Jodie Foster made a rare sighting in Los Angeles as she took her dog Ziggy out for a walk.

The 58-year-old actress was spotted strolling with the adorable pooch in the Santa Monica Mountains in California on Tuesday.

This comes after the Taxi Driver star confirmed that she has no plans to play her Silence Of The Lambs character Clarice Starling again.

The two-time Academy Award winner was casually attired for the scenic outing, wearing a short-sleeved white t-shirt with the California Republic state flag logo featuring a grizzly bear on the front.

She paired the t-shirt with a blue cropped leggings, showing off her toned calves. The Contact star was also sporting bright blue, turquoise and gray New Balance sneakers.

Foster covered her face with a black and white gingham mask, protecting herself amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Inside Man actress held Ziggy's leash in both hands as the white terrier mix trotted along.

She donned a white baseball cap and black aviator style sunglasses. Jodie carried a bottle of water in a black and blue pack that was strapped around her waist.

Jodie recently said that fans should not expect her to reprise her iconic role as Starling again. She portrayed the FBI trainee in director Jonathan Demme's iconic 1991 horror flick The Silence Of The Lambs, which is based on the novel of the same name by Thomas Harris.

However, Foster turned down the opportunity to return as Clarice in Sir Ridley Scott's 2001 sequel Hannibal, in which Julianne Moore appeared as Clarice opposite Sir Anthony Hopkins who returned as cannibal killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter.

Jodie admits there have been talks about her coming back to Clarice but for her that part is in the past.

Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, she said: 'There's been some stuff over the years about reprising (Clarice), but both Jonathan and I were both disappointed not to do the sequel. I have never watched that one.'

The Silence Of The Lambs - which celebrated its 30-year anniversary in January 2021 - was a critical and commercial success and it earned Academy Award wins in the main five categories: Best Picture, Best Director for Demme, Best Actor for Hopkins, Best Actress for Foster and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Hopkins recently confessed that he thought the movie would be a 'children's story' before he read the script.

The 83-year-old star recalled: 'I was in London in 1989, doing a play called M. Butterfly.

'My agent sent a script. He said, "Why don't you read this? It's called Silence of the Lambs.'' I said, "Is it a children's story?"

'It was a hot summer afternoon, and the script came over and I started reading it. After 10 pages, I phoned my agent. I said, "Is this a real offer? I want to know. This is the best part I've ever read." '

Hopkins - who also played Lecter in prequel film Red Dragon - may have been lauded for his performance but admits he was 'nervous' about taking on the role of an American serial killer as a British performer.

He explained: 'I was naturally nervous, an Englishman — a limey like me, a Welshman — playing an American serial killer.'

'And I remember [director] Jonathan, when the camera picked me up, he said, 'Oh, my God. That's it. Hopkins. You're so weird!' And I said, 'Why, thank you.' And they wanted the lighting girl to come into my cell, and I said, 'What are you doing in my cell?' And [Jonathan] said, 'Oh, my God.' So I knew I had pressed the right button. Once you got that button, hold on to it — and go with it.'

Meanwhile, Jodie has said she thinks she needs to do 'something more important' than romantic comedies.

The actress admitted she is often asked why she rarely takes on lighter roles and she admitted that, although she enjoys the movies as a viewer, she prefers to take on movies that give her a 'feeling of significance'.

She said: 'People have said to me, "Why don't you do comedies? You never even did a romantic comedy!" And I say, "I've done Maverick."'

'But there are a number of reasons why I don't do comedies.

'I like them, but they don't give me the same feeling of significance, and even as an actor doing them, I think they can be kind of fun for a week, then you start getting hungry for feeling like you should be doing something more important.'

The acclaimed actress has fond memories of going to the movies with her mother, Evelyn, as a child, where they'd enjoy 'deep conversations' on a variety of subjects, and as a result she's always looked to film as a way of understanding various issues.

She told the Sunday Times newspaper's Culture magazine: 'Movies changed my life. From a young age, that was my place.

'My mum was a single mum and all my brothers and sisters much older. They were out of the house by the time I was 10, so our whole life was my mum handling her feelings, whether depression, anxiety or fear, by taking me to the movies every day. Then we'd have deep conversations, whether about the world or her life.

'Meaning was all channeled through movies. So if you ask my feelings about, I don't know, John F Kennedy, I'm going to refer to the Oliver Stone movie. If you ask me how I feel about the Second World War, I go to Fassbinder.

'It was only as I got older that I realized there are other ways.'

And Jodie believes films can still help people work through issues in their lives.

She said: 'When a film has resonance for you and you ask yourself really complicated questions, it means it has the opportunity to do that with other people too.'