‘True Detective: Night Country’s Isabella LaBlanc Says the Finale “Delivers in a Big Way”

[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for True Detective: Night Country.]

The Big Picture

• Co-stars Isabella LaBlanc, who plays Leah, and Anna Lambe, who plays Kayla, had limited information about their roles and the story when auditioning for ‘True Detective: Night Country.’
• The cold and dark environment in Iceland added to the authenticity of the series and impacted the actors’ performances.
• Both actresses praised their experiences working with the cast and crew, including Jodie Foster, and expressed excitement for future projects that push boundaries.

Written and directed by Issa López, the fourth season of the HBO crime anthology True Detective: Night Country is all about mood and atmosphere, from the dark and frosty nights to the hints of supernatural and horror. At its core is the uneasy partnership between Detectives Liz Danvers (Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis), the investigation of the disappearance of eight men who were operating the Arctic Research Station in Ennis, Alaska, and how that connects to the murder of a local Indigenous activist. Different in their approach but with the same goal in mind, Danvers and Navarro are shaped by personal tragedy and must heal their own wounds on the winding road to the truth.

Within the season, the town of Ennis contains a wide variety of characters woven into the story, including Leah (Isabella Star LaBlanc), Danvers’ stepdaughter who is struggling to find her voice and identity as an Indigenous woman, and Kayla (Anna Lambe), a young nurse married to Danvers’ protégé Peter Prior (Finn Bennett). After screening all six episode, Collider got the opportunity to chat with LaBlanc and Lambe about their True Detective roles and their Season 4 characters. During the interview, the co-stars talked about being in awe of showrunner Issa López and the world she created, being able to trust that the creative team was coming from the right place when it came to Indigenous representation, how shooting on location in Iceland helped add to the authenticity, working with the corpsicle, Prior family bonding, Leah’s most vulnerable moments, and having a final episode that really delivers. They also talked about what’s next for their acting careers having learned so much from this experience.

‘True Detective: Night Country’ Co-Stars Isabella LaBlanc and Anna Lambe Were in Awe of the World Created

Collider: How did you guys get these roles? Was there a long audition process for this? Did you get told much of what the story would be and who your characters were? With as secret as they keep things sometimes, did you even know what was going on?

ANNA LAMBE: For me, I had auditioned in July or something, and all that I came through was that True Detective was looking for Arctic and Indigenous talent. There was no real description of the storyline. It was just, “Submit, and they’ll see where you fit.” And I remember texting my team and I was like, “What’s going on? What is the story? I don’t wanna just get the scripts and figure it out.” And they were like, “It’s pretty under wraps. Just go with it. It’s True Detective. Here’s what you’re looking at.” To then read all the scripts, I remember I was sitting on my couch, and I don’t think I moved for three hours. I was just scrolling and scrolling and scrolling, so in awe of what Issa [López] created and the story was so sick.

ISABELLA LaBLANC: It was pretty incredible. I remember when my manager called me with the initial audition and all that she told me was, “It’s True Detective. Jodie Foster is your stepmom.” And I was like, “Are you sure they me? Did they confuse me with someone else?” But then, I got a little bit of a description and I read the first scene in episode one, of Leah and Danvers. And then, once I got the part and I read through all the scripts, I was like, “Whoa, this is wild and amazing and I’m so, so excited.” I’m almost glad I didn’t know everything before because I would have wanted it that much more. It was nice that it all got revealed once I already had the job.

I would imagine that when you just get a line that says “Arctic and Indigenous talent,” you think, “Oh, God, what are the stereotypes going to be?”

LAMBE: Yeah. When I first auditioned, I actually auditioned for Annie K, originally. I got a second email that was like, “The director wants you to audition for Kayla. Can you send in another tape?” And I was like, “Okay, interesting.” So, I had little teeny tiny tidbits, and I was trying to piece it together. I was like, “I don’t really understand how these stories go hand in hand, but I’m so curious and so excited to figure out why.” And then, seeing how complex and nuanced and wide the story is, and how much Issa was able to jam pack into six episodes, was so incredible. I remember being on set, and I’m from the Arctic and Ennis is very much like the town that I grew up in, and walking through the streets, even being in the laundromat, reminded me so much of home.

