The 50 Smartest People In Hollywood

30. JODIE FOSTER

AGE 45
JOB TITLE Actor/director
SMART BECAUSE She has refused to conform to conventional ideas of female stardom. Foster's one of the most consistently bankable actresses, but she's never gotten stuck playing the lovesick beauty or cute comedienne. Instead, she's forged a cinematic archetype all her own: the female action hero who out-thinks the bad guys. Although The Brave One scared off audiences, Foster opened Panic Room and Flightplan on her star power alone, and she continues to have the field all to herself.
BOOK SMART, TOO At Yale, wrote her thesis on the novels of Nobel laureate Toni Morrison.