Kali Reis Reacts to Historic Emmy Nod, Working With Jodie Foster Again & Future of ‘True Detective’

Emmy nominations are always an exciting time and this year, it’s especially exciting for True Detective: Night Country star Kali Reis who made history with her nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.

Reis, along with Under the Bridge‘s Lily Gladstone are the first Indigenous women to be nominated in the category ever in a year where Indigenous media is getting some long-overdue attention, like FX‘s Reservation Dogs. TV Insider caught up with Reis to discuss her initial reaction to learning about her history-making Emmy nomination, as well as what it means to be nominated for this particular season of HBO‘s True Detective, which shines a light on environmental issues, missing and murdered Indigenous women, and much more.

Below, Reis gets candid about her nomination, how she and costar Jodie Foster plan to celebrate their recognition, hopes to collaborate in the future, and whether or not there’s a chance she and Foster will collaborate again with showrunner Issa López who has been tapped to work on the next season of True Detective along with other projects for HBO.

(Credit: HBO)

How did you hear about your nomination and what was your initial reaction?

Kali Reis: I actually found out from a phone call. I was watching the livestream on YouTube. My husband and I were watching it and I saw Jodie and the show get nominated. I saw Reservation Dogs [get nominated] and then I was like, “Oh, so they must not be announcing the supporting [categories], whatever I’ll find out later.” Then I got a phone call from my agent manager and they’re like, “Is this the Emmy-nominated Kali Reis?” And I was like, “Wait a minute I nominated, like what?” And my husband recorded me, my dog’s barking and going crazy. I didn’t know I’d gotten nominated yet.

Your nomination is history in the making and you get to share in it alongside Lily Gladstone. How does it feel to see this Indigenous representation being recognized by the Emmys in this way?

I couldn’t ask for a better time to be part of the conversation, as a spectator, as a mixed Indigenous woman, just to see where the representation started, where it’s going, where it is right now. And also to be part of the conversation with Lily, I mean, I look up to her so much and she’s such an elegant, intelligent, talented, beautiful person and just to be able to watch her on screen is amazing. And then to be able to be in a category making history with her like.. we’re rolling to Emmys deep, I’ll tell you that. And then to see, you know, this is the most representation ever in the Emmys, not only us but Reservation Dogs, D’Pharaoh [Woon-A-Tai], and up until now there was only one other representation I believe in the Emmys. So this is just mind-blowing and I’m proud. It’s not like, “Oh, thank you for having us.” It’s like, “Yo, it’s about time!” We’re coming in strong. This is how we do it in numbers, it’s a community thing. So it feels really good.

HBO

How does it feel to be nominated for this season of True Detective which touches upon really topical issues?

It touches on so many different themes artistically, representation-wise Indigenously, and the writing with Issa having that duality of the supernatural realm [tying] in the whole True Detective space… that’s like a whole different entity that you have of this beloved series that she tackled in her own way. And then you have the representation where there’s a part of America you forget about, and what it was built on was Indigenous history. There were people that had a whole way of life before [they were] colonized. It’s just really, really amazing to be a part of a contemporary story based on ancient ways of life. It’s walking all these fine lines around the environment, missing and murdered Indigenous women, [and] the invisibility of Indigenous people.

Your costar Jodie Foster is nominated as well. How does it feel to know you’re both being recognized and do you have any special plans to celebrate?

It just coincides with what extends beyond Danvers and Navarro, you know, we call each other partners [Reis says with a thick Boston accent]. I learned so much from her and she says she learned a lot from me and we were in it together. It wasn’t a hierarchy. It was just like, how do we tell this amazing story? So, it just really feels right. I know this is her first [Emmy] nomination as an actor, so it’s really cool. She texted me like, “Now we’ve got to coordinate outfits.”

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Issa’s been tapped to lead the next season of True Detective and has other projects on the horizon at HBO. Would you like to reenter that world or collaborate on another project in the future?

Jodie and I have been trying to con Issa into getting Danvers and Navarro back again [Laughs]. No, it was such an amazing experience. I just love Issa’s mind. I loved working with her, and her ability to speak everybody’s language. She speaks to everybody and it’s amazing to watch her work. She loves what she does. She jokes about, you know, “I just wanna play, I just wanna have these ideas with my friends,” and it really is about that with her. We were in negative temperatures for seven months in the dark and it was probably what some people would consider a nightmare, but we were in it together and we loved it and I absolutely loved working with Jodie. It was just such an amazing experience with everybody