“F*** This, Let’s Just Talk About It”: Jodie Foster, Jennifer Aniston, Sofía Vergara Let Loose on THR’s Drama Actress Roundtable

Nicole Kidman, Brie Larson, Anna Sawai and Naomi Watts weigh on everything from method acting to menopause to snorting coke (on screen).

“I don’t know if anybody told you, but none of us knows what we’re doing,” announces two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster halfway through the Drama Actress Emmy Roundtable. She’s surrounded by two more Oscar winners — Expats’ Nicole Kidman and Lessons in Chemistry’s Brie Larson — who nod in agreement. The True Detective star continues, “and that’s the real beauty of it, having that freshness of doubting yourself.” Over the course of an hour at The Georgian Hotel in Santa Monica, that trio, along with The Morning Show’s Jennifer Aniston, Shogun’s Anna Sawai, Griselda’s Sofía Vergara and Feud’s Naomi Watts, discuss everything from mentorship to menopause.

Who here has ever lied to land a job?

NAOMI WATTS Oh, for sure.

BRIE LARSON We all lied and said that we knew how to ride a horse, and we couldn’t.

NICOLE KIDMAN I can ride a horse, but I did lie about ice skating. Not a good one to lie about.

JENNIFER ANISTON I might have not been fully honest. I said I couldn’t ride a horse, just because I didn’t want to ride the horse.

WATTS Oh, I definitely added special skills to my résumé back in the day. Multiple languages, lots of weird sports.

SOFÍA VERGARA I didn’t lie to get a job, but I lied to my agents so they’d take me when I moved to L.A. I said I could sing and dance. Why not? I didn’t think they were going to send me out. Then they sent me to an audition for Chicago on Broadway.

EVERYONE No!

VERGARA But I got the part.

LARSON What?!

ANISTON Then what happened?

VERGARA I played Mama Morton in Chicago.

ANNA SAWAI Oh my gosh.

JODIE FOSTER So, lying pays off.

Jodie, you’ve been known to reach out to young actresses and offer advice. What prompts the outreach and what do you tell them?

FOSTER I guess I fancy myself as some kind of mother figure. If I see somebody drunk and on their face at an event, for example, I might be like, “So, what’s going on?” Because I feel for them, and I really am grateful for my mom getting me through all of that. Somehow I managed to have a series of rules that allowed me to survive.