She's a veritable child of cinema.

Mention the name Jodie Foster and don't you feel a tinge of kinship, don't you feel like she's a distant relative, a little sister or a big sister depending on which side of the G-gap you're in (Jodie is 37), an ate or a tita or simply an iha, words very often used (and abused?) in showbiz?

You and I saw her grow up right under our very noses, right before our very eyes, and how thrilled we all were watching her do so in such films as Napoleon and Samantha (when she was eight years old), Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) and especially in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976) where, at barely 13, she played a streetwise teenager and made the whole world take a second, closer, lingering look at her.

And then she started growing up, turning in heavier and more passionate performances in many other films, including The Accused (1988, as a rape survivor) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991), as a plucky special agent) which earned her two Best Actress Oscars.

Today, also a founder of her own Egg Pictures, Jodie is considered one of the most powerful, most influential, most popular and highest-paid actors in Hollywood, a place much too public and too transparent for a very private person like her.

Jodie has just wrapped her latest movie, 20th Century Fox's Anna and the King, playing the English tutor Anna Leonowens, with Chinese superstar Chow Yun-Fat as King Mongkut and Andy Tenant of Ever After fame as director. A non-musical like the first two films on the King of Siam (1946's Anna and the King of Siam with Rex Harrison and Irene Dunne and 1956's Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I with Yul Brynner and Deborah Kerr), Anna and the King was filmed for about six months in Malaysia under a killing 120-degree (fahrenheit) temperature, after the Thai government turned down the request to shoot in Thailand (the film has been banned in Thailand for, according to the Thai censors, putting the King of Siam in an unfavorable light.)

20th Century Fox built a king's palace sprawled over a 350-acre property at the Clearwater Sanctuary Golf Resort which became home for the cast -- including dozens of kids as the King's children and animals ruled by elephants -- and crew during the shooting.

Conversations pinned down Jodie for a one-on-one during a recent press junket for the movie in Los Angeles. Excerpts:

What Thai words did you learn while doing Anna and the King?

(Breaking into smile) "No, not a word. Oh, I can say `Thank you!' and `Please' but that's about it."

What made you relate to the Anna Leonowens character?

"Hmmmm... You know, I guess... like many of my characters... her strength, her great strength. And she's really stubborn! The same qualities that I probably have that I can relate to in the movie. You have to remember that she came from a different time. She's Victorian and she's English, which makes her very different from me. She was a very unconventional woman in a very conventional time. There were so many things she wanted to do but the social mores at that time wouldn't let her."

How do you usually study for your role? Do you do research?

"Every movie is different; some demand more research than others. But I'm not the kind of actor who over-researches, you know. For the role of Anna Leonowens, I did a lot of reading. Finally, I think you just have to embrace the customs and the time and feel it through."

I understand that you went through Anna Leonowens' diary. What startling discoveries, if any, did you make?

"Well, you know... she was very intolerant, very judgmental. What's interesting is her great interest in other cultures and that must because she loved to travel. She took Sanskrit, Hindu and many different languages, including a bit of Arabic. There's a side of her that's adventurous and wild, and then another side that was completely conventional."

In some scenes, Anna Leonowens shows signs of softness, especially in her tender moments with King Mongkut.

(Smiling again) "You know, I'm not as brittle. I'm pretty well-honed, I think."

Being a director yourself, do you give an input when somebody else is directing you?

"Acting and directing are two different kinds of passion. My job as an actress is to serve the director and to try to focus only on my performance because I can't control the rest of the movie; I have to deliberately try to stop myself from getting too involved in the whole film. Otherwise, I'd just be disappointed, you know. So I really, really try to honor the line between the actor and the director."

Of course, it's a different story altogether if you're the director of the movie.

"When I make my own movies, of course, the vision is my vision and it has everything to do with what I believe in, with what I know in my life, the paintings I've seen and the places I've been to, my own sort of language, my music. So, yes, the movie takes on a much more personal vision."

There are reports that you were paid $15 million for this movie...

(Very reluctantly) "You know, I never comment on my salary. Other people will comment on my salary but I never will."

What do you do with all that money?

(Still very reluctantly, almost refusing to answer) "I don't live any differently today than I did before... Well, it's not true. Nothing has changed in my life. I don't eat in fancy restaurants. It's nice to eat, you can ask everyone, but I don't eat in fancy restaurants."

But it's general knowledge that you're one of the richest (and most influential) stars in Hollywood today.

(Smiling as if it's all a big joke) "Who said that? Forbes? Oh, God!"

I guess it's true!

"Well, you know, what that means is that it's like a banking position... like a collateral for a car (loan). You do have to think of yourself as a financial institution. So, for example, the reason why they say I'm powerful (and how much money I would and do make) has something to do with the amount of money they can guarantee (to lend) based on my signature."

Yes, bankability!

"So if they can get me to be in a movie, it means they can go take a loan out. And the reason isn't because I make 10 movies a year and because I'm so fabulous, no, it's not. In fact, I make very, very few films. But the films that I make perform. My strategy is different from that of other actors who would rather do five or more movies a year. I don't care if I have to wait 10 years; I only make movies that I really love and I really believe in. It just means that my track record, my average, comes out better."

