Jodie Foster will never silence her lambs.

In fact, the Hexed star encourages her sons Charles “Charlie” Bernard Foster, 28, and Christopher “Kit” Bernard Foster, 25, to explore their passions.

“Being a mother of two boys, you learn the lesson of that they have to discover things for themselves,” Foster exclusively told E! News’ Lauren Herbert at the Los Angeles premiere of her new Disney movie Nov. 12, “and that you can’t protect them and that you have to just be positive for their life choices.”

The 63-year-old continued, “If they make a mistake, they make one and you just hope that they learn from it instead of intervening.”

But for Foster—who shares her kids with ex Cydney Bernard—that’s a parenting lesson she didn’t need to pass on to her costar Hailee Steinfeld, who gave birth to daughter Harper with husband Josh Allen in April.

As the Oscar winner put it, “She is mama extraordinaire.”