5. Jodie Foster (Clarice Starling) The Silence Of The Lambs
Aside from The Exorcist, The Silence of the Lambs is the one horror to truly bother the Academy Awards. In fact, it bothered them to such an extent that it took home the big five in Film, Director, Actor, Actress and Adapted Screenplay. This puts this horror film alongside It Happened One Night (1934) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) as the only three films in Academy history to do this and central to it is Foster's depiction of Special Agent Clarice Starling. Although some would go for Anthony Hopkins' depiction of Hannibal Lecter, it's too much of a pantomime compared to Foster and even Brian Cox's brilliant depiction in Manhunter unfortunately, places Lecktor (sic.) in a CSI environment with precedes William Petersen's own series behemoth. Foster, already an established part of Hollywood royalty thanks to Taxi Driver, The Hotel New Hampshire and The Accused, which gave her her first Best Actress Oscar, found herself in a serial killer horror directed by genre favourite Jonathan Demme. Starling is a strong female character in a man's world. She is training at the FBI Academy before being asked to interview Dr Hannibal 'the cannibal' Lecter in regards to psychological information on serial killer Buffalo Bill. The interactions with Lecter are the stuff of legend now and Foster plays them incredibly showing both steel and vulnerability in her part. Her interactions with the other men in her world, from Jack Crawford to Dr Chilton, show a woman with a complex understanding of male/female interactions which reaches its head in her pursuit of the murderous Jame Gumb who himself wants to become a woman. Foster is at her best here and to show how much she owned the role, even a great actress like Julianne Moore couldn't save the ill-advised sequel Hannibal after Foster refused to take on the role again due to the storyline. This is an intelligent, adult, mainstream horror but Foster's Starling is one of the pivotal female roles in the genre.