You worked with a lot of kids in Anna and the King. Obviously, you love kids.

"I've always liked kids, I've always loved working with kids! They are so true and so natural, and they can't be bribed. That's so nice with kids. If they do it, if they throw spaghetti for the 50th time, they do it because they want to. And if on the second day they don't want to throw it anymore, they don't and there's nothing you can do to make them do it. That's what I like about children. It really requires a lot more you to have a much truer relationship with actors."

I read somewhere that your son Charles (almost two-years old) was with you in Malaysia during the shooting?

(Breaking into motherly smile) "Oh, he loved it there! He didn't come to the set every single day because it was very hot. But when he did, he loved playing with the other kids."

How was it like working with all those animals, especially the elephants?

"They were amazing! The elephants were the best actors. They were always on time; they did exactly what they were told to do. They were just amazing; they were incredible animals! That was the great surprise of the movie."

What kind of projects does your company prefer?

"You know, we do all sorts of things. I've moved from being an independent producer to being a major producer, so that changed a bit the kind of material we're looking for. We'll be doing more mainstream movies. It makes me sad because, you know, I love independent films which are really hard to get off the ground. You know, we have different kinds of movies; we have a very mainstream comedy (Maverick) with myself and Mel Gibson, an incredible psychological drama (coming soon!) with Al Pacino, and a tiny wonderful movie that's half-animated (a very irreverent film by a very irreverent director)."

What about reprising your role as Special Agent Clarice Starling in Hannibal, the sequel to The Silence of the Lambs (probably with Anthony Hopkins still playing the title role)? Is it true that you have turned it down?

"No, I haven't turned it down. I haven't even seen the script yet. I will make a decision after I read the script. But I won't play (Clarise Starling) with negative traits that she'd never have. I think Anthony Hopkins feels the same way. He will also decide only after he reads the script. But I guess we're both looking forward to doing the movie. We really would like it to happen."

Do you like the book (Hannibal)?

"I don't like to comment about the book."

Does it distract you if you direct and act in a movie?

"Yeah, I think it does. I did it in Little Man Tate and I think it worked okay there. But then, it's just very destructive. When you finally get to the cutting room, you realize that you didn't get the kind of performance that somebody else would have got out of you."

How do you feel when you're watching your (own) movie?

(Laughing a bit) "As an actor, I almost don't watch my own movies, although sometimes I catch one or two on television."

In what movie do you think you did your best performance?

"I think the best that I ever did was in Taxi Driver (with Robert de Niro as co-star). It was a difficult performance."

I wonder, have you seen the first two films about Anna Leonowens and King Mongkut?

"Yul Brynner was wonderful in The King and I; it was a great movie, a great Hollywood musical. But we felt that there's a story that has never been told before about the real Siam the Mongkut, the great historical leader. We've taken a lot of license on the story of King Mongkut, you know, that he had a regal presence, that he was such a powerful leader."

If you were not an actress, what would you have been?

"I like to think that I would have been a teacher or a... yeah... something like that, I think, where you are in a leadership position."

Just like Anna Leonowens in the movie?

"What do you mean just like Anna Leonowens? No, maybe something like a professor in a university." (Jodie graduated with honors from Yale University in 1984, earning a B.A. in Literature. -- RFL)

Does your college degree in any way help (enhance) your work as an actress?

"Hollywood is filled with Ivy League graduates, I must point it out... But, you know, acting is not an intellectual job, so I don't think that my intelligence is necessary in my work as an actor. I have to put it some place else in order for me to do what I have to do."

Does it work the same way when you're the director of the movie?

"No, I'm talking about myself as an actor. The acting process is really emotional and physical, and sometimes being intellectual gets in the way."

Are you aware of your image as a, well, strong-willed actor?

(Smiling and then laughing) "Oh, yeah, I know that I have this image of being... a smart ass. I think it's because I like to talk. When I was a little girl, my mother asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up and I said, `I want to be a professional talker!' And I realized that I became one. I just love to talk, to speak up!"

Having started in showbiz at the age of three, don't you feel that you've been deprived somehow of part of your childhood?

"I don't think I've deprived myself of anything. Mine was just a different childhood from that of other kids. If I were the daughter of a diplomat assigned in Venezuela, I would have had a different childhood. Mine wasn't a normal childhood, maybe, but it was a very healthy one."

Would you allow your kid to join showbiz?

"Of course, I would! I'll give him choices in the same way that my mother gave me choices. My mother at first was hesitant to let me enter showbiz because she thought acting was an unstable job. But I'm doing well and I`m happy being an actress."

How would you compare the thrill of winning an Oscar and the thrill of having a child? (Note: Jodie is mum on the identity of her child's father.)

"The intensity is the same. But the thrill of winning an Oscar lasts for about a day while the thrill of having a child lasts for a lifetime, I guess."

How are you able to draw a line between your personal life and your professional life?

"It's hard but you just have to try. It's not easy growing up in the public eyes, like I and JFK did. But you just have to try to keep a piece of yourself to yourself."

Would you exchange your kind of life now with perhaps a less-public one?

(Breaking into a wide, wide smile) "No. I wouldn't exchange it for anything!"

In a few words, how would Jodie Foster describe Jodie Foster?