Thirty-five years after her Oscar-winning performance as FBI trainee Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs , Jodie Foster is back on her crime-solving path in True Detective: Night Country .

Premiering January 14, the long-awaited fourth season of HBO’s acclaimed anthology series opens in Ennis, Alaska, as the remote fictional town plunges into polar night, a period of prolonged winter darkness that occurs every year north of the Arctic Circle. As Ennis Sheriff Liz Danvers, Foster is paired with Kali Reis’s state trooper Evangeline Navarro—a pair with complicated pasts who team up to investigate the mysterious disappearance of eight scientists working at the nearby Tsalal Arctic Research Station. Naturally, a dark web of secrets soon begins to unravel.

After a near-universally beloved first season starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as a pair of seemingly mismatched homicide detectives chasing a serial killer responsible for a series of brutal, ritualistic murders in the Louisiana swamps, the show’s second and third seasons failed to reach the heights of its predecessors. But ahead of its premiere, True Detective Season 4, which Foster produced, has received rave reviews from critics.

“[Showrunner Issa] López’s beautifully executed story grounds its hard-boiled mystery in multidimensional characters, believably immersing viewers in a unique community and making a strong case for the series’ continued existence,” TIME TV critic Judy Berman wrote . “In contrast to the golden desert heat and white masculinity that defined True Detective ‘s iconic first season ,Night Country is cold, pale, feminine, in tune with the native woman’s point of view. Where True Detective can be intoxicating to the point of pretentiousness, Night Country is humane.”

Foster also recently turned in an impressive performance in Nyad , a 2023 biopic about history-making long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad (Annette Bening), in which Foster plays Nyad’s coach and best friend Bonnie Stoll.

TIME spoke with Foster about her relationship with true crime, the satisfaction of taking on supporting roles, and the difficult rise of female directors.

TIME: Your performance as Clarice Starling in Silence of the Lambs paved the way for a new generation of female detectives on screen. How has that role evolved in popular culture?

Foster: At the time, I didn’t realize I was doing anything special. I just wanted to continue the hero’s journey. And the classic hero’s journey is only for men. Silence of the Lambs was revolutionary in that it suggested that the hero’s journey could be a woman’s journey. It’s been wonderful over the last 30 years to see different voices come into the picture—female protagonists and complex, troubled, messy antiheroes.

How does it feel to once again take on the lead detective role in a crime drama more than 30 years after Silence of the Lambs became the defining film of your career?

It’s great to get back into this kind of horror, thriller, crime puzzle genre. [ Silence ] is really a great movie. In some ways, it’s like the great-grandmother of True Detective Season 4.Silence inspired Seven , which inspired True Detective Season 1, which inspired True Detective Season 4. So it’s a little bit of a chain of events. And I feel like I have a direct emotional connection to telling that kind of story.

True Detective has traditionally been a show with a lot of masculine energy and characters. This season flips that dynamic. How does that change add a new dimension to the series?

These are more complex people, and we need more complex people for our culture to grow and evolve. The first season [of True Detective ] was incredible. But when you look back, you’re like, “Oh, that was so masculine.” It’s a lot of questions about masculine identity and the pain of masculinity. It’s a valuable story to tell. But we wanted to tell a story about the world of women. So it was a different path. We looked at misogyny through different eyes, rather than through the eyes of a misogynist.

True Detective: Night Country was filmed in Iceland to double as Alaska. What was it like filming in those harsh winter conditions? 

There’s an inherent survival instinct and smallness to nature when you live in a place that can snap you like a twig. And that’s especially true when you live above the Arctic Circle. At any moment, you could be gone. So there’s a reverence and humility about life. One of our characters talks about Alaska as the end of the world. It’s a place where the seams are coming apart and the old world is revealing itself. When you live in a place that’s so extreme, the damage that humans have done to the earth is starting to show.

Host Issa Lopez says she loves true crime mysteries , including the stories that inspired this season. Are you a true crime fan?

I’m more interested in cinema than the weird, horrible things people do to each other in real life. So I love when we, as an audience, are drawn into the darkest recesses of our souls. There’s something healing about watching a good guy swim through this terrible darkness and emerge into the light. It’s very transformative, and it’s as old as the hills in terms of narrative structure.

There are quite a few very detailed images in the show. As someone who has starred in films like Silence of the Lambs , do scenes like this still haunt you?

It’s funny because when you’re acting and you’re interacting with special effects, it doesn’t affect you because you can see the spaghetti behind the curtain. But it’s cool to see the magic when it’s on screen and still feel chilled and still not see the end coming. If you go back to Silence of the Lambs , it’s a particularly bloodless movie. There’s not really a lot of violence in it. In fact, the allusions are worse. That’s what makes that movie scary. I think that’s true of this movie as well. It’s actually the allusions to the anxiety and insecurity that we already have that’s scary.

Your True Detective companion this season is Kali Reis, an untested actress. As someone who has been acting since she was very young, what was that experience like?

Kali is an incredible actress. She’s a world champion boxer, so she brings a fierceness and a completely disciplined presence. You can’t stop watching her. But she’s also very sensitive and spiritual and instinctive, and all of that comes through. It’s great to see that come together. Her character Navarro is really special. She’s the central journey of True Detective: Night Country. My job is to support that journey and allow that central Native voice to shape the show.

In both True Detective and Nyad , you play one half of two very different partners in crime. How does that compare to the more solo lead roles you’ve done?

When I was younger, I was more interested in a solo journey. I didn’t believe I could still find my center in a partnership. Now that I’m in my 60s, I finally realize the satisfaction of being part of a team. I didn’t know how satisfying it would be to be in a supporting role with someone whose journey is at the center.

Nyad tells the story of the unbreakable friendship between swimmer Diana Nyad and her friend and coach Bonnie Stoll. What drew you to the story?

There are two reasons why I wanted to join Nyad . One is because of Bonnie and Diana, who I know and are incredible. Diana’s 110-mile swim at an altitude of 64 miles in the Gulf Stream full of sharks and jellyfish is incredible. And of course, the amazing Annette Bening. I loved every minute of working with her. It’s great to work with someone you respect so much.

The film does a great job of depicting how women, especially older women, have the ability to break out of the boxes they are often confined to. What is it about Nyad that makes it such an effective vehicle for that message?

People really connect with that feeling of, “Wait, I’m not done just because I’m a certain age.” If you have a mission in life but people keep telling you that your opportunity is over—who says that? And for women of a certain generation who sometimes have to choose between having a fulfilling life and having a partner and having children, there’s also this story of deciding to hold hands and say, “You’re my best friend, you’re my family, and we’re going to be together until the day we die.” It’s really hard to explain how deep that friendship is.

In a 1991 TIME magazine cover story , you said that directing was not a business that was kind to women, and that you hoped that one day there might be an “older women’s network” in Hollywood. How do you look back on those feelings today?

Sometimes I read things that I said in my 20s and I’m like, really? But it’s a pretty cool thing. When I was younger, there were really no American female directors, maybe a couple. I didn’t think I was allowed to direct. And that’s not true anymore. I couldn’t be more proud to see Greta Gerwig this year with Barbie . Not only is this amazing director getting recognized, but there are people behind her saying, “You’re not a risk.” I never thought that would happen. So it was just a big smile on my face.

As an actor, what have you learned that you can only learn after decades of pursuing this profession?

You don’t have to worry so much and try so hard. It’s all about relaxation. To be great, you don’t have to hold yourself back. So that means you can take a nap, drink coffee, and show up.