Star search

NEW YORK -- A movie junket isn't a place where you'd expect people to get in touch with their spiritual sides, but Robert Zemeckis's adaptation of the late Carl Sagan's novel Contact begs certain questions. Like, do you believe in God? Can religion and science co-exist? Is there life on other planets? Would you sacrifice your life for the sake of ultimate truth? And how will Contact do mano a mano against Men in Black?

"You get these really good questions with this, don't you?" says Jodie Foster, whose astronomer Ellie Arroway picks up a signal from an alien civilization and is afforded an opportunity to pay them a visit. "I think that's the thing I love most about this movie. You go to a coffee shop to do friends and suddenly it sparks big questions about the meaning of life and things you don't usually dwell on.

"I don't follow any kind of traditional religion. I have a great respect for religions. But as far as in my own life I only have questions. Just as the character says in the movie, there is no evidence one way or the other that God exists. Though I do believe that needing the idea of a God is as instinctual and human as having to eat and sleep and make fire. As for extraterrestrial life, we would be foolish to believe that this small speck we inhabit is the only possible life. The numbers just aren't with that idea. But I have no idea what that means. And I haven't spotted any UFOs lately, so I don't fall into that category."

Given her sublunary troubles, Foster might have good reason to turn her gaze heavenward. Most recently her estranged brother Buddy published a book restoking the perennial rumors about her sexuality. ("I've already issued a statement on that," she answers tersely when asked about it. "I'm sure someone can look it up for you.") But would she be tempted by the chance offered her character in the movie? Would she voyage to Vega to attain superhuman knowledge even though what for her would be a matter of hours would be 50 years on earth, and everyone she knows will be dead on her return?

"I asked the scientists I interviewed for research the same question. I expected they would take a few minutes to think about it before answering. All right, I ask them, you're going on this mission, and you know for a fact that you're going to have to leave your family and friends and never see them again. But you have the opportunity to find out what's out there. And they always ask, `And report it back?' Yes, and report it back. If so, would you take it on? There's not a whisper of hesitation. Every single one of them says yes. I couldn't say that. I think it's because I'm not a scientist. If they couched it in different terms, that you have the opportunity of being part of some great creative enterprise that changes mankind and is the most volatile and incredible experience you ever had, would you leave this world and never come back, I would probably say yes."

Meanwhile, Foster tries to attain that "great creative enterprise" in more mundane ways, producing, directing, and acting in films that reflect her own preoccupations. "I just keep making the same movie over and over again. The theme of abandonment is a really big one for me. The moment in Nell when she sits on the end of a jetty and realizes that she's lost someone and that she will never be the same. That's the same journey Ellie takes. You can say your dad is dead and accept it intellectually. But it's a much longer journey to finally be able to let go and say goodbye. I know that's a personal thing for me, not wanting to say goodbye. And the orphan thing, and the impossibility of communication.

"I get to live on screen things that I don't get to live in my own life. Things I wonder about, wonder how I would react, would I survive this situation. It's a kind of shadow play. I get to act out things that I don't feel brave about."

-- Peter Keough