An actor being critical of their performance isn’t out of the ordinary, with performers regularly their own harshest critics. Jodie Foster was definitely in the minority when she rewatched one of her films and decided that it was an unsalvageable disaster.

Even though they make their living in the glamorous surroundings of Hollywood, earn millions, and grow accustomed to seeing their name in lights, actors can be susceptible to a crisis of confidence. It’s been Foster’s career since she was three years old, and she still suffers from the existential dread of believing her next movie is doomed to fail.

A veteran by the time she was a teenager, Foster balanced her professional life with academia by continuing to act while studying at Yale, graduating in 1985. After that, she faced the tricky prospect of segueing from an experienced youngster into a viable adult lead, and she made it look easy.

1988 was a make-or-break year for Foster, who appeared in three features. The independent crime drama Five Corners fared well with critics but barely made a whimper at the box office, while the coming-of-age romance Stealing Home failed on both fronts. Things weren’t going well, at least until October.

That’s when Jonathan Kaplan’s haunting The Accused was released, with Foster delivering a tour-de-force performance that culminated in her taking the stage at the Academy Awards to collect her prize for ‘Best Actress’ at the age of 26, making her one of the category’s youngest-ever winners. It was a fine end to a mixed year, even if she wasn’t convinced she would bow out on a high.

“I saw the movie in a rough-cut form, and I thought, ‘Wow, this film’s terrible, and I’m awful in it,’” she told Yale. “And then the movie came out, and I won an Oscar for it. But it is very telling, this feeling of failure, which seems to be a theme in my life.”

A perpetual pessimist, Foster’s first thought upon watching footage from The Accused was that not only did she suck, but she sucked in a movie that also sucked. Understandably, that left her more surprised than most when her turn as Sarah Tobias was unanimously praised as the shining light in a movie that wasn’t close to being an awards season contender otherwise.

The Accused was nominated for one Oscar, which Foster won. It was nominated for one Golden Globe, which she also won. It was nominated for one David di Donatello Award, which… you get the point. It was a transformative moment for the actor to win the industry’s most prestigious acting prize, cementing her transition from precocious youngster to generational talent despite the fact she had no confidence in either the film or her abilities to lead it.