Jodie Foster serves as the model for all child stars who want to keep their Hollywood careers thriving. Foster once admitted she had her share of shaky off-screen moments as a teenage actress, but thankfully the paparazzi were not so interested then in documenting the starlet's missteps.

Although her best-known early role was Taxi Driver, she has actually been in the public eye since the age of three. Commercials came first, then assorted television parts and eventually two best actress Academy Awards.

Now 45, Foster is making a marked departure from the moody dramas that have traditionally been her bread and butter with Nim's Island, a family action comedy. Foster plays the ironically reclusive writer of wild adventure tales. She reluctantly joins Nim, played by young Abigail Breslin, on a hunt for the girl's missing father on a remote island. Foster is currently looking to work on her third film as a director, while raising two young sons with her partner, Cydney Bernard.

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Q - Did it feel strange to act silly in Nim's Island?

Foster - Yeah, but I think silly is good. You're looking for that. What's interesting to me with this movie is that I find myself talking about things like her fear and this sort of solitary world that she's created, finding a hero in yourself. Those are all themes that I've played in dramas many, many times, very dark dramas, and here I am doing a comedy about them. It's kind of like making fun of your most precious thing. You're making fun of the little fragile parts of yourself. You have to have an ability to make fun of yourself in order to be a comedic actor.

Q - Is there anything you would not do for a laugh in a movie?

Foster - I'm sure there's plenty of Jim Carrey-esque stuff that I'm not sure I'd be well equipped to do, that my sons just love. I like physical comedy, but I like wit. I like scripts that have a wit to them, a wit to the language and a wit to the timing. So I'm not sure I would be funny in, like, a silent movie, for example. I think my humour is kind of language-based, but my natural humour is sort of dry and nasty and kind of R-rated, a little.