Performing `Motherly Love` For 5 Months in Pregnancy

The actress, who took the part of the mother, is two-time Oscar winner from `The Client` (1988) and `Silence Of The Lamb` (1991), Jodie Foster (40). After coming back on the screen after 3 years since `Anna And King`, she entered Imperial Hotel’s interview room in Tokyo, Japan, on the 3rd. She still looked young as a college student, even after giving birth to her second child.

Firstly, she was asked whether she has a `panic room` at home.

“No. But American homes have tendency for installing panic rooms. They say when a criminal enters, 30 minutes of holding on increases possibility of survival, which is quite useful.”

`Panic Room` originally meant a castle’s highest room with good view during the medieval time, but coming to the 20th century, the meaning changed to represent a shelter or hiding place. Panic room in the movie is a safety space, which is made out of thick concrete and 4 ton-iron, being impossible to be destroyed by guns, and it is also equipped with phone line, ventilation system, security system that has observation cameras all over the house.

It is the first night of a divorcee, Meg Altman (Jodie Foster), and her daughter Sarah (Kristin Stewart) at their new house in New York. When 3 strangers break into the house, she flees to the panic room with her daughter.

The burglars’ intension is to steal 3 million dollars hidden in the panic room. A breathtaking game between the family and strangers begins.

“Confronting violence with violence only conceives further violence. That is why violence has to be prevented. The moral of the movie is about having to prevent such situation beforehand.”

She kept yawning from jet lag, but her answers were quite earnest.

In the movie, humans confront each other inside and outside the `panic room`, striving to gain what they want. For one side, it is life, and for the other, money. The only existence that crosses in and out of the panic room is cameras.

While the mother and daughter are locked up inside the panic room from dangerous threat, the burglars are locked up outside the panic room for money and greed, being isolated from the society and law. Fear does not only appear when the body feels it, but also when desired things cannot be possessed. As the fear grows, people become more cruel and violent to overcome it.

Americans, who were proud for being the world’s best, are in great fear after the 9.11 attack. However, they want to be recognized as `the strong weak`, who fight against invaders with great courage.

The fact that Jodie Foster, who well-acted out the mother’s love to protect her daughter, was actually 5 months pregnant at the time of filming, perhaps, appealed to the Americans more.

“It was tiring to go through 5 months of filming with a pregnant body. But pregnancy is not an obstacle, it’s part of life. I took lots of rest while managing the schedule, in order to prevent my body’s change from being seen in the movie.”

That is why she slept time to time during filming, and wore sweaters in certain scenes to hide her swelling breasts.

Foster made a debut as a director in 1991 with `Little Man Tate`, and she now works as a producer, director, and actress all at the same time.

`Panic Room` is to be released during August in Korea.

Hyoung-Chan Kim khc@donga.com