Jodie Foster has admitted that turning down director Keith Gordon's 1996 film Mother Night stands as one of her biggest career regrets. Foster's production company rejected the script when Gordon initially pitched it, only for her to later realise she had misjudged the project after watching the finished film, calling herself and her team "stupid idiots" for passing on it. The episode is notable because Foster, a two-time Oscar winner, rarely admits to misreading a script, and the anecdote highlights how instinct can fail even experienced industry figures.

Gordon, who like Foster began as a child actor before moving into directing, wrote to the Los Angeles Times that Foster's team "actually turned it down" after reading Robert B. Weide's screenplay, an adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's novel starring Nick Nolte, Kirsten Dunst, Sheryl Lee and John Goodman. Foster later attended the premiere and handed Gordon a note admitting she was wrong, sparking a friendship that led her to produce his next film, 2000's Waking the Dead, starring Billy Crudup and Jennifer Connelly, though that film grossed only $327,418 against an $8.5 million budget compared with Mother Night's relatively stronger reception.