Foster. “She’s lovely,” he told PEOPLE. “What’s wonderful about Jodie is that great actor that she is, she has no entourage. She just comes on the set and does it. Very laid back. Very cool. What I like about her, she’s very practical.”