I love the little fun fact that Jodie Foster mentions this was one movie role she wanted but they rejected her (during her "cold" period during/after college). Watching the movie again last night, I must admit she would've been great in the Agnes role -- and brought it her usual intensity. Would've made her comeback happened three years eariler than it did.
shareI disagree. Meg Tilly brought such perfect innocence to it that I really cannot imagine by Foster.
shareMeg Tilly was perfect. Amanda Plummer played Agnes on Broadway and I imagine she would have been very good as well. Jodie looks too foxy (in an intelligent way, I mean)..
shareExactly. Foster is 10 times better actress but is just wrong for this mainly because she is so smart and intelligent the attributes that Agnes just doesn't possess and they're crucial to her character.
shareHow is Foster 10X the better actress? If Foster is so great, then she could be able to forgo her "smart and intelligent attributes" for the role.
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Meg portrayed a lovely innocence....
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I had a big gay boy crush on Meg Tilly when I first saw her in PSYCHO II-83'. Yes Nan, Meg did portray a lovely innocence here and Foster, while a very natural actress in the 80's, has more fire and feistiness in her, that would have been wrong for Agnes. That said, she was convincing and natural in THE ACCUSED-88', for playing trailer trash and won her first Oscar for it.
Exactly how I feel; that Foster has "fire and fiestiness in her, that would have been wrong for Agnes." And Meg was lovely, innocent and other-worldly. Perfect casting.
shareHaven't you ever seen Foster's convincing innocent lil' girl look? She could've easily done this role; all she had to do was expunge herself of all that "fire and feistiness." It's called acting.
shareYes, EJverh, I couldn't agree more. Meg was also lesser known, not having had a career as a child star, she had no "baggage".
Jodie had the baggage of having played a child prostitute in "Taxi Driver" and other roles of a similar nature.
But in any case, Meg Tilly just nailed this.
Wow, when I saw the title of this post, I assumed Jodie wanted to play Dr. Livingston. Now that I could definitely see!
Well, the city's being built and I'm winning this game. So don't interrupt us with trifles.
No. Meg Tilly has a much scarier face, which makes the whole movie feel unsettling. Jodie Foster wouldn't have brought that added layer of fear into it.
shareIt helped, IMHO, that I really didn't know Meg Tilly prior to this role. Agnes should have been an unknown to help along the concept of her being an innocent. That said, I know she had a number of roles prior to this but I don't know how popular she really was at the time.
It's difficult to find a capable actor with no real exposure. Even so, I knew Foster a lot more and it would have been harder to have taken her seriously in this role.