EXCLUSIVE: Jodie Foster, 63, Sparks SCHIZOPHRENIA Fears After Startling Admission About Needing Therapy After Every Role

Foster, 63, made the comments while discussing her working habits and post-production comedown, explaining how the end of a shoot leaves her adrift after periods of extreme discipline and exhaustion.

The Oscar-winning actress and director, who has worked continuously since childhood, described a cycle in which she throws herself into a role and then struggles to recalibrate once filming ends.

Foster admitted: "I work like a dog. I'm obsessed. And then I just want to go to sleep... I feel lost if I don't have a routine. I'm a disciplined person.

"When I'm making a movie, I can't stay on my routine. I have four months of working 15 hours a day, and all I do is sleep through the weekend. I don't talk to anyone. I don't know what's happening in the news. I just have to look at the character and what I'm headed toward."

She added: "When the movie's over, I'm like, 'Thank God that's over.' I go back to sleep. I do nothing. I become a total couch potato. I get really bored.

"Then I go into therapy, and it all starts all over again. It's like a one-year cycle."

The remarks have prompted concern among some close to the actress, who say the sheer intensity of the pattern is striking, even by Hollywood standards.

One industry source told us: "People are not officially diagnosing her or suggesting anything clinical, but there is real worry about how extreme the swing sounds.

"Going from total immersion to total shutdown, over and over, is not something most people could sustain without support."

Another insider said the honesty of Foster's comments has shocked longtime admirers, adding:"Fans see her as unshakable, hyper-competent, always in control. Hearing her describe herself as lost, bored and needing therapy after every project has genuinely stunned people who assumed she had mastered that balance decades ago."

But a health expert we consulted said Foster sounds "dangerously immersed" in her roles, and added: "Going from deep immersion to deep immersion and then crashing in between can have a significant psychological and physical impact on an actor.

"It is not unlike schizophrenia embodying so many different people, and I hope Jodie's therapist gets her to 'purge' each one from her consciousness before she moves on to the next role."

Foster also spoke openly about her relationship with rest in her recent chat, describing sleep as both necessity and indulgence.

She added: "I admit I like taking naps. Sleeping is necessary, but a nap is just perfection. The perfect timing for a nap is 45 minutes or an hour, but two hours is pretty damn good."

The comments come as Foster continues a late-career surge that has earned widespread praise.

She recently said she believes she is producing the strongest work of her life in her 60s, while expending less emotional energy than before.

Foster added: "I think I'm doing the best work of my life. And the dirty little secret is that I've never worked less in terms of my energy output. I just do what I think, and then I drink a coffee."

Reflecting on her early career choices, Foster credited her mother with grounding her against Hollywood pressure.

She said: "I was trusting a creative instinct, and she was giving me the Hollywood wisdom. I want to challenge Hollywood wisdom. She was guided by fear and convention. It was really clarifying, at 27, to say, I am not going to listen to your fears."

But sources stress Foster's latest admissions underscores the cost of that fiercely independent path.

"She has always worked on her own terms," one said. "What people are reacting to now is just how much those terms have demanded from her, even after all these years."