Jodie Foster’s Cecil B. DeMille Award acceptance speech was especially memorable during Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards, thanks to a few candid comments from the actress about her personal life and her professional future.
After asking the room full of her celebrity colleagues for their support as she made a big announcement (one she joked left her publicist terrified), the 50-year-old beauty jokingly said, “I’m single,” before launching into a powerful speech acknowledging her sexuality.
“There won’t be a big coming out speech tonight because I already did my coming out about a thousand years ago back in the Stone Age — in those very quaint days where a fragile young girl would open up to trusted friends and family and co-workers and then gradually, proudly, to everyone who knew her, who she actually met,” Jodie said, as the cameras cut to an emotional Kate Hudson dabbing her eyes with a napkin, and “Bones” star Emily Deschanel with a tear-streaked face.
Jodie — who looked stunning with a short, sleek bob and a steely blue gown – said she’s upset by the notion that artists are now expected to broadcast every detail of their love life.
“But now, apparently, I’m told that every celerity is expected to honor the details of their private life with a press conference, a fragrance, and a primetime reality show… I am not Honey Boo Boo,” she said, as the crowd laughed. “I have given everything up there since the time that I was 3 years old — that’s reality show enough, don’t you think?”
She wrapped up her speech by thanking her professional team, friends (including Mel Gibson), and her longtime partner.
“[Thank you] to my heroic co-parent, my ex-partner in love but righteous soul sister in life, my confessor, ski buddy… most beloved BFF of 20 years, Cydney Bernard,” she said. “Thank you, Cyd. I am so proud of our modern family.”
Rosie O’Donnell, who famously came out back in 2002, took to Twitter to offer support for Jodie’s revelation.
“Jodie Foster – rather amazing speech,” the comedian wrote.
As for what lies ahead in her professional life, Jodie offered a few veiled comments on her Hollywood future, noting the next time she’s on stage, she “may be holding a different talking stick.”
“Maybe it won’t be as sparkly, maybe it won’t open up on 3,000 screens, and maybe it will be so quiet and delicate that only dogs can hear it whistle,” the actress suggested.
Backstage after her speech, she cleared up any confusion about her comments being misconstrued as a retirement revelation.
“I could never stop acting. You’d have to drag me behind a team of horses. No, I’m not retiring from acting,” she told reporters.
— Erin O’Sullivan
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