Short Takes : ‘Just Pretend,’ Foster Tells Kids

NEW YORK —  Jodie Foster, who has just finished directing her first movie, has a tip for young actors: just pretend.

Foster makes her directorial debut in “Little Man Tate,” the story of a gifted boy, his mother (portrayed by Foster) and a psychologist who wants to take the boy away to enroll him in college.

In it, Foster coached 7-year-old Adam Hann-Byrd through his first movie.

“Just pretend really well,” Foster said she told young Adam, recalling the filming in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine. “And then think about what that pretending looks like.”

Foster, who also stars in Jonathan Demme’s thriller “The Silence of Lambs,” due out next month, plays down the added responsibilities of the auteur.

“As a director, it’s not any different than what I do as an actress,” Foster said, “except that I’m allowed to.”

“Little Man Tate,” to be released later this year, also stars Dianne Wiest and jazz pianist Harry Connick Jr.

Foster, 28, won the Academy Award for best actress in 1988 for her role as a rape victim in “The Accused.”