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She is one of Hollywood’s most famous and respected actors, known for her starring roles in The Silence of the Lambs, the Accused and Taxi Driver.
Now Jodie Foster has thrown her considerable reputation behind the protests against President Donald Trump being planned at Sunday’s Academy Awards ceremony.
Foster, herself an Oscar winner, told demonstrators protesting against the President’s proposed travel ban on people from seven mainly Muslim countries that it is "our time to resist".
Speaking at a rally outside the Beverly Hills headquarters of United Talent Agency (UTA), which cancelled its Oscars party to stage the protest, she said: "I'm not somebody who feels very comfortable using my public face for activism.
"This year is a very different year and it's time to show up. It's the singular time in history. It's time to engage.
"We know the first attack on democracy is an assault on free expression and civil liberties and this relentless war on truth. Unfortunately it's too familiar because history repeats itself.”
Ms Foster, who has also won praise for her work as a director, notably on Money Monster, is the latest star to speak out against the Trump’s presidency, but her reputation and recognition in America's heartlands also makes her intervention significant.
She added: “No matter where you're born and no matter who you voted for, red or blue, whether you're white, black or brown and all the colours of the identity rainbow - this is our time to resist.
"It's our time to show up and demand answers. It's our time to tell our elected officials to do their job. We will not tolerate chaos, ineptitude and war-mongering."
Fellow actors Michael J Fox, star of the Back to the Future films, also addressed the rally along with the former British foreign secretary David Miliband, who is now chief executive of the International Rescue Committee (IRC).
Fox told the crowd: "You have people who have given up everything, who have lost everything they have.
“They are struggling to keep their families alive and keep food in their mouths and disease away from their bodies and took tremendous risk to get to this country, and we say no? We are the lucky ones."
Mr Miliband said: "We are living in the midst of a refugee crisis the likes of which has never been seen before.
"The executive order that was published in Washington three weeks ago was one story of America.
"Today this rally in Hollywood is telling another story. It's a story of humanity, a story of reason, a story of patriotism that is founded in values, not in ethnicity."
UTA said the rally, United Voices, was organised to "express the creative community's support for freedom of speech and artistic expression and stand against policies of exclusion and division".
The talent agency is donating more than 320,000 dollars (£258,000) to the American Civil Liberties Union and the IRC.
The rally came amid reports that a 21-year-old Syrian cinematographer who worked on an Oscar-nominated film had been denied entry to the United States.
The Department of Homeland Security blocked Khaled Khateeb from travelling to Los Angeles after officials reported finding "derogatory information" against him, according to correspondence seen by The Associated Press news agency.
Khateeb risked his life working on The White Helmets, a harrowing film about the Syrian civil war nominated for the best documentary (short form) Oscar.
Before news of his ban emerged he had said:"If we win this award, it will show people across Syria that people around the world support them. It will give courage to every volunteer who wakes up every morning to run towards bombs.
"If I cannot enter the US, I will not give up: we know that we have many friends in US, that there are people that share our humanitarian values. I look forward to meeting them all one day."
The Oscar-nominated Iranian director Asghar Farhadi sent a video message to the rally after he decided to boycott the awards ceremony over the travel ban affecting the seven Muslim-majority countries.
Farhadi, nominated for best foreign language film for The Salesman, told the crowd: "It is comforting to know that at a time when some politicians are trying to promote hate by creating divisions between cultures, religions and nationalities, the cinema community has joined the people in a common show of unity to show its opposition.
"I hope this unity will continue and spread to fight other injustices. Film-makers can break stereotypes around the world by turning their cameras to capture shared human qualities."