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Fresh Air Weekend: Jodie Foster; Tessa Thompson

Jodie Foster, shown here in 2025, plays an American Freudian psychoanalyst in Paris in Vie Privée (A Private Life).
Gareth Cattermole
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Getty Images North America
Jodie Foster, shown here in 2025, plays an American Freudian psychoanalyst in Paris in Vie Privée (A Private Life).

Fresh Air Weekend highlights some of the best interviews and reviews from past weeks, as well as new program elements specially paced for weekends. Our weekend show emphasizes interviews with writers, filmmakers, actors and musicians, and it often includes excerpts from live in-studio concerts. This week:

"My role was making movies that mattered," says Jodie Foster, as Taxi Driver turns 50: Foster was just 12 years old when she starred in the 1976 film. "What luck to have been part of that, our golden age of cinema in the '70s," she says. Her latest film is Vie Privée (A Private Life).

Hedda star Tessa Thompson wrestles with cynicism but chooses optimism: Thompson has the words "yes" and "no" tattooed on opposite arms. "I'm constantly wrestling with ... my cynicism and my optimism," she says. In addition to Hedda, she stars in the series His & Hers.

You can listen to the original interviews here:

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