Jodie Foster reveals why she told her children she was a 'construction worker' when they were younger

Jodie Foster is one the all-time greats in the film industry and Hollywood, though she didn't want her children knowing her occupation when they were younger.

The 61-year-old was nominated for an Oscar at the very young age of 14 for her depiction as a victim of child sexual abuse in Martin Scorsese’s 1976 classic film Taxi Driver.

And since then, Foster's impressive career has only gone from strength to strength.

Despite all that success, Foster wanted her sons to have as normal of a life as possible despite having a famous mother.

Speaking on Friday's The View panel, the Silence of Lambs star admitted how she hid her career from her now-adult sons when they were younger as she didn't want it to impact how they viewed her.

She explained: "I guess I just didn’t want them to know me that way. I wanted them to know me as their mom and the person who went away to work and stuff.

"I just didn’t want them to be confused about what I did for a living."

Foster did bring her older son, Charles 'Charlie' Bernard Foster, now 25, to set with her when he was just three.

However, the boys spent their early years believing their mom was in fact a construction worker.

“I brought him to set one day and I bought him a little plastic tool belt and stuff,” she recalled.

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"And I was like, ‘Yeah, and this is this set and this set and this set.’ And for a really long time, he thought I was a construction worker."

Foster did not specify when her children clocked onto the fact she was in fact a worldwide name instead of a construction worker, though Charlie has since followed in his mother's footsteps, doing theater all throughout school.

Foster's latest interview comes as she opened up on working with the Gen-Z.

In an interview with the Guardian, Foster admitted that she finds the Gen Z 'really annoying', adding that she found it difficult to understand the generation's attitude to work.

“They’re really annoying, especially in the workplace,” she said.

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"They’re like: ‘Nah, I’m not feeling it today, I’m gonna come in at 10.30am.’ Or in emails, I’ll tell them: this is all grammatically incorrect, did you not check your spelling?

"And they’re like: ‘Why would I do that, isn’t that kind of limiting?’”

When asked what she thought young people in the industry needed to hear, the actor said: "They need to learn how to relax, how to not think about it so much, how to come up with something that’s theirs.

"I can help them find that, which is so much more fun than being, with all the pressure behind it, the protagonist of the story."