Ever since the double Oscar-winning Jodie Foster astounded movie audiences with her perceptive interpretation of a hooker at the tender age of 13, in Taxi Driver, she's been talked about. And the buzz over the past few months has been about her next film and what it's going to be.

The interest in Jodie has been heightened by her decision to "stay off the screen for a full year" while devoting herself to setting up her company, Egg Pictures, and developing projects.

And that year of temporary retirement is now fast running out. With no new picture yet announced, Hollywood can only guess...

Up until now Jodie has kept very quiet about her plans, biding her time and no doubt preparing a celluloid surprise to take her career even further into the Hollywood stratosphere as one of its top actresses — and directors, as Little Man Tate has proved.

She has quietly but efficiently formed her own production company, with the idea, she says, of getting "female-driven projects off the ground with greater control."

Gifted and bright as a button, Jodie is also known to be an active feminist. She also speaks French fluently, and even starred in a French film, delivering her own dialogue. She has won two Oscars for Best Actress, which puts her in the same league as Bette Davis and Katherine Hepburn.

Now in her early thirties, Jodie is Hollywood's top female star under the age of 40. She is also one of that rare breed, a born and bred Hollywoodian. (She grew up in the Hollywood Hills.) Because of her background, neither Hollywood nor her status as a star impresses her.

She is at present estimated to be worth over $30 million, yet off-screen she lives in a modest, sparsely furnished two-bedroom house out in the hot and dusty San Fernando Valley — and she lives alone. No secretary, not even a maid. She brings her own packed lunch to the studio every day and she avoids fancy restaurants.

Is it true that you do your own cleaning and dusting around your house?

Yes, I don't like to have anybody around me when I'm at home. I never have things delivered. I run my own errands. I don't like people just coming to my house.

Not even friends?

That's different. I have about ten close friends but we are beginning to get sick of each other's company, being at dinner or parties together. I'm trying to make some changes in this area, too. Make new friends, more friends.

There was a time when you seemed to suffer from negative feelings about your self-image. Do these still apply?

I think I'm intelligent enough, but there was a time when for some reason I didn't think I was smart enough. I didn't dress well enough. I thought I was not good-looking enough, that I wasn't 'in' enough.

Even when you do get hip enough, then they change it...and you've got to be even hipper. I couldn't keep up with it. But now I don't bother about it anymore.

So you're not too impressed with Hollywood?

Why should I be? I grew up on the movies as a natie of the Hollywood Hills. There was no way I could escape it — acting, I mean.

How did you feel about yourself as a child in Hollywood? Very few people in the industry were actually born there.

I think personalities develop very early anywhere. I am basically the same person I was at 12, 13 or nine. I had tremendous responsibility, financial and otherwise, for my family.

I never perceived myself as a kid. I saw myself as a small human being walking around. For me getting attention was getting straight A's in school, speaking a different language such as French, knowing about things, being on time. How can you rebel against your parents, when you are the parents?

Did the fact that you didn't win a Best Director Oscar for 'Little Man Tate' come as a big disappointment to you?

No. I was more disappointed that Little Man Tate didn't fare better at the box office, especially in the light of the success of films with boy characters. But it's all part of the learning process and, after all, I did win an Oscar for Silence of the Lambs, and an Oscar is an Oscar! No matter how you get it!

But were you hoping at least to receive a nomination as Best Director?

I was half expecting to be nominated for direction, but that was not too realistic. After all, everybody knows that no American woman has ever — ever! — been nominated for directing a film. That is Hollywood.

You took some time off from film work right after 'Silence of the Lambs' and winning your second Oscar. Why?

I figure winning two Oscars gives you a lot of personal security, so I'm not worrying. I figure I can afford to take time off. I mean, some people criticise me, sure, because I'm doing it again. The Hollywood attitude is: Strike while the iron is hot. I don't necessarily believe in that. After Sommersby I decided to set an entire year aside just for myself.

Why did you decide to form your own production company, Egg Pictures?

I won't land in that Hollywood trap where actors are told you can't do this picture or thatt picture, you're not the type, or you're too old, and then they, sometimes foolishly, go out to prove that they can. I know my limitations. I think I'm intelligent enough to know what I can do and what I can't do, but I don't want anybody to tell me that I can't when I know I can. And female stars often have pretty little control over what roles they play. That is something I don't want either. I like to make my own decisions.

So you feel that female actors are often short changed in the industry?

Isn't it obvious? No woman ever gets to play the role of a mythological prince who goes out to slay the dragon and is better at the end of the tale. No woman lands such a role unless she goes out and produces the film herself. There should be more goodwill towards women and we should learn more about the industry itself.

How you feel about film acting in general?

It is very intense for me. When I work, I really work, but I try never to take my work home. When I leave a set or location, I try to return to myself, to get away from the character and her fictitious set of problems.

Which of your film roles to date do you consider to be the most demanding?

The Accused. Without a doubt! Making the film was the hardest period of my life — professionally speaking. That rape scene was very demanding on my vulnerability. I had to peel away the layer of protectiveness that people in Hollywood have so many of.

I had to strip myself emotionally and I didn't like that. It wasn't comfortable for me but I knew it was imperative for the role and the film. Doing the rape scene was a new and very negative experience for me, but it was also a high point for me as an actor.

There are certain aspects of your private life you will not talk about.

If you give people too much information, it comes back to haunt you. Hollywood can and will use every bit of information against you.

These days you can choose your own projects as you did with 'Little Man Tate.' And the offers also keep coming. How do you see your own career in the future? What do you really want?

I want the best of both worlds. I want to pick the best I'm offered, and I do get good offers, interesting material, dramatic material.

They don't see me as a comedy star while I enjoy good comedy. I'm not eager to do it myself. I realise that I have a heavier personality, more drama-oriented. I don't think of myself as Meryl Streep, but I'm content to keep exploring complex female characters.

Is there one aspect of Hollywood you definitely dislike?

Yes, all the talk, talk, talk. There are too many people in this town today who know nothing about what movies are really about. To me making films is getting up at six in the morning and then going to work...and really work. Talking about it doesn't figure in my book. It doesn't really mean anything.

How would you define the art of being an actor?