Jodie Foster explained why she feels her leading character in HBO's new season of True Detective is an "awful person."
Foster leads a completely new cast of characters in True Detective's long-awaited fourth season, portraying Ennis, Alaska-based sheriff/detective Liz Danvers.
Watching over the fictional town of Ennis, Danvers has a multitude of roles in True Detective as she raises her stepdaughter while working to solve the mystery of how eight research scientists suddenly disappear in the Alaskan wilderness.
Jodie Foster Comments on "Awful" True Detective Character
True Detective Season 4 star Jodie Foster dove into her feelings about her character, Detective Liz Danvers, in an interview with Black Film and TV.
While discussing the history between her character and Kali Reis' Evangeline Navarro, Foster used the word "awful" to describe Danvers, reflecting on how she is "mean to people" and "selfish:"
"Yeah, she’s awful, she’s awful. She says a bunch of jokes that aren’t funny that only she thinks are funny, she’s mean to people, she’s selfish and completely unconscious. She needs to wake up. And I love that, I love how flawed she is, and I love how, despite all of that, she will go to the end of the earth for this woman even though she hates her guts, and there’s something really beautiful and true about that. I think that’s what you look for."
Foster looks at her characters from the perspective of what they are "ashamed of about themselves" and want to keep from other people, building the roles she plays from there:
"One of the treasures I always look for in a character is just to ask myself 'What are they ashamed of about themselves that they don’t want anyone else to know?' And once you’ve identified that, it’s like you can build a character from the backwards way of 'Ok, so what are they showing and why are they showing and why are they choosing to communicate this way? Is it because they’re hiding that?'"
When asked if she watched any of True Detective's previous three seasons, she only commented on how honored she was to "be a part of that little line of history" while praising the Ennis, Alaska setting as a huge part of the new season:
"Me too. It’s just such an honor to be a part of that little line of history between us and to have a different place. 'True Detective' is so much about the place. We have such a distinct part of America that most people don’t see, this arctic area that kind of feels psychological and eerie and supernatural, so that was really rich for us."
Where Will Jodie Foster's True Detective Character Go?
Through True Detective Season 4's first two episodes, viewers have already seen plenty of depth in Jodie Foster's Liz Danvers as she learns about the trouble going down in her town.
She has proven to be passionate about doing her job the right way after finding multiple bodies frozen on the tundra, and she will not take any kind of disrespect or incompetency as she looks to solve her latest case.
The big question moving forward is how she will handle her working relationship with Evangeline Navarro, as the end of Episode 2 teased plenty of unresolved tension between the two detectives.
Add that to the work she is putting into her relationship with her stepdaughter Leah, and she will have no lack of challenges through this season's final four episodes.
The first two episodes of True Detective Season 4 are now streaming on Max. Episode 3 will debut on HBO and Max on Sunday, January 28, at 9:00 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT.