LaBLANC: Sometimes you hear about these projects and you’re like, “Okay, I don’t know, am I gonna have to be full cultural consultant mode this whole time? Am I gonna have to be keeping an eye on things, making sure that I feel good about this story?” And it felt like, as soon as I met this team, I could almost relax into it because it felt like there were so many good people and everyone’s hearts were in the right place. I always had trust that we were telling this story in the way that we should, and we were being conscious and careful about it.

I absolutely love the vibe of this whole season, which in large part comes from the darkness and the snow. To achieve that, you guys shot this in Iceland in the cold of winter. How did you find the experience of actually getting to be in the environment and not having to recreate it on a soundstage? Do you feel like it worked to your advantage to not have to pretend with any of that?

LaBLANC: Exactly. That’s true. Pretending to be cold is a lot harder than just being cold. Anna is more used to cold than I am, but I’m from Minnesota, so I grew up in the cold. When I got the job, my manager was frantically calling me and being like, “Do you need a winter coat? Production will get you a winter coat and boots if you need.” I was like, “No, I have that covered.” What was amazing, once I got there, was that, even more than the cold, the lack of sunlight is what really did it for me. It’s such a different feeling and such a strange feeling to not be getting that sunlight as much every day and to have these short days. It really does change everything and you feel so different. I felt like that definitely played into my acting, where the days just roll into each other. That’s what it felt like.

LAMBE: Most of my stuff was shot interior, so I was cozy. I was okay. But definitely, filming out in the cold, it adds an extra layer. When these characters are outside, there’s this vibe of, “I need to get out of here. I need to get inside.” To have that come across by actually shooting in the cold is really great. Shout out to the Icelandic crew, who toughed it and braved it out for weeks on end during night shoots, which is so intense and so incredible. I also feel like, more than the cold, those short days can feel so isolating. You wake up, and it’s still dark, but it’s 9:30 in the morning. One of the things that I found a bit challenging was that when I lived through short days, I’ve always had my community and my family to lean into. It was a really great experience to lean into the community in Iceland and the way that they welcomed us and with open arms. It’s not necessarily the long night in Reykjavik, but it’s definitely a short day.

LaBLANC: And that’s so much of the brilliance of the story Issa is telling because it’s so much about connection and these characters needing and wanting and craving connection. It is true that when you’re in an environment like that, that’s so harsh, you need people in a different way. I feel like we got really lucky that we had each other, and an amazing crew and team. We survived it.

‘True Detective: Night Country’s Human Corpsicle Was Gross But Effective

Isabella, what was it like to work with the corpsicle hanging around the set?

LaBLANC: It was insane. It was so crazy. When I first got there, Issa showed me little clips of it because they were still working on it. She showed me little snippets of a foot or a head, and it was crazy. It was wild. My job was to show up and look at this crazy human sculpture. The artistic department on the show was just out of this world and the work that they did was incredible. It was really gross to look at, but in a great way.

Anna, Kayla and her husband have a very strained relationship, partly because he’s just a dumb guy when it comes to her, but also because he can’t stop putting work before everything else. At what point did you guys meet? Did you and Finn Bennett get to do any bonding or have any conversations about that relationship?

LAMBE: We got to work a lot together. Issa was very generous with her time and brought us in for many rehearsals to discuss who we were before we met, how we met, when we figured out that we were pregnant, and how we decided we were gonna start a family and get married. That was really great. And Finn is just such a pleasure to work with. He’s so sweet. I definitely feel like one of the turning points for our chemistry as a married couple happened when we had originally planned to go to the zoo. Production was sending us to the zoo with our son. Finn’s driver picked us up and we were sitting in the backseat waiting, and it had been half an hour. We were chit-chatting and we were like, “What’s going on?” It turns out the kid that was originally supposed to play our son got COVID, and Finn’s driver turned around and was like, “The tickets are already bought. Do you guys still wanna go to the zoo?” We looked at each other and were like, “Yes, sure.” So, we went and got to chat for a couple of hours about the characters and get to know each other on a really personal level. I feel like that really aided in figuring out our relationship for the series. Even though we got to have another little bit of family chemistry time with our other son, to have that time together and to build that translated onto the screen quite well, or I hope it did.

Isabella, when you get on set and Jodie Foster is your stepmother, what’s it like to share scenes with her? What do you learn and pick up and absorb, just from working with Jodie Foster?

