Jodie Foster is looking back at her terrifying experience with a lion while filming the 1972 Disney movie, Napoleon and Samantha, as a child.
The two-time Oscar winner recently shared during an interview with W Magazine that she has “many scars” after being attacked by the big cat on set at nine years old.
“I was mauled by a lion when I was eight-and-a-half or nine,” she recalled. “The lion picked me up, shook me around, moved me horizontally, and then dropped me. I had two perfect punctures on one side and then two perfect punctures on the other, on my hip. But as the years have gone on and we get bigger, you know, who even knows where they are anymore. They kind of just move around.”
The A Private Life actress noted that the scary encounter wasn’t filmed, as it happened “after the shot was over.”
“I was in shock, so I don’t really remember that much,” Foster said. “I remember the event. I saw his mane come forward and I had worked with the lions, but when he picked me up, he picked me up and then moved me sideways and shook me around. And so, as he turned me back and towards the whole camera crew, I saw the whole camera crew run — except sideways. So, I saw them running sideways, taking all their equipment with them, just like, running away from me.”
The Silence of the Lambs actress said the animal’s trainer eventually got the situation under control, but that it was still one of the “scariest” things to happen to her while shooting a movie.
“I guess the trainer said, ‘Drop it,’ and the lion dropped me out of his mouth,” she recalled. “I think that was probably the scariest thing that ever happened to me when I was making a movie. I’m not sure I had time for fear, honestly.”
After Foster recovered from the attack, the Taxi Driver star shared that she had to continue working with the same lion, which ended up leading to a “scarier moment” later while filming.
“After I got out of the hospital, and it was deemed I was okay to work and everything, I went back to work with the same lion, but I was carrying a rooster,” Foster explained. “And the rooster was not used to working with this particular lion. And I saw the lion turn his head and kind of go like this, like maybe he was going to approach me or something, and I threw the rooster, and I ran. I think that’s probably a scarier moment.”
Napoleon and Samantha also starred Johnny Whitaker and Michael Douglas, and followed two young children who embark on a journey with a lion rather than part ways with the animal, who was once a circus performer.