Jodie Foster has officially added an Emmy to her long list of accolades. On Sunday night, she took home her first-ever Emmy Award, winning Lead Actress in a Limited Series for her role in True Detective: Night Country. The ceremony took place at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, where Lily Gladstone and Greta Lee presented Foster with the golden statuette.
Overwhelmed by the emotional moment, Foster briefly flubbed the name of the show, calling it True Detective: North Country before quickly correcting herself. She described working on the HBO series as a “magical experience” and expressed her gratitude to creator Issa López, the crew, and her co-star Kali Reis.
In her speech, Foster took a moment to pay tribute to the Inuit people of Northern Alaska, whose culture and stories influenced the show, despite it being filmed in Iceland. “They allowed us to listen, and that was a blessing,” Foster said. “It was love, love, love. When you feel that, something amazing happens. It’s deep and wonderful, older than this place and time. That’s the message—love and work equals art.”
True Detective: Night Country led the Emmy nominations for HBO this year with 19 nods. Foster starred as Detective Liz Danvers in the fourth season of the popular crime anthology series.
Earlier in the year, Foster discussed the challenges of filming in harsh conditions in Alaska and Iceland during an interview with Robert Downey Jr. for Variety. She recounted a particularly difficult scene in which she fell through the ice, revealing that the experience, which was filmed in a dark, 150-foot tank, was one of her “worst nightmares.”
Foster, who was also nominated as a producer for the series, won against fellow nominees Brie Larson (Lessons in Chemistry), Juno Temple (Fargo), Sofia Vergara (Griselda), and Naomi Watts (Feud: Capote vs. The Swans).