LaBLANC: Oh, man, it was just the best. It was the greatest gift I could have asked for, as a young actor. She’s a genius. She’s the best of the best, and she somehow also manages to be just incredibly chill and lovely to be around, which feels like it shouldn’t be possible. It feels like you should have to pick one or the other. It’s annoying that she’s so good at both. I picked up so much from her, just having a good time with her. She’s so smart and eloquent and prepared, and she thinks about things with a director’s eye. I watched the way she approached every scene, and what she was paying attention to. She has a really amazing process that she’s really tailored to herself, over many years. It made me really excited to be like, “I get to tailor my own process and I get to figure out what works for me.” I’m creating my own Jodie method.

Liz accuses Leah of being a radical when it feels much more like passionate activism than just being a radical. There are a couple of really visual moments with you in the series, when Leah has the chin markings and also the handprint across her mouth. What was it like to shoot those moments and to have that very visual expression to go along with the emotion?

LaBLANC: In a lot of ways, those moments were the scariest for me, going in, because they did feel the most vulnerable. I couldn’t hide behind anything. I couldn’t really pretend, in the way that sometimes you can let the language do a lot of heavy lifting for you. In those moments, it really just had to be Leah showing up truthfully. I felt so grateful that Issa always gave me a ton of space. She had such a strong and clear eye, but she was never micromanaging moments. She was always trying to just set things up, and then see what came out. She was like, “You don’t need a single tear to drop at this point. You don’t need to have any of these beats happen. Just let it happen organically.” It felt really nice not to have those moments choked, and instead I could just ride the wave.

‘True Detective: Night Country’s Finale Provides Resolution and Room for Speculation

I have never felt so satisfied after watching a season of a series. After watching the finale episode, I felt like this story was complete and that I got to close the book at the end. When you guys read how your characters end up and how the story ends up, what was your reaction? What were the emotions that you felt the first time you read the script for the finale?

LAMBE: Reading through the finale, I don’t know what I was expecting. I had my own theories as I read through the first five episodes and I was like, “What direction are we going in?” And then, I read episode six and I was like, “Oh, my God, Issa.” It’s the last things that you expect to happen. To see the finale for every character, by the time I finished episode six, I was ready to text everyone and go, “So, what do you think happens?” Finn and I go back and forth all the time about whether we stayed together or got a divorce. Are we one big happy family or is Prior just so traumatized by the past few weeks of his life that he just needs to be alone?

LaBLANC: Part of Issa’s brilliance is that the ending just walks this perfect line of what you physically and viscerally need to get tied up with a bow, but then she still leaves so much for you to infer and to let your mind go wild. I was just so blown away by that last episode. When you read a script, you get so excited about the potential it has and you never know what’s gonna end up in the final product. And so, when I watched that final episode, I was just so blown away and taken aback because it really delivers in a big way. I feel like the story really deserved that.

What’s next for each of you guys? When you do something that raises the quality bar like this series does, how does that shape who you want to be as actors, going forward?

LAMBE: Doing a project like this, with the budget, the quality of the show, and the excitement around it, you live in this world where you’re like, “This has been the most amazing job of my life, and how incredible and how much of a privilege it is to be part of the story.” But what comes next for me is something a lot lighter and a lot more lighthearted. I’ll be leading a Netflix comedy series in the spring, that will hopefully come out sometime in 2025, I hope. It’s a huge departure from my last projects because everything’s been quite heavy and sad a lot of the time. So, I’m excited. As much as I love True Detective, and this has been such an incredible experience, and I’m so proud of what we all created, I’m really excited to go tickle some funny bones. It’ll be nice.

LaBLANC: I’ve learned so much from this experience. A big thing that I’m taking away is this desire to be pickier and to keep this as a standard. Not that it will always be this amazing and incredible, but I remember when I was first deciding that I wanted to be an actor, I had very low expectations. I was like, “I’m probably just gonna do an indie western. That will be my first movie. I’ll wear a buckskin dress and that’ll be that.” As long as I was acting, I was gonna be excited about it. But now, it just feels like the world has changed so much. It feels like this particular show is setting such a precedent that I’m really not interested in putting that buckskin dress on. Those projects just don’t have the same appeal to me. I’m really excited to look ahead at things like what Anna is doing that are setting new precedents and are taking us into new directions.

True Detective: Night Country is available to stream at Max. Check out the trailer:

Watch on Max