Jodie Foster's 'Flightplan'

With almost 40 films and two Academy Awards to her credit, Jodie Foster seems to be one of the most selective actresses in Hollywood, starring in only three films in the past decade.

"For me, it has to be something that matters," she tells The Early Show co-anchor Rene Syler. "Something that really moves me in a very primal place in order to get me to kind of sacrifice my life for that amount of time. And by the way, when I'm not working, boy, time flies."

Foster is back on the big screen in the new psychological thriller "Flightplan," which opens nationwide on Friday, Sept. 23.

Foster stars as Kyle Pratt, a woman who is accompanying her dead husband's body on a trans-Atlantic trip from Berlin to the U.S. She ends up taking a nap, and when she wakes up on this plane, her 6-year-old daughter is missing.

"Nobody believes me" Foster says of her character. "She goes through a very interesting journey in the film. One of the most challenging that I've ever done, from trying to keep it together and trying not to become hysterical, to as time goes by, and she starts fearing for her daughter's safety and what might be happening to her, and sort of leading herself in some ways to a kind of madness."

On a personal note, Foster, who started her career when she was very young and managed by her mother, says if one of her children asked her about wanting to follow her in her footsteps, she would try to change the subject.

"I would say: How about those Mets!" she jokes. "I don't have any burning desire for [one of them] them to become an actor. Mostly because it is a tough life and most actors don't achieve a certain amount of success. I, of course, always wonder who I might have been, had I not been in the film business. If they said this is something we really want to do, I'd say, I'm with you. But I just want to be supportive. I don't want to be a part of your career. I would stay in the background and make sure they had somebody who was a part of their career, who we felt good about, who we trusted."

Even though she has won two Academy Awards and directed several well-recieved films, Foster does not consider herself a success.
"It's perhaps my nature that I feel like a failure a lot," she says. "Maybe that's what propels me forward to try harder, and try harder, and not let things go.

"But having kids gives you an identity - a part where you get to fail in some ways and be successful in other ways, but ultimately you look at them and you say, they don't really have anything to do with me. But I'm just so lucky to have been a part of their lives. You don't need that other identity that's dependent on whether people feel you're successful or not. It really is your own feelings about how the experience is."

Fast Facts About Jodie Foster:

• Born in Los Angeles, Calif., on Nov. 19, 1962
  Attended Lycee Francais in Los Angeles, Calif., in 1980. Graduated as class valedictorian. Attended Yale University in New Haven, Conn. Majored in literature and graduated magna cum laude in 1985. Her mother Brandy managed her through age 20.
• Foster began in commercials — most notably baring her buns at age three in a classic ad for Coppertone sun tanning products. She appeared as a regular and in guest shots in series TV and made several features for Disney.
• In 1976, she left an indelible impression with her controversial performance in "Taxi Driver" as the teenage prostitute who inspires Robert De Niro's deranged personal crusade. Foster followed that Oscar-nominated performance with appearances in several features including the gangster musical spoof "Bugsy Malone" playing Miss Tallulah, a bawdy speakeasy queen. The following year, she took the title role of a young murderer in "The Little Girl Who Lived Down the Lane."
• In 1980, she took the role of a teen runaway who joins up with a couple of carnival hustlers in "Carny." In 1981, she survived a spate of unwanted publicity surrounding John Hinckley Jr.'s assassination attempt on President Reagan, which he claimed was done to impress Foster.
• In 1984, while studying at Yale, she squeezed in appearances in films and TV, most notably as a member of an unconventional family in the film "The Hotel New Hampshire."
• In 1987, she worked in "Five Corners." In 1988 and 1991, she consolidated her reputation with Oscar-winning portrayals of a rape victim in "The Accused," and a rookie FBI agent in Jonathan Demme's psychological thriller, "The Silence of the Lambs" respectively.
• Also in 1991, she had her directorial debut with "Little Man Tate." Foster chose a subject close to home — a child prodigy who is caught in a tug-of-war between his working-class mother (played by Foster) and his teacher (Dianne Wiest).
• In 1992, Foster formed a three-year production deal with Polygram Filmed Entertainment, in which they were committed to financing three films (under her Egg Pictures banner) in the $25 million range and three in the $10 million to $15 million, plus an extra $10 million in print and promotion. One proviso was that Foster could choose whether to act in, direct or simply produce these films, gaining rare control and flexibility for an actor and a woman in Hollywood.
• The same year, she worked as a prostitute in Woody Allen's "Shadows and Fog," and played opposite Richard Gere in the costume drama, "Sommersby."
• In 1994, her screen leading man was Mel Gibson in the Western spoof "Maverick." Also in this year she had her first Egg Pictures effort, "Nell," in which she portrays a backwoods hermit who speaks in an invented tongue. Once again, Foster walked away with an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.
• In 1995, Foster made her second directorial effort (in which she did not appear) in the ensemble comedy "Home for the Holidays," about a recently fired woman who returns to her childhood home to celebrate Thanksgiving with her eccentric family. The film received mixed critical reviews, but Foster's sure handling of the actors (including Holly Hunter, Anne Bancroft and Robert Downey Jr.) was cited.
• In 1997, she returned to acting to tackle the role of a scientist who receives signals that may be from space aliens in "Contact."
• In 1999, she starred in the title role in "Anna and the King" for 20th Century Fox, with director Andy Tenant.
• In 2002, Foster produced and co-starred as a one-legged nun in "The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys" which premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. She also starred in David Fincher's box-office hit, "Panic Room."
• Most recently, Foster had a cameo appearance in Jean Pierre Jeunet's French language film, "A Very Long Engagement."