Why Liz Danvers From True Detective: Night Country Looks So Familiar

"True Detective: Night Country" has united critics and seemingly returned to the standard set by 2014's acclaimed Season 1, with its first episode already gripping audiences. Ever since Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) and Marty Hart (Woody Harrelson) took on the Yellow King in Season 1, fans have hoped that following seasons would recapture that same eerie magic. That might happen now that Jodie Foster is on the case in "Night Country" as the new detective, Liz Danvers.

Set in the isolated town of Ennis, Alaska, the show sees Foster and Kali Reis' younger Detective Evangeline Navarro reluctantly team up after an entire research team goes missing from their base. Foster's Danvers is the more seasoned but perhaps less likable officer. "She's an awful, awful character," Foster told People. "But you see why. You see where that came from and you see what she's struggling against and the turmoil that's in her and the protectiveness and the love that she has for her partner in the film."

For a career as broad and lengthy as Foster's, it's a character arc that's hardly surprising, given that previous performances have comprised both troubled souls, like her harrowing, Oscar-winning turn as a sexual assault victim in "The Accused," and tough-minded individuals, like the swimming coach in "Nyad," which may land her another Oscar nod. Here are some classics — and some lesser-known films — in which you may have seen Jodie Foster before.

A career-changing project for all involved, Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver" featured a handful of names that would become big-screen legends in their own right, including Jodie Foster. Caught up in the furious rage of lonely cabbie Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro), Foster plays Iris, a victim of sex trafficking who is thankfully pulled out of her horrific situation. Her mature and compelling performance earned her an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress at the age of 14. 

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Foster talked about collaborating with a young Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese, two upcoming talents on the path to becoming titans of their crafts. Part of getting into the role of Iris involved her sitting down in diners with De Niro, which, while initially frustrating, became a helpful process in later years. "After the first time, I was completely bored. Robert was pretty socially awkward then and was pretty much in character, which was his process," she recalled. "I think I rolled my eyes at times because he really was awkward. But in those few outings, he really helped me understand improvisation and building a character in a way that was almost nonverbal."

Released mere months after "Taxi Driver" in 1976, "Bugsy Malone" was the family-friendly mob musical that couldn't be further from Jodie Foster's hard-hitting dramatic work with Martin Scorsese. She played Tallulah in the cult hit that had kids shooting each other with splurge guns and ensuring that if you give a little love, it'll all come back to you.

For Foster, it was an experience that, even at this point, was putting her on a path as a director in later years. She recalled in a 2017 interview with the BBC how she was going through one of the most notable stages of her young career, saying, "By the time I got to making a movie with Martin Scorsese and Alan Parker in the same year, one after the other, I was looking at directors and really paying attention to what they were doing and the choices that they were making."

Working with Parker, Foster recalled, "That was his first film, but that was my ... I dunno, 12th, 13th, 14th movie?" It was an achievement that hadn't gone unnoticed by the director, who, speaking to The Guardian in 2015, admitted, "Jodie Foster, who played [Fat Sam's] moll Tallulah, had made more films than I had, so probably knew more about filmmaking." 

If you're going to look back at Jodie Foster's career, it's essential to stop off at a dimly lit prison cell where Anthony Hopkins is waiting on the other side of the glass. Home to her Oscar-winning performance as Clarice Starling, "The Silence of the Lambs" is an essential crime thriller and demonstrates why Foster feels right at home in "True Detective: Night Country." Starling's timid nature is tested by both the monster in the maximum security cell and the one she's hunting, transforming her into a strong lone hero. According to Foster, finding Clarice took some time, but in the end, all she needed was an elevator.

During her "Actors on Actors" chat with her former co-star, Anthony Hopkins, for Variety, Foster explained that it was during a brief scene of her standing in an elevator surrounded by towering FBI recruits that she stepped into Starling. "There was almost a shame that she wasn't bigger, that she wasn't stronger, this person trying to overcome the failure of the body they were born in. I understood that was her strength," she said. "In some ways, she was just like the victims — another girl in another town. The fact that she could relate to those victims made her the hero."

Deemed by many as an underrated sci-fi gem, "Contact" lays out a blueprint for reconciling science, faith, and everything in between. Joined by Matthew McConaughey, Jodie Foster plays scientist Dr. Eleanor "Ellie" Arroway, who discovers there might be something out there, and they've even sent instructions on how to build a ride to meet them. Unfortunately, at the time, "Contact" was outshined by other genre entries that became blockbuster smashes that year. 1997 marked not only the arrival of "Men in Black," but the anniversary re-release of "Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope," causing "Contact" to suffer some negative reviews but still gain an audience in the years that followed.

For Foster's character, it is the adventure of a lifetime, but upon reflection, a trip that the actor herself wouldn't be willing to take in real life. In an interview with Joe Leydon for the film, Foster broke down Arroway's goals in "Contact," saying, "This is a woman who says 'I will give up my life in order to have the most profound questions answered and that means I will never see anyone that I will ever love again, I know that for a fact.' Does she take the mission? Absolutely, without hesitation. Now, I would not. No, I would say no."

Facing a different threat on the other side of a door in 2002, Jodie Foster swapped cannibals for criminals in David Fincher's "Panic Room." Replacing Nicole Kidman due to the latter's knee injury, Foster finds herself in the titular spot as a recently divorced mother holding the fort while burglars try to break in. Joining her in the tense situation is a 12-year-old Kristen Stewart as Foster's on-screen daughter.

Recalling working with the young star on the film, Foster told THR that she saw herself in Stewart. "She's not comfortable in life being a big externally, emotional person, beating her chest, crying every five minutes. I felt she was such an intelligent technician, so interested in camera — I thought that would translate to other things." 

Years later, in an interview with BAFTA, Stewart was open about how much Foster was and still is an influence in her career. "She validated something in me at a really young age," she said. "You see someone with a very like mind, and it's very encouraging to see them have the sort of confidence and wherewithal to represent."

After a two-year hiatus from the big screen following "Hotel Artemis," Jodie Foster returned in Kevin McDonald's "The Mauritanian." She starred opposite Tahar Rahim in the true-life story of Mohamedou Ould Slahi, who was accused of plotting the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and held in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp for 14 years without being charged. Foster plays Nancy Hollander, a lawyer Mohamedou hires to defend him in court and fight for his release.

While its worldwide release was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in some areas, "The Mauritanian" gained plenty of attention during awards season, earning Foster a Golden Globe for her performance. While she may have brought the star power, the focus is on Rahim's character and his incredible journey. This was an approach that Foster herself requested when signing on. Regarding her character, she revealed to Screen Daily, "There are pieces of Nancy that come through about who she is, as a person, but they need to come through her interactions with Mohamedou and his story."