Jodie Foster stars as the antagonist in Neill Blomkamp's "Elysium," making her one of the few female villains on screen this summer. In a new interview with EW.com, however, Blomkamp revealed that Foster's character was initially written as a male, before he had a change of heart. It was then that Foster entered into his thinking for the role.
“I thought, 'That would be f--king awesome, but there's just no way,” Blomkamp said about casting Foster. "But then, within, like, a day I had a meeting with her and she said, 'I want to play it.' I was like, 'Holy sh-t!'"
The news that Foster's character in "Elysium" was initially written for a man might have surprised the actress. In an interview with Movieline at the 2012 edition of Comic-Con, Foster said the part "pretty much was" always a woman.
"I think genre films, because they have to, usually paint things much more in black and white, whether it’s women or not women, because the storytelling in ways is a lot more primitive," Foster said.
Foster isn't the first actress this summer to play a character originally written for a man; Helen Mirren's role in "Monsters University" was also male, before the part changed genders in the development process.
For more on "Elysium," head to EW.com.
[via EW]
