US actress and director Jodie Foster has admitted she "loves" the Irish accent.

The 'Silence of the Lambs' star is making the rounds for her new film 'Money Monster'.

The crime thriller stars George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Caitriona Balfe.

She spoke to The Picture Show here on Newstalk about the film, and why she asked Irish actress Balfe to sound more Irish.

"In reality, her accent is not that thick, we just made her slather it on".

"When I met her, she auditioned in American English and she was perfect...and I said 'do you mind if I ask you to put it on a lot more?'".

"There was something really compelling about her character being duped by this American and it made me feel for her more, because she was a foreigner".

Foster also says there was no chance that she would have turned down her famous role, playing a 17-year-old prostitute in 1976's 'Taxi Driver'.

On her major Oscar-winning roles in 'The Silence of the Lambs' and 'The Accused', she says: "Those were two big movies, very different movies, Oscar-nominated movies in a short period of time".

"But I've had lots of up and downs in my career".

On women in Hollywood, Foster says: "There are a lot of women in the independent arena, and there's a lot in television and cable, there's always been a lot of female directors in the European cinema".

"For some reason, mainstream Hollywood movies produced by studios have not been kind to women".

"I don't do a lot of looking back, honestly I just do a lot of looking forward...it's exhausting looking back", she adds.