Oscar-winning actor Jodie Foster says Generation Z can be “really annoying” to work with.
In an interview with The Guardian, Foster said that he sometimes found the attitudes towards work he encountered difficult to understand.
“They’re like, ‘No, I’m not feeling it today, I’ll come in at 10:30 in the morning.'”
But he praised one Gen Z star, Bella Ramsey, calling the 20-year-old an example of an actor emerging in a new “vector of authenticity.”
Foster, who was a child star before jumping into a big screen career, said he felt compelled to help young actors find their way “because it’s hard growing up”.
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‘A bit restrictive’
Speaking about Gen Z – a term generally used to describe those born in the late 1990s and early 2000s – Foster, 61, joked: “They are so annoying – especially in the workplace.
“They’re like: ‘No, I’m not feeling it today, I’ll come at 10.30 in the morning.’
“Or, for example, in an email, I’ll tell them the grammar is wrong, don’t you check your spelling?
“And they ask, ‘Why would I do that, isn’t that limiting?'”
Speaking about the advice he gives to the younger generation in the industry, he said: “They need to learn how to relax, how not to overthink it, how to produce something that is their own.
“I can help them find that, which is much more fun than being, with all the pressure behind it, the protagonist in the story.”
Foster praised British actor Ramsey, recalling how he first met The Last of Us and Game of Thrones star at Elle’s Women in Hollywood celebration.
Foster described it as “an extraordinary event” but noted that all the participants “were wearing high heels and eyelashes”.
“There are other ways to be a woman, and it’s important for people to see that. And Bella, who gave the best speech, wore the most perfect, beautifully tailored suit and a center part and no makeup.”
Foster added that when he was younger, he wouldn’t have been able to dress like Ramsey in a suit and no makeup at showbiz events.
“Because we’re not free. Because we don’t have freedom. And hopefully that’s what the vector of authenticity that’s happening is offering us – the possibility of real freedom,” he added.
Foster, who is expected to earn another Oscar nomination for her role in Nyad, also spoke about her two sons and their attitudes towards women.
She explains that although they are now “super feminists,” at one point her eldest believed that he had to be unpleasant to girls in order to be a boy.
The actor added: “And I thought, no! That’s not what being a man is like! That’s what our culture has been selling you all along.”
