Jodie Foster has revealed that a 1987 audition for the film "The Accused" came at what she considered the make-or-break point of her career, after a post-Taxi Driver dip in fortunes had left her struggling to find work. Despite winning two BAFTAs and an Oscar nomination by age 15, Foster found the industry had moved on by the time she left Yale, and she went through a difficult stretch of rejected auditions and unemployment before landing the role.

Foster has said she saw "The Accused" as her "last chance" and believed she was "terrible in it", yet the 1988 legal thriller became a major hit, tripling its budget and winning her the Best Actress Oscar and Golden Globe at just 24. She has credited the film with saving her acting career, saying she might otherwise have turned to writing instead; three years later she won a second Oscar for "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991), which grossed $270 million against a budget of under $20 million.