Jodie Foster's kids didn't know she was an actress growing up - you'll never guess what they thought she did

Jodie Foster's kids have mostly kept out of the spotlight, with only rare photos of them joining her during award season. But it seems that while raising her two sons, the two-time Oscar winner was reluctant to let them know of her incredible career.

While appearing on The View, Jodie revealed that she had hidden her acting career from her kids when they were growing up because she didn't want it to impact how they view her.

© Eric Charbonneau

The 61-year-old explained that she "didn't want them to know me that way". 

"I wanted them to know me as their mom and the person who went away to work and stuff", she said, before adding: "I just didn’t want them to be confused about what I did for a living."

In fact, it seems that her sons didn't have a clue what she did at all - they actually thought their mom was a construction worker.

© Bruce Glikas

The Silence of the Lambs actress revealed that when she brought her son Charlie to set with her when he was three, making sure that he had toys to play with while she was working, he just thought she must work in construction. 

"I brought him to set one day and I bought him a little plastic tool belt and stuff," she recalled. "And I was like, 'Yeah, and this is this set and this set and this set.' And for a really long time, he thought I was a construction worker."

© Variety

Now, her sons are fully grown up, as Charlie is 25 and Kit is 22, there is no confusion as to what their mom does - they are fully aware of her talent. 

The boys, who she shares with former partner Cydney Bernard, have followed in their mom's footsteps in their own ways. Charlie, like Jodie, graduated from Yale and it's believed he is aspiring to be an actor. Meanwhile Kit has also gone down the Ivy League route as he is set to graduate from Princeton later this year with a degree in Chemistry.

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But despite the boys clearly taking inspiration from their mom, the Taxi Driver star revealed they "have no interest" watching her movies with her. She hopes, though, that they might tune into the latest season of True Detective, which she will star in, as they are "really into" the show already.

"There’s a few films that I would never show them because I would be worried about being teased", she joked - particularly referring to her 1995 film Nell where she plays a woman who grew up in an isolated cabin.