‘A Private Life’ Star Jodie Foster, Director Rebecca Zlotowski Unpack the Film’s Nuanced Portrayal of Jewish Identity: ‘It’s So Complicated’

“A Private Life” is a blackly comic thriller about identity. For Jodie Foster, who not only stars in the film but also speaks predominantly French in it, that was the whole appeal. For director and writer Rebecca Zlotowski, the film took on a different meaning, one rooted in her identity as a Jewish woman.

“I have strange reasons for doing the things that I make, and some of them I’m aware of and some of them are completely unconscious,” the actress told TheWrap editor-in-chief Sharon Waxman at TheWrap’s 2025 Toronto International Film Festival Studio. “I don’t realize [them] until I get to the end. But it has to have some kind of personal resonance.