Jodie Foster's Awkward Award Show Moment With Princess Anne

Jodie Foster has decades of experience in the entertainment industry. When she was three, she began appearing in commercials, before transitioning into TV and film roles. Behind the camera, Foster got into directing as a teen with the short BBC Film-produced documentary, "The Hands of Time." As an adult, she's continued to enjoy a blockbuster career, earning two Oscars for her performances in "The Accused" and "Silence of the Lambs."  In 2016, in recognition of her numerous career achievements, Foster received the Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film. When Jennifer Lawrence presented her with the award, she poignantly noted that when she was a young actor, she was impressed by Foster's ability to handle life in the spotlight and navigate her career with courage and confidence.

Even though a lot of her life takes place in the public eye, there are still some unknown details about Foster. During her acceptance speech, Foster jokingly noted that she and Lawrence shared common ground when it came to clumsiness. When Lawrence won a 2013 Best Actress Oscar, she stumbled on the stairs as she went to accept her award. Foster reminisced about a similar experience she had at an awards show early in her career, telling the audience, "I'm going to send [Lawrence] the tape of my very first BAFTA win in 1975, and I had made a huge face plant right onto Princess Anne's shoes. And it was a pre-Internet classic that you must not miss. YouTube!"

Jodie Foster's won 63 different awards over the course of her illustrious career, so it's understandable that she might not remember the details of each one clearly. After her performances in "Taxi Driver" and "Bugsy Malone," Foster became a major star. Both films are from 1976, and Foster earned her first two BAFTAs during the 1977 awards season, in the categories Most Promising Newcomer and Best Supporting Actress. 

Fortunately for Foster, it appears that the footage of her BAFTA Awards mishap is limited to her private collection. A YouTube search reveals a clip of Foster's win for Best Supporting Actress, which the 14-year-old actor collected without incident. Wearing a tailored suit, Foster negotiates stairs with ease before she stops in front of Princess Anne's box. The actor then shakes the Princess Royal's hand, receives her award, and chats with Anne for a few seconds before going over to the microphone to make her speech.

Anne served as the President of the BAFTAs from 1972 to 2000, and given that she's standing behind a wooden partition in the theater to hand out the awards, it's possible that Foster's stumbling moment onto Anne's shoes occurred at another moment during the ceremony, or perhaps backstage. Wherever it happened, it's likely that Anne quickly put a young Foster at ease with her good sense of humor and characteristic dry wit. Anne's had her own awkward moments on camera, and she knows what it's like to grow up in the spotlight.

Unlike Jodie Foster, Jennifer Lawrence's various awards show stumbles are well-documented on the internet. Lawrence's 2013 Oscar mishap has been viewed 15.9 million times on YouTube.  Fortunately, moments after she trips on her voluminous ballgown, she jokingly tells the audience, "You guys are just standing up 'cause you feel bad that I fell and that's really embarrassing," before launching into a heartfelt thank you for her Best Actress award. Lawrence's graceful reaction garnered praise from viewers of the clip.

A year later, Lawrence had an awkward red carpet moment at the 2014 Oscars when she tripped outside the venue while waving. In addition, Lawrence has also been candid about numerous public mishaps. During a 2015 appearance on "The Tonight Show," she joked that she tripped and fell at every stop during a press tour. 

Princess Anne, on the other hand, had more difficulty when she tripped during a 2007 royal outing. When a local official walking behind her quickly came to her assistance, Anne rebuffed his efforts before getting up and continuing to greet fans. "To fall over in public is bad enough but what really annoyed her was being grabbed," one observer explained to the Daily Mail. The incident attracted new attention when it went viral on TikTok in 2023. While some viewers thought Anne's reaction was in keeping with her no-nonsense attitude, others believed she could have been more accepting of the help the official offered.