Jodie Foster Details Getting Mauled by a Lion While Filming Disney Movie
What To Know
- Jodie Foster revealed she was mauled by a lion while filming the 1972 Disney movie Napoleon and Samantha.
- The attack occurred after filming a scene and was not captured on camera.
- Despite the traumatic incident, Foster returned to work with the same lion, experiencing another close call while carrying a rooster on set.
Jodie Foster recently detailed getting mauled by a lion while filming the 1972 Disney film Napoleon and Samantha.
During an interview with W magazine in January, the former child star, now 63, opened up about the terrifying experience.
“I was mauled by a lion when I was 8 and a half or 9,” Foster revealed. “The lion picked me up, shook me around, moved me horizontally, and then dropped me.”
“I had two perfect punctures on one side and then two perfect punctures on the other, on my hip,” she said of the scars the incident with the lion left behind. “But as the years have gone on and we get bigger, you know, who even knows where they are anymore. They kind of just move around.”
Jodie Foster and Johnny Whitaker in ‘Napoleon and Samantha’ (Everett Collection)
Additionally, Foster confessed that she was “in shock,” so she doesn’t really remember much about the lion attack. She recalled the trainer saying, “Drop it,” and then the animal dropped her out of its mouth as other crew members ran away.
The incident was not captured on film, she explained, because the lion attack happened after the shot was over.
The close calls with the lion didn’t end there for Foster.
“After I got out of the hospital and it was deemed I was OK to work and everything, I went back to work with the same lion, but I was carrying a rooster,” she recalled. “And the rooster was not used to working with this particular lion. And I saw the lion, like turn his head… like maybe he was going to approach me or something. And I threw the rooster, and I ran.”
“I think that was probably the scariest thing that ever happened to me when I was making a movie, “she confessed.
The logline for Napoleon and Samantha reads, per IMDb, “Two young children, who, rather than part with an old pet lion who was once a circus performer, go on a perilous mountain trek to stay with a recluse friend.”
In addition to Foster as Samantha, the film starred Johnny Whitaker as Napoleon. It also featured Michael Douglas, Will Greer, Arch Johnson, and Henry Jones, among others—and of course, Zamba as Major the Lion.