Jodie Foster was only 12 when she began preparing to play Iris Steensma in Martin Scorsese’s 1976 film
Taxi Driver, a role that pushed the boundaries of what was considered acceptable for a young actor. To help her understand the deeply damaged and vulnerable girl she was portraying, a runaway entangled in a harsh world no child should ever know, Scorsese took serious and unconventional steps. He brought in a real FBI agent and a licensed psychiatrist to guide her through the emotional and psychological terrain of the character. These sessions were intense and often disturbing, giving Foster a window into the kind of life Iris lived, without subjecting her to direct exposure to it.
The FBI agent explained the grim realities of exploited minors on the streets of 1970s New York. He shared real case studies, stories of young girls abandoned or manipulated into dangerous situations. The intention was not to shock Foster, but to ground her performance in truth. She remembered listening quietly as he described the survival tactics many of these children developed, how they masked their fear, how they learned to read people, and how they adapted to a world that rarely showed them kindness.
At the same time, the psychiatrist focused on Iris’s inner world, her numbness, her confusion, her small acts of rebellion. The sessions became a kind of emotional excavation. Foster was encouraged to ask questions, to think about how someone her age might try to reclaim a sense of control when everything around them felt unsafe. She described these meetings as uncomfortable but important, moments where she had to consider emotions she had never personally felt but had to represent convincingly.
Jodie later said that even though she didn’t fully understand the adult implications of Iris’s life, she deeply sensed the sadness and isolation the girl lived with. The protective bubble she had grown up in made the contrast sharper. Her conversations with the psychiatrist often blurred the lines between her own thoughts and those of her character. In one session, she asked if people her age could become so detached they stopped expecting love or safety. The answer stayed with her: yes, and it’s one of the most heartbreaking consequences of neglect.
Robert De Niro, who played Travis Bickle, worked closely with her during rehearsals. He was patient but relentless, running lines with her over and over until each word felt natural. Jodie noted how he never treated her like a child. He respected her process, pushed her when necessary, and showed her what it meant to be fully present in a scene. His dedication helped her find moments of authenticity that would eventually make her performance unforgettable.
One of the most emotionally charged scenes, when Iris tells Travis she’s not ready to go back to a normal life, was filmed after a day of deep psychological preparation. The team encouraged Foster to tap into her character’s pride, not her pain. They wanted her to show the complexity of a child trying to sound strong in a world built to break her. She said that moment felt like stepping out of herself and into Iris completely.
Her mother was on set every day, monitoring closely, making sure boundaries were respected. Certain scenes used a stand-in, and the entire production operated under the scrutiny of child welfare professionals. Still, there were things no one could completely shield her from. The weight of the material, the emotional residue, it stayed with her. But Foster never looked at it as something damaging. She always spoke of it as the moment she first understood what it meant to truly become someone else.
She once said the role shaped her understanding of empathy. Not as a soft feeling, but as a powerful tool that allowed her to connect with people whose lives were far different from her own. Her portrayal of Iris in Taxi Driver remains one of the most raw, honest, and unsettling performances by a young actor in film history.
