Jodie Foster reflects upon the time on set when a lion shook her in his mouth

Jodie Foster reflected on her scary experience on set with a lion that shook her in his mouth and turned her around during her appearance on The Graham Norton Show. Photo / YouTube

Jodie Foster, an award-winning American actress and filmmaker, has recalled the time a real lion shook her “in his mouth and turned” her around back when she was a child actress.

The Hollywood star, 61, has been acting for decades now, but the terrifying incident occurred when she was just 9 years old while filming her feature film debut in Napoleon and Samantha.

Napoleon and Samantha follows the story of a boy called Napoleon who, after his grandfather dies, goes on a journey with his recently acquainted friend Samantha and a circus lion called Major. With their “guardian lion”, the pair venture into the mountains to find Napoleon’s friend Danny so he can avoid going to an orphanage.

Foster explained during a guest appearance on The Graham Norton Show how three lions were used on set for filming the role of Major. Zamba was the star lion, while the crew also looked after a stand-in lion and a stunt lion.

Also starring in Napoleon and Samantha were Foster’s co-stars Johnny Whitaker (as Napoleon) and Michael Douglas (as Danny).

“I was working with the stand-in lion, and I guess he had a little piano wire that was pulling him,” said Foster.

“We finished the take and I was going up the hill, and all I remember is seeing his mane come around, and then he picked me up sideways and shook me in his mouth and turned me around,” she explained, which seemed to shock Olivia Coleman, another guest on the talk show.

“And every single person on the crew was running in the opposite direction, and I’m like sideways, watching everybody - and they took their equipment, too!

“And I’m watching everybody leave, going like, ‘What’s happening?’... I remember feeling like, ‘Oh it’s an earthquake!’ because I was getting shaken,” she continued.

Johnny Whitaker and Jodie Foster with one of the lions that played Major in Napoleon and Samantha. Photo / Getty Images

“The trainer said, ‘Drop it!’, and because the lion was so well-trained, he opened his mouth and dropped me down.”

“And I went running,” she added, gesturing to suggest she rolled her way down the hill.

The incident left Foster with scars on her back and stomach that still exist today, and she has suffered from ailurophobia (a fear of cats) ever since.

However, that wasn’t the end of the scary situation for Foster. In the lion’s final move, she said: “And then he came after me and then just put one paw on me and just waited, like, ‘I got her!’”

Foster currently stars in the fourth season of the anthology crime-drama series True Detective, titled True Detective: Night Country. She is one of Hollywood’s most renowned and accomplished actresses.