Ben Foster on his role in indie hit "Leave No Trace": Stripping down to "whatever is essential"

Ben Foster is one of those people who could disappear in a crowd -- until you see him on screen. Instead he's one of the most powerful and versatile character actors of his generation, a master craftsman whose job involves "asking questions and feeling things," as he puts it, and whose lean, intense performances are about stripping down dialogue and action to "whatever is essential." Foster had something of a dramatic breakthrough in director Oren Moverman's film "The Messenger" in 2009, playing a traumatized Marine sergeant who gets reassigned to a military task that literally no one wants: Telling civilian spouses or parents that their loved one has been killed in action overseas. There might be a certain thematic continuity between that role and Foster's performance this year in director Debra Granik's moving and memorable indie hit "Leave No Trace," which may well put him in major-awards territory for the first time. Salon Talks: Ben Foster on "Leave No Trace" "What do we actually need to live a life that's fulfilling?"