Every now and then, you find a reason why you do what you do and you look for these moments to keep you going, whether it is personally or professionally. This interview you’re about to read with Jodie Foster; it’s up there. It’s way up there as one of those moments.

In my experience, when A-list actors do general press junkets, they tend to be really closed off, tight-mouthed with hashed out rehearsed answers, or so concerned with their own time that they only want to do a press conference or a short 10 minute interview to a room of packed journalists. Thus, you never know what to bring or prepare for these events.

To very much her credit, Jodie Foster was every junket reporter’s dream. In addition to her willingness to speak to small groups of writers (it was pretty much me, Devin from CHUD.com, and another reporter at my table), Jodie was quite forthcoming, radiant, and happy to speak about everything, which is very rare for a celebrity of her caliber to be at 9 am in the morning. In another junket rarity, we also had plenty of time to speak to her which commands a lot of respect, as most celebrities tend to not want to give writers the time of day anymore.

Jodie stars in “Flightplan,” her first major role since 2001’s “Panic Room.” Having lost her husband in an unfortunate accident, Kyle Pratt (Foster) decides to move back to the United States with her daughter. As an aeronautical engineer, she helped with the design of Aalto Air’s E-474 jumbo jet – a plane in which she and her daughter boards to travel back to the States. But after an innocent quick nap, Kyle awakes to find that her daughter is missing. When nobody on the plane seems to remember ever seeing Kyle’s daughter, the mystery 37,000 feet high begins and a mother’s search for her daughter – or her sanity – begins.

Below, Jodie talks about her new thriller as well as her career, both past and present.

Q: The movie deals with a mother’s fear of losing a child and so being a parent yourself, did that help fuel your emotions?

JODIE: It’s hard but you just got to do it. Drink some coffee, drink some water, eat some food, then you go do it. It’s pretty much it.

Q: Your character’s very cerebral, but very emotional and high strung. Did that appeal to you at all?

JODIE: Yeah, and also she’s a pretty heavy person. She’s a very capable person. I liked the fact that she is continually tries to stay on top of herself, and they continually project hysterical, hysterical, hysterical. There’s a wonderful progress to the character because she goes from not being hysterical and “I’m going to be logical, polite” and as time goes on, her most primal instincts come out. In this place of final desperation, for a split second, you question your own insanity because the grief is so intense. When she gets to the other side of that, then all the politeness sneaks away and she’s able to take down anybody in her path. So I had to follow that as an actor and the script had to architect you on that.

It’s not like “Panic Room,” where it was more of a visual thriller. It was more about the camera and how where the camera moves and how the characters move in that space. This is really all about this person’s psyche and the point of view of this film is really her psyche’s point of view. The architecture of the story is her architecture.

Q: “Panic Room” and “Flightplan” have some similarities in that they’re both about a confined space, and also a mother saving her daughter. Is that maternal instinct something you’re more interested in exploring now that you are a mother?

JODIE: I think anybody over 30 plays parents because it happens in your thirties and so that’s kind of a natural progression. But I’m definitely drawn to it. It’s probably the most intense, passionate thing that happens to you as you get older

But the confined space, I enjoyed in both films. They’re both very different films. I enjoyed it in both because it means you can’t cheat. You can cut [here], and then cut to somewhere else. In order to transition the film and give the film its tone, it has to live on its own. The characters have to take you from feeling to feeling. There’s a real discipline to it. It’s almost like a thriller.

Q: Are you a good flyer?

JODIE: Oh I go to sleep right away. I’m a really good flyer. I like airplanes.

Q: How do you personally respond to high stress levels?

JODIE: I stay really calm. I’m a really calm, cool one. I sometimes lose it when it has to do with kids. But in any situation, I’m like the perfect police officer. “License and registration, please.” [Laughs] One of those.

Q: So how would you deal with that worry of not knowing where a child is?

JODIE: You develop a third eye where you kind of know where they are in a room at all times but no matter how vigilant you are as a parent, at some point, you’ll look around a room and can’t find them and there’s a searing pain that goes through your body. It’s a weird thing that happens to your breath.

Q: “Panic Room” was the last major film you did besides your cameo in “A Very Long Engagement.” You don’t work as often anymore do you?

JODIE: Nope, I don’t.

Q: Is it because you’re committed to motherhood or because you’re very choosy about the projects you attach yourself to now?

JODIE: It’s definitely a lot of things. My kids are young and my life with them is really stimulating and really full and significant. For something to take me away from them, it has to be something equally as significant and it hasn’t always been like that because I’ve worked for 40 years. In my 20s, I would have had different priorities. It’s natural to have different priorities. But it’s also partly that I’m picky because I am now over 40 and there’s less parts so I only want to do the ones that really move me.

Q: You once mentioned that you really like “Bugsy Malone” and it doesn’t seem like a film that you’d say something like that about…

JODIE: Really?

Q: Well it’s a really weird film.

JODIE: It is really weird.

Q: Are there any other films in your career you’re particularly proud of that most people would not know?

JODIE: I’m trying to think of something that got lost….”Bugsy” is probably the one. You know, I love “The Hotel of New Hampshire.” It’s an acquired taste, that film. I think it made people feel uncomfortable because like most John Irving things, it has a fantastical element and also a mundane element to it and you don’t know which one you’re in at all times. I love that about that film and I have such fond memories of it.

Q: You tend to play characters that are really strong and so when you seek roles, do you think about running into the danger of repeating yourself?

JODIE: It is hard. But also, as time goes on, you realize that you are better cast for certain things more than others. There are some movies that you’re not that well cast for anymore. Maybe in your 20s, because people bring baggage to it, there’s a wider range of things you can do. When you’re older, you know about the things that you’re good at.

Q: But do you think it’s an actor’s responsibility to be able to choose their character?

JODIE: I think in life you do. I feel that way but I know some people who don’t. I think an artist’s responsibility is more complex than people realize. It’s not just, “I’m going to make movies that appeal to socially appropriate issues.” I think it’s a more complex question. I’m developing a movie where the issue “Where does the moral responsibility of an artist?” comes up. Is it art for art’s sake? Or do you have to take into consideration the social impact of what you do.

Q: Have you been able to answer that for yourself?

JODIE: For me, definitely. I try to, hopefully, make people better and not worse, and you start with yourself. You hope your movie encourages people to be more involved, more open and better. You want to leave your movie after 55 days of shooting and feel like you’re a better person and not a worse person and that’s your first impulse. Strangely, the first impulse is selfish. But it’s good to be selfish because hopefully if you’re an evolved person, then it extends to everybody else.

Q: It’s interesting that you mention celebrity because you can be put in another box where you are a former child actress that has really made a career for yourself and in that sense, you’ve become a role model. So do you feel that burden in having to live up to that?

JODIE: Yes and no. I want to be inspiring to myself, to my kids, my family, and my friends. Sometimes I make mistakes and do bad things but that’s part of the process too. But I don’t know about being a role model because that always makes me nervous.

Q: Well it is a lot of pressure…

JODIE: Yeah, and I’m an idiot. [laughs]

Q: How do you look back on those movies when you were a child?

JODIE: It’s kind of funny. It’s like looking at a scrapbook. The movies I made when I was 14 or 15, I have a hard time looking at those. Those were the awkward years. I don’t know if anybody can look at something they did when they were 14 and not wince.

Q: Looking back at your films, some of your roles were young, sensual characters, like the child prostitute in “Taxi Driver” or the forward teenager in “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore.” How did that work for you at a younger age?

JODIE: I went to private school and wore a uniform. I wasn’t sheltered because I saw everything and knew everything. But I was raised very conservatively and it definitely didn’t trick over into my own life at all. It’s like reading a book and interpreting a book. I always knew the distinction between real life and acting. I’ll never have a problem distinguishing between the two.

Q: What does it take to act at such an early age?

JODIE: I don’t know. You hope not because it would be a really tough road for a kid. The thing about child actors is that you either have the weird personality that can do it and remain well adjusted and have a real strength of character, or you just don’t have that make up. It’s kind of like being an astronaut; some people can handle zero gravity, some people can’t. So some people can handle the solitude and some people can’t. I guess I could. I could handle it.

Q: Did going to school and having a normal childhood help with that? Because a lot of child actors don’t do that anymore.

JODIE: It’s understandable that they would because those are your prime years. If you really are passionate about acting, you want to be acting. I didn’t feel very passionate about acting when I was in my teens. I thought I wanted to do other things. Acting was never something like “I have to do it.” I didn’t choose it so it really wasn’t my personality. I did films because I loved making movies, and I love movies. I love the language of films and I would be just happy being a technician or a theatre director. Just to be involved with films.

Q: Do you feel like there are more opportunities available nowadays for older actresses?

JODIE: No. There’s definitely less roles for you when you get older. The same is true with men too. You write a book, you usually write about the ages between 20 and 35. In terms of box-office and demographics, those are the kinds of people that see the movies and want to see themselves reflected. It’s totally normal that things slow down as you get older.

Q: What do you still want to accomplish professionally?

JODIE: As a director, there’s everything I want to do because I’ve only directed two movies. I’m just at the beginning of my career as a director. But as an actor, I have specific things. I’d like to do something where I had to learn something hard. Like three months before, learn how to play a violin or throw a javelin, or shotput or something. Something you would never know any other way.

"Flightplan" opens in theaters this Friday.