Night Country’ Stars Talk at Variety Indigenous Event

HBO’s ‘True Detective’ took over television in 2014 starring Woody Harrelson and Mathew Matthew McConaughey as two gritty detectives struggling to solve a seemingly impossible series of supernatural murders. Ten years and three seasons later, Jodie Foster and Kali Reis have taken the helm of “True Detective: Night Country,” marking the series’ most-watched season to date.

As part of Variety Indigenous storytelling in entertainment breakfast, VarietyJenelle Riley, deputy awards and features editor, sat down with Reis, co-star Isabella Star LaBlanc and creator Issa López to talk about how they brought the latest season of “True Detective” to life.

“True Detective: Night Country” follows detectives Liz Danvers (Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Reis) as they investigate an incident at an Alaskan research station and the disappearances of young women from a local indigenous community. Three of López’s six projects as writer-director deal with the disappearance of women, a subject she says is close to her heart.

“Eleven women disappear every day in Mexico. And my mother died when I was very young, of natural causes, but very suddenly,” López said. “So I am very connected and aware of the result of the sudden disappearance of the center of a household and the violence surrounding the female experience.”

Reis, who comes from a Cape Verdean and Wampanoag background, found her character “very relatable” as her counterpart in “Night Country” has a dual background and struggles between her two identities.

“I have never felt tired of either, or excluded from either. So when I first read the script and talked to Issa about who Navarro was on a superficial level, she is a woman who is half Dominican, half Inupiat. She has also been torn away from her culture and doesn’t know where she wants to belong,” Reis said. “And that is very recognizable, especially because of the specific region I come from in Northeast America. It is a very different history that is very misunderstood.”

LaBlanc, a member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota tribal nation, plays Leah Danvers, a 17-year-old member of the local indigenous community who protests in defense of her culture. LeBlanc said she tapped into her teenage memories of cultural education while acting in “Night Country.”

“Even though I am very grateful that I grew up in the community and grew up with tradition, unlike Leah, I still remember what it felt like to learn for the first time how to preserve these two worlds, where we as indigenous people are asked. navigating and how difficult it can be,” LeBlanc said. “So I felt so much pride on behalf of Leah and on behalf of all the indigenous children who I know are changing the world and have been our leaders for generations.”

Watch the conversation in its entirety above.