Jodie Foster, 1979

Yes I suspect she did. Her response about being too busy to date is classic “I’m gay/lesbian” code to avoid uncomfortable questions. Saorse Ronan said the same thing a few years back.

I remember watching some early aughts E! true Hollywood story (before she officially came out but we all knew), where one of the commentators said “I remember she had a pretty big crush on Scott Baio” (they were in Foxes together). I guess that was a Kristen Stewart type coupling the press tried to manufacture at the time? Lol.

Though I’m not really sure why anyone was trying to convince the E! Viewing audience of that 20/25 years later.

I certainly wish she'd told me.

In or out, she had great hair.

She is incredibly cool and intelligent for a 17 year old. I'm sure she knew she was gay and carefully answered that she would like someone (no pronouns) that understood her business. It wasn't evasive, she gave an honest answer. Besides, she was 17 and it was 1979. Most teenagers I knew didn't know who they were at that age. She was legendary for being extremely bright even when she was much younger. Casting directors for the musical film Tom Sawyer said that when she came in to read, she was "like a 40 year old women in the body of an eleven year old girl". Serious and no nonsense, they were blown away.

Buddy knew.

Quentin Tarantino based a character in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood on Jodie Foster. The character is the precocious child actress named, humorously, "Trudi Fraser". Jodie did several episodes of Gunsmoke when she was only 9 in the late 60's. Tarantino wanted to contrast his aging TV star (Leo, reading a trashy pulp novel) with a bright serious young intellectual child actress named Trudi (reading an adult book, a biography of Walt Disney). Very effective scene and a nod to Jodie, who would have been working on TV westerns the time.

She was 17 at the time of the interview so I assume she knew. I knew when I was 12 or so. I don't really understand how homosexuals can not know by the time they are teenagers. The people that discover they are gay in their twenties and beyond blow my mind.

Her brother Buddy outed her in a book he wrote by saying that she hung out with women quite a bit, some of them quite butch. It was kind of all there.

Buddy also mentioned that Jodie actually did date some guys, so it seems it wasn't all show.

You know as soon as you find yourself sexually attracted. I was in 5th grade.

Most gay men and women have dated the opposite sex at some point. High School dances and the Prom come to mind.

I suppose it depends on your family situation, your religious beliefs and your career choices.

As we all know the closet kills. I'm glad Jodie (who I admire) has been able to navigate Hollywood, remain private and become very successful.