6. Jodie Foster (Taxi Driver)
It is easily forgotten how Jodie Foster started her career. She may have been a few years already in the limelight which included a small role at the hand of Scorsese's Directing in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, but Taxi Driver was her breakthrough role. It was a role that saw her become Travis Bickle's reason for vigilantism, a role that is easily lost or forgotten in the rest of the films strengths. She plays a 13 year old prostitute, a role that shows her maturity beyond her years and one that is shocking to those who watch. Bickle just wants to know her reasoning for stooping so low so young, and Foster's indifference to the world as she attempts to perform a sex act is evidence that she is swamped and needs hep to escape. She later has lunch with Bickle, her loss of innocence at such a tender age is painstakingly obvious to the viewer, as she acts as she should; like a child. The most unsettling moment of the whole film comes when her pimp (played by Harvey Kietel) strokes her hair and dances slowly with her, all the while Foster's tragic performance shows how indifferent she has become to the evil of the man who holds her.