Jodie Foster knows she hasn’t appeared in the credits of a TV production in ages. At least, as an actress. During a virtual press meeting, when we mention the 49-year gap between The Secret Life of T.K. Dearinga small ABC network afternoon film broadcast in 1975, and True Detectivethis HBO anthology series relayed in Quebec by Crave, the famous actress smiles.
Television has long been perceived as the poor child of cinema, even its school club. Going from the small to the big screen rhymed with promotion. The opposite, with retrograde. “At the time, it was two different ecosystems,” emphasizes the former child star.
“But I’ve done a lot of TV as a director and producer,” she adds.
Jodie Foster also serves as executive producer on True Detective: Night Country. However, it is his work in front of the goal that will attract attention in the coming weeks.
Under the direction of Issa López (Tigers Are Not Afraid), who also writes the texts, the 61-year-old star plays Liz Danvers, a detective responsible for unraveling the strange disappearance of a group of eight scientists who operated a research station in Ennis, a small fictional – and snowy – town – from Alaska. Supported by Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis), a hot-tempered police officer, she will try to establish a link between this case and that, unresolved, of an Indigenous woman who left without leaving a trace a few years earlier.
“It was just a beautiful scenario,” explains Jodie Foster, from a Los Angeles hotel room. It was so inspiring. It was about mourning, the dead who live among us, sexism, equal rights, humans who mistreat nature… and this idea that at any moment, this same nature can awaken, become indignant and counterattack. »
Hello again, police
True Detective: Night Country marks other reunions: those of Jodie Foster with the police, three decades later The Silence of the Lambs (Thesilenceofthelambs), this cult thriller by Jonathan Demme in which she played Clarice Starling, an FBI agent at the start of her career.
When a journalist talks about her return to the police uniform, the actress corrects him with humor.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX
Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster shared the screen in the film The Silence of the Lambs.
Technically, Clarice never wore the uniform; she only wore bad suits.
Jodie Foster on her legendary character in The Silence of the Lambs
The two protagonists are different, continues the double Oscar-winning actress. One was a bright, young intern, motivated and full of hope for the future; the other, an acerbic, strict and stubborn police chief, who refuses to open up to others.
“But they come from a very masculine environment: the police environment,” she concedes. Clarice and Danvers had to toughen up, build a shell. They must also fight misogyny. But they go about it in a very different way. »
An intact aura
Jodie Foster has slowed down over the past 10 years. She has acted in a few feature films (Nyad, The Mauritanian, Elysium, Carnage), and directed half a dozen episodes of series (Black Mirror, Orange Is the New Black, House of Cards), but in general, she stayed away from the spotlight.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY BELL MEDIA
Jodie Foster dons a police uniform to play Police Chief Liz Danvers.
When I was younger, I would go from one project to another without taking a break. As I got older, I changed, I realized certain things. Today, I want to live my life, with my children. My approach is different.
Jodie Foster
Despite her distance from the industry, Jodie Foster retains her special aura, both with journalists (before asking their question, several emphasized how “honored” they were to be able to interview her) and with her peers.
For Issa López, Jodie Foster remains “the best living actress”. In a remote interview, the creator and author of True Detective: Night Country salutes “his discipline”, “his depth”, “his intelligence” and “his spirit of collaboration”.
“She spoiled me rotten as a director… That could be a problem, because all the actors and actresses who will come after her, and who will not have this same humility, this same desire to make the work better. .. I have no desire to work with them! »
PHOTO RYAN PFLUGER, THE NEW YORK TIMES ARCHIVES
The creator, author and director of the fourth part of True DetectiveIssa Lopez
For Kali Reis, who plays opposite Jodie Foster in True Detectivethe veteran was “wonderful”.
“I was a groupie for 30 seconds, but after that it was a real collaboration. She was interested in everything we could contribute. She wasn’t like, “I have more experience than you, so here’s what we have to do.” She was more like, “Here are my ideas. Which one are yours ?” She gave me an extraordinary experience. Playing with Jodie Foster… What a great way to start my career! »
True Detective: Night Country is presented in the original English version, as well as in French version on Crave. A new episode is released every Sunday at 9 p.m. The series is also broadcast on Super Écran.
The night in the cold
PHOTO PROVIDED BY BELL MEDIA
Jodie Foster and Kali Reis in a scene from True Detective: Night Country
To stay warm while filming the exterior scenes of True Detective: Night Country, Jodie Foster followed the following four-point recipe: a heavy coat, winter boots, padded gloves and lots and lots of strategically placed hand warmers and toe warmers. “We had to work hard! », says the actress.
The action of the crime thriller is set in northern Alaska, in a portion of the Arctic Circle where the phenomenon of “polar nights” occurs every year, these complete days without sun, which can last for two months. For a question of logistics, however, the filming took place at night, in Iceland.
The harsh climate not only complicated Jodie Foster’s adventure (she fell ill for around ten days), it also nourished her interpretation. “Unless they were born there, the people who live in these places are trying to escape something,” believes the main interested party. The conditions inform us about the survivor spirit they must have. Because in the extreme cold, if your car runs out of fuel, it’s over: you die. »