[Editor’s note: The following contains some spoilers for True Detective: Night Country.]

The Big Picture

‘True Detective: Night Country’ is Jodie Foster’s first TV acting role since the 1970s, but she was excited about the narrative potential. Foster believes some movies would benefit from expanding their runtime to develop more storylines, comparing them to short stories. Kali Reis was starstruck to work with Foster, but realized she was a cool and awesome person; Foster felt similarly about working with Reis.

Written and directed by Issa López, the fourth season of the HBO crime anthology, True Detective: Night Country, is all about mood and atmosphere, from the dark and frosty nights to the hints of supernatural and horror. At its core is the uneasy partnership between Detectives Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis), the investigation of the disappearance of eight men who were operating the Arctic Research Station in Ennis, Alaska, and how that connects to the murder of a local Indigenous activist. Different in their approach but with the same goal in mind, Danvers and Navarro are shaped by personal tragedy and must heal their own wounds on the winding road to the truth.

During this interview with Collider, co-stars Foster and Reis, who are an electric onscreen pairing, talked about why they had to say yes to doing this installment of series, what made it a grueling but incredible experience, what makes The Silence of the Lambs the granddaddy of Season 4 of True Detective, working with the corpsicle, the intimacy Danvers finds in being so prickly, and controlling Navarro’s internal rage.

True Detective Anthology series in which police investigations unearth the personal and professional secrets of those involved, both within and outside the law. Release Date January 12, 2014 Creator Nic Pizzolatto Seasons 4 Studio HBO Streaming Service(s) Max

Before ‘True Detective: Night Country,’ Jodie Foster Hadn’t Acted on TV Since the Seventies
Image via HBO

Collider: I love this season. I have to admit that I’ve been curious about what True Detective might look like told in a woman’s voice, and thanks to you guys and Issa López, I no longer have to imagine that. Jodie, it’s been a while since you’ve done an acting role on TV. Had you realized that before people started bringing it up with this? Was it something you even considered when deciding to do this or was that not something you thought about at all?

JODIE FOSTER: I didn’t think about it, but I haven’t done TV, as an actor, since the seventies. In those days, you made a distinction and a decision in your career, as to whether you were gonna go TV or film, and I chose film. I never went and did it again, until I became a director. I directed television and streaming, and I produced streaming. But I was psyched about coming back because I really understood that that’s where real narrative is right now. That is where the real stories are being told, with the kind of plot structure that I love and the kind of speed that I love. So, I was waiting for the right one. I was just waiting around saying, “Maybe it’ll never happen.” But then, Issa brought me True Detective and I knew that I had to say yes.

I can’t imagine not having more time with these characters. You couldn’t have told a story like this with these character in the length of a movie.

FOSTER: Yeah. The thing about that hour-and-a-half of features is that it’s a short story form. It’s a beginning, a middle, and an end. There are some stories that really need to be short stories, and there are some that really need to be that six- or eight-part story, in order to develop everything. I would really reach out to say to some of the movies that [were out in 2023], that are almost four hours long, “Dude, why don’t you make it six hours and do it on streaming? Maybe you could have honored even more stories.”

Related ‘True Detective: Night Country’ Review: Season 4 Is a Perfectly Chilling Return to Form Jodie Foster and Kali Reis command the upcoming fourth season from director and showrunner Issa López.

Kali, you hadn’t done a TV series prior to doing this. Did you have any expectations about what that would be like before doing this?

KALI REIS: I had no expectations because I didn’t have much to compare it to. It really settled in one morning when we were in the makeup trailer and [Jodie] was like, “This is the hardest, longest shoot I’ve ever been on.” And I was like, “What do you mean? You don’t normally do this? What did I get myself into?” But I didn’t have any expectations. Expectations are what gets all humans in trouble. I just wanted to prepare the best way I could, and then be open to rolling with the punches, knowing the end goal was being with people with common interests in the same trenches and telling the same story and just being collaborative. It was a grueling shoot. It was long. Being away from home, being in a different country, and having this schedule was insane. We were working nights in the cold, outside with all those elements, but I knew that it wasn’t like I planned to go to Hawaii and I ended up in Iceland. It was a great experience. I’m getting spoiled, very early on in my career, with the people I work with, the things I’m learning, the projects, and the stories I’m getting the opportunity to tell. I’m just full of gratitude. It was like going to college. I got to hang out with Jodie Foster, dude.

Was there a level of nervousness knowing that you would be working with Jodie Foster?

REIS: I don’t get starstruck very often, but I was just like, “Oh, my God!” I was a fan, and actually meeting her and finding out she was also hilarious and an awesome person was even better. I’ve met like Mike Tyson, and I was starstruck. It was the same thing to me. Being able to be in a Mike Tyson training camp, learning, and also finding out that he’s an awesome person, was like finding out that she was a cool person. I did have 30 seconds of, “Oh, my God, she’s coming. It’s Jodie Foster, act cool.” I love Contact. I wasn’t gonna say that, but my inner geek was saying that, trust me.

Jodie, with the career that you’ve had, what was the most nervous you’ve ever been, walking on the set the first day? Was it something early in your career? Was it an acting role? Was it a project you were directing? What did that for you?

FOSTER: Going into Nell was terrifying because I had no answers. I didn’t know what the hell I was gonna do. I didn’t really have any research I could do, even though I did a lot of research. I just couldn’t figure it out. And then, one day I realized I just had to relax and feel the feelings and say the gestures. And then, I realized, “Oh, this is actually easier.” But I was nervous. I was nervous about not having recognizable dialogue, in order to access the character. It turns out that I had to access other things.

Jodie Foster Welcomes the ‘True Detective’ Comparisons to ‘Silence of the Lambs’

Obviously, when you’ve played a character like the one in The Silence of the Lambs, that is so famous for so many people, there’s going to be a conversation around you playing a detective again in this. What that something you thought about?

FOSTER: Yeah. Liz Danvers and Clarice Starling couldn’t be two more different people. They’re totally different, except they’re complex, and they have a lot of duality to them and a lot of layers. There are those two things that they have in common. I thought about that very quickly, early on, when I was reading it. I felt like, “Wow, there are gonna be some comparisons to Silence of the Lambs,” but I really welcomed them because they both have this eerie universe that comes from this place that is this place of anxiety, and that’s what fuels the horror genre and thrillers. It’s also a reflection of the character’s internal mechanisms and what they’re going through. That truth to Silence of the Lambs is the same one. In some ways, Silence of the Lambs is the granddaddy to True Detective: Night Country. I feel proud of that. I feel like the audience benefits from having that little wink of like, “Oh, I remember her in Silence of the Lambs.”

What was it like to see what the corpsicle would look like?

FOSTER: The corpsicle was something.

REIS: It was made. They took every single detail that you could imagine. We met the corpsicle before the actors. That was probably the most odd thing. In person, it looked amazing. But on camera, it’s horrifying. Oddly enough, I didn’t go home with nightmares. It didn’t bother me at all.

FOSTER: It became your friend.

REIS: Yeah, it was like saying, “Oh, there’s my friend. How are you doing?” It was amazingly made.

Related Is ‘Night Country’ Connected to the Previous ‘True Detective’ Seasons? ‘Night Country’ is already unveiling several Easter eggs.

Jodie, would you say that it’s fair to say that Danvers’ love language is expressions of hate and disdain? It feels like that’s how she best communicates with people.

FOSTER: Yeah. She likes the intimacy of needling somebody who can needle her back and can take it. That is how she knows that person is strong enough to be her friend, even a person that she cares about. Besides her daughter, the person that she cares about the most in the series is her mentee Prior, played by Finn Bennett. Their relationship is so beautiful because she really respects him and wants him to learn, and she really wants to give him everything and cares about him, but the way she shows it is by saying, “I hate you,” making him do things, and just treating him poorly.

Kali Reis Never Let Her ‘True Detective’ Character Be Controlled By Rage
Image via HBO

Kali, the moment when Evangeline really loses it and tears up the facility, starts a fight with a bunch of guys, and basically has an emotional breakdown was a lot to watch. What was all that like to shoot?

REIS: I didn’t overthink any of that. I just knew it needed to be done. It was actually fun. I was like, “Did we not get that one? Shouldn’t we shoot that again?” I knew why Navarro was doing it. I felt every part of the loss and the frustration and the confusion. She knew, at that point, that she was about to absolutely lose it, and she needed to get that energy out. The fight scene was a lot, but I embraced it. I was like, “Again? Okay, great.” That physical part is something that I’m used to and I just want to get it right. I have the endurance to do so, and I’ll keep going. I won’t quit. That was something that was actually pretty fun, to be honest with you.

FOSTER: I think that athletes, and especially boxers, really understand how to access rage and then they can recover from it. That’s how you win. You don’t get overwhelmed by the rage. And that really is what an actor does too. I don’t know. I say that because I took kickboxing.

REIS: Once.

FOSTER: No, I took it for a year.

REIS: You can’t do anything with a clear head if you’re angry. It’s funny, I had so much rage playing Navarro, in that moment, but I had to be very clear-headed as to why she was doing what she was doing, as a performer. It’s the same thing in the ring. People say, “Don’t drive angry,” but you can’t fight angry either because you’re not clear-headed. You have to be very calm and very poised, in order to be very present and react the way you need to.

FOSTER: That’s why, when you’re playing with young actors especially, you have to judge them. If there was anybody that I would ever want to be in a fight scene with, it’s with Kali. I know that no matter what happens, she’s not gonna miss that punch. She’s gonna know to do the punch and not smack me in the face. Some young actors, I actually don’t let them near their co-star. I’ll be like, “No, we’re not letting you get anywhere near the co-star until we have rehearsed this 140,000 times,” because I don’t trust that they won’t get overexcited and lose control.

True Detective: Night Country airs on Sunday nights on HBO and is available to stream on Max. Check out the trailer:

Watch on Max