Jodie Foster Shares Terrifying Lion Encounter on Film Set: “Crew in Panic”

Jodie Foster had a scary experience with a lion while filming a movie!

She talked about it on The Graham Norton Show with Olivia Colman, Michael Douglas, Johnny Whitaker, and others. This happened during the making of the 1972 movie Napoleon and Samantha when Foster was just 9 years old.

In the film, Foster and Whitaker play kids who go on an adventure with their pet lion. But during filming, there were three lions: the main one, a stunt lion, and a stand-in lion. It was the stand-in lion that caused the scary incident.

After a scene, Foster was walking up a hill when the lion suddenly grabbed her with its mouth and shook her. Everyone else on set panicked and ran away, leaving Foster alone.

Foster thought it was an earthquake because she was shaking so much. The lion trainer told the lion to let her go, and thankfully, the lion obeyed. But then it put its paw on Foster as if to say, “I caught you.”

Foster shared the story with laughter, but the other guests were shocked. Wanda Sykes even joked that she would have fought the lion to protect Foster.