By JUDY SLOANE

Front Row Features

HOLLYWOOD-The fourth season of HBO’s anthology crime series “True Detective: Night Country” (and the first to have a subtitle) premieres on Sunday, January 14, 2024, 9:00-10:00 p.m. ET/PT and will be available to stream on Max. It runs six episodes.

Mexican producer/writer/director Issa Lopez wrote and directed every episode of the series, which takes place in the fictional town of Ennis, Alaska, during the long winter night, when eight scientists who operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station disappear without a trace. Chief Detective Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster, “Silence of the Lambs,” “Nyad”) investigates, along with Detective Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis, world champion boxer and actress, “Catch the Fair One,” of Native American descent)who unearth their dark demons while they attempt to solve the mystery.

Academy Award winner Jodie Foster was interviewed at the London Hotel in West Hollywood about her return as an actress to a television series after almost 50 years.

Q: Were you a fan of the previous seasons of True Detective?

Jodie Foster: Yeah, I love that series. I think it was the beginning of my addiction to streaming. It was just one of those things that I binge watched and loved and always return to.

Q: What attracted you to joining the show this season? This is your first starring role in a series since 1975.

Jodie Foster: That is really surprising. ’75 was a long time ago. Yeah, I lived in the feature world. We’ve come to an amazing moment, I think, in cinema history and that’s the time that real narrative is on streaming. I think that’s where some of the best work is being done. It gives you an opportunity to explore characters without necessarily having it be a slave to the genre. Also, having six episodes allows you to bring in other voices than the traditional voices that we might see, and that we have seen In features. So I’m super excited.

Q: What was it like to work with Issa as a director?

Jodie Foster: She is my favorite director I’ve ever worked with. I’ve worked with a lot of people. But I guess it’s kismet. You finally find a person that understands how you can do your best. And I feel like she was able to bring that out in me. When we first met, I wasn’t really convinced, but I love “True Detective.”  I said some scary things like I don’t like that. What about this? Then I left town. And it was amazing to see a brand-new character emerge that was more than I could have ever hoped for or anticipated, and that I think really helps the dynamic between Danvers and Navarro, for Navarro as the central character and as the voice of the film to really be able [to use] Danvers peccadillos in order to support [her] journey.

Q: What impressed you the most about working with Kali?

Jodie Foster: Oh my gosh, everything. The tenacity of Spirit. That doesn’t come from boxing. It’s a discipline that’s within you. That she’s not afraid of doing it over and over and trying it a different way. There’s full disciplined awareness.

Q: This was shot in Iceland. What was it like working there?

Jodie Foster: Huge challenges, as you can imagine, working at night, first of all, and trying to light a nighttime in the snow with all the elements. But strangely, we kind of had the gods on our side.  Right when we needed all this snow we got all the snow. And right when we needed it to be calm, it was calm.  And of course, the extraordinary people that we met there.

Q: Does this role take you back to previous roles like Clarice Starling (“Silence of the Lambs,”) but now with years of experience, tackling a very tough case in Alaska?

Jodie Foster: Not really. I don’t think the two are comparable. But I think that there’s something underneath the comparison that is very welcome. And that’s that this show does exist in genre, whether it’s a horror, supernatural, thriller genre. But so much of how that horror is explored is through the psychological drama, the intimate drama of these people. This is incredibly well written. I think that’s the number one reason that the characters’ brokenness, that their issues, how they heal each other, has this backdrop of psychological spiritual horror.

Q: You could work on anything you want to do in your career at this point. What do you keep in mind when considering a new project?

Jodie Foster: Huh? I don’t think I can work on anything. It has been a really long, fantastic adventure. I’ve worked for 58 years in the film business. There are things I don’t want to repeat; there are some stories that I’ve already told. And I’m really surprised that at 60 I think I’m happier than I’ve ever been. [There’s] something about recognizing that it isn’t my time. That it’s someone else’s time and [I’m] there to support them and bring whatever knowledge, wisdom that I’ve accrued over the years and being able to apply that and help a team. It’s just so much more fun.

Q: How intrigued did you become with the indigenous spirituality and mythology so prevalently immersed throughout this story?

Jodie Foster: For me, my draw in the story was to really have the opportunity to learn about, and for the audience to learn about the genuinely centered indigenous story, as opposed to some of the lip service that we get in films that come out. I just wanted to know more. It’s not my voice. It’s their voice and I wanted to support and make sure that their stories were center.

Q: Do you think you would make a good detective yourself?

Jodie Foster: I would be a bad detective because I’m really farsighted and I don’t notice anything. So you could change your shirt or you could put on a mustache and I’d just be like, oh!