I know that when celebrities appear on talk shows there’s usually a discussion before taping where the guest and host loosely work out the story they’re going to tell. I’m starting to wonder, though, if Irish talk show host Graham Norton specifically asks his guests if they have a good animal story to share. Just last December Jamie Dornan appeared on The Graham Norton Show and talked about kissing a horse despite knowing he was madly allergic. My world has not been the same ever since. Now we have an entry from Jodie Foster. Appearing on the show to promote Nyad and True Detective, Jodie pulled her anecdote from the 1970s vaults, when she was nine years old and filming Napoleon and Samantha. After “cut” was called on a take, her scene partner, a lion, picked little Jodie up in his mouth and toted her around for a bit until a trainer intervened. The crew meanwhile, had run for the hills with equipment in tow. Holy crap.
During a recent appearance on The Graham Norton Show, the actress, 61, revealed to the titular host and his other celebrity guests, which included Olivia Colman, that she experienced the terrifying moment while on the set of the 1972 film Napoleon and Samantha.
In the film, Foster was 9 years old when she starred alongside a young Michael Douglas and Johnny Whitaker. She and Whitaker played kids who go on a journey with their pet lion rather than saying goodbye to it.
Foster recalled three lions being on set: the main lion, a stunt lion and a stand-in lion, the latter of which was the one she had the incident with.
“We finished a take and I was going up the hill and all I remember is I remember seeing his mane come around and then he picked me up sideways, shook me in his mouth and turned me around,” Foster said.
The True Detective: Night Country star continued: “Every single person on the crew was running in the opposite direction and I’m like sideways watching everybody — and they took their equipment, too.”
The Silence of the Lambs star retold the event with amusement in her voice, but other guests on stage — Colman, comedian Wanda Sykes, and Scottish host Lorraine Kelly — looked on in shock.
“I’m watching everybody leave going, ‘What’s happening,’” Foster said, adding that she remembers thinking it was an earthquake because she was shaking.
“The trainer said, ‘Drop it’ and because the lion was so well-trained, he opened his mouth and dropped me down and I went running,” she said.
But the lion “came after” Foster, she said, noting he “put one paw on me and then just waited like ‘I go her,’” she said with a laugh.
I know it’s not really the point of this story, but I love that there are two child actors involved, but it’s Michael Douglas who’s described as “young.” Funny! As for the working lions, if you watch the video clip Jodie actually explains the different functions each one played. The “main” lion was their regular scene partner, because he was very old and no longer in possession of his teeth. The “stunt” lion was used for roaring and growling shots, presumably close ups that were filmed away from the children. Then the “stand-in” lion was employed when the “main” lion could not be persuaded to move. At all. Which is how Mr. Stand-In got called in for this shot. And boy did he milk his moment! Talk about scene stealing, he tried to run off with the star! I hope it was more Jodie’s clothing that the lion grabbed with his mouth rather than her body, and I also hope there really wasn’t that much of a delay until the trainer told him to “drop it!” Thank goodness Jodie was OK and is now here to tell this story. But that last bit where the lion lays his paw on Jodie and boasts, “don’t worry, I’ve got her!” — no offense to the feline, but that move was total canine good-boy energy.
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Photos credit: IMAGO/Dave Starbuck / Avalon and Getty, Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon,