Jodie Foster loves her changing relationship with her eldest son.

The 48-year-old actress-turned-director - who has sons Charles, 12, and Kit, nine, with an unnamed father - is delighting in seeing how much her older child is developing as he grows up and finds he inspires her more than ever.

She said: "Parenting is the most creative thing I've ever done. You are watching this thing blossom that is outside you and yet part of you in some ways.

"I'm now at this point where my elder son is 12 years old and he's taller than me and he's got a deep voice. And I have to say I am really loving living in the same house as this young man who is totally different from me. Having conversations and being really inspired by him. And then him explaining things to me that are not part of my universe."

Jodie also believes her desire to keep working will help her stay close to her sons as it will make them realise she has a sense of purpose outside of their home life.

She told Psychologies magazine: "I see that it's so important for me to have a separate creative life from him, so he doesn't feel that I just live for him. I feel like I won't lose him that way.

"I feel like he'll always come back to dinner with me, because I'll have been to work with interesting people."