Ben Foster Net Worth

Ben Foster's Quotes

• [Discussing his role in Hostage (2005)] In the novel, my character was written as a 400-pound, 30-year-old massive force. Since I am not that, I had to find a different direction. I based my character on a serial who saw his parents die and now has a fetish for little girls and watching people die.
• [on preparing for his character in Liberty Heights (1999)] The big goal for me was just to get the mental state of mind, this kind of pure innocence. My generation is pretty jaded, pretty cynical. Everything happens really fast. Too much, too fast. So I got all the Life and Look magazines from '54 to '55, stuff that would be at the family's house, on the coffee table. I listened to all the Columbia years of Frank Sinatra, stuff that would probably be on the radio. I talked to my grandmother and looked through her photo album. I talked to my dad.
• [on director Nick Cassavetes] Nick is magic. He doesn't tell you what he wants, he allows. And as long as you're taking chances and he feels that you are being truthful to yourself, then you can do no wrong.
• I'm so sick of sarcasm and irony, I could kill! Sincerely, the real root of things is love and sacrifice. Everything else is an illusion. I'm not trying to preach here. I can't tell anybody anything. But I will say, if you're available to them, there are so many great secrets in the world, so many signs. It's when we stop for a moment and listening that the world gets interesting.
• [Talking about meditation practices] It's always difficult. To feel, rather than to think, to tap into that source and let it come through you. It takes courage. Because we feel it and then we get scared and we analyze it. We live in this thought web, we identify things and put them away and distance ourselves from them. But to be completely present? That is source, that is art, that is spirituality. And meditation is a way to defy fear and experience that source. *Laughs* I know this is all esoteric and weird.

Interesting Facts about Ben Foster

1. Dropped out of high school his freshman year to move to Los Angeles, California.
2. Older brother of actor Jon Foster.
3. At age 12, he won second place in an international competition for a play that he wrote and directed.
4. Raised in Fairfield, Iowa
5. His favorite bands are Radiohead, Miles Davis, Johnny Cash.
6. His favorite actress is Gena Rowlands, and his favorite actors are Philip Seymour Hoffman and Gary Oldman.
7. His favorite movies are Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), The Jerk (1979) and Husbands (1970).
8. Was originally offered the part of Eddie O'Hare in The Door in the Floor (2004), but he thought he was too old for the role and gave up the role to younger brother, Jon Foster because he thought it was better suited for him.
9. Co-starred in two Marvel adaptations featuring Rebecca Romijn: The Punisher (2004) and X-Men: The Last Stand (2006).
10. Casting director Cecily Adams saw the homemade audition tape Foster had sent from his home in Iowa. She called his parents and told them that, while she could make no guarantees, they should put him on a plane to Los Angeles, immediately. They did so and he landed the lead role in the pilot she was casting, Flash Forward (1995).
11. For his role in 3:10 to Yuma (2007) he was trained by renowned Hollywood gun coach Thell Reed, who also trained actors Russell Crowe, Kurt Russell, Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Sam Elliot, Girard Swan and Val Kilmer for Tombstone (1993).
12. Was ranked #16 on Entertainment Weekly's '30 Under 30' actors list. (2008).
13. Provided the voice on the tape reading of James Frey's "Bright Shiny Morning".
14. Has been practicing Transcendental Meditation since he was four years old.
15. One of Variety Magazine's 10 Actors to Watch (2007).
16. His favorite movies are Husbands (1970), The Jerk (1979), Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), All That Jazz (1979) and The Iron Giant (1999).
17. Risked his sight while filming Alpha Dog (2006) by adding glaucoma drops to his eyes for much of the shoot to dilate his pupils, making him appear to be high. He'd hide in the bushes at night and cover his eyes between takes to keep the lights from shining into them and also had to talk to director Nick Cassavetes with his eyes closed.
18. His paternal grandparents were both from Russian Jewish families that moved to Boston, Massachusetts. His mother, who is from Maryland, has English, French, Irish, and distant Welsh and Scottish, ancestry. Ben had a Bar Mitzvah ceremony.
19. His paternal grandparents were Celia (Segal) and A. (Abraham) Frank Foster, who was a prominent judge in Boston.
20. Attended the 59th Berlin Film Festival in Germany. [February 2009]