Jodie Foster declined a director’s note for her Oscar-winning role in The Accused

Jonathan Kaplan’s “The Accused,” a 1988 dramatic thriller about a woman seeking justice after being gang-raped in a roadside bar, was almost an entirely different film. Jodie Foster’s character, Sarah Tobias, whose sexual assault was welcomed by many bar patrons, was initially intended as a more sympathetic character. But Foster convinced Kaplan (the late director of… Classic juvenile delinquent and Matt Dillon’s debut film “Over the Edge”), along with the production team of Stanley Jaffe and Sherry Lansing, believe Sarah should be less impressed. The filmmakers relented Foster won her first Academy Award for Best Actress That year.

Foster’s decision not only paid off in terms of awards, but it also added a layer of complexity to the standard-release legal drama. If Sarah had been a sweet-natured woman brutalized by a gang of drunken monsters, her arc would have been close to flatline. By making Sarah seem like an infuriating person who has made questionable decisions throughout her life (and flirted with her attackers before the assault), the film confronts the persistent, infuriating logic that women can be complicit in their own sexual assault by asking for it, in buffoonish language.

In a 2005 interview with Comprehensive movieFoster explained why she contradicted Kaplan’s remarks about her performance:

“I felt like I knew who this character was, and my body couldn’t play it any other way, and my voice couldn’t play it any other way. At the time, I felt very frustrated by that. I thought, ‘You have to quit because you can’t give people what they want.’ You have to be able to change your performance when someone says, ‘I want it this way.’ And I couldn’t. Eventually, I realized this was a good thing, but at the time I was ready to pack it in.”

Thank God she didn’t leave the movie. It’s hard to imagine anyone walking this emotional tightrope as deftly as Foster did. Her treatment of Sarah challenges the viewer’s sympathy at times. We’re clearly hurting from her trauma and want to bring her attackers (one of whom continues to bully her after the fact) to justice, but we don’t always enjoy her presence. Interestingly, Foster felt the same way. As she told Total Film:

“(W)hen I first saw The Accused I thought, ‘This is terrible.’ Not the movie, but my performance in it. I felt like, ‘I’ve really missed the boat — she’s bold and loud and… not polite!'” (Laughs) I couldn’t relate to her. Now, I think it’s very interesting that someone from my background would judge someone like her.”

Once again, this is the element that elevates the film above the trappings of the old genre. That’s why “The Accused” has lost none of its power and remains a (very difficult) must-see film to this day. And if you need to chase this movie with the more capable and skilled Foster, There is always “Silence of the Lambs”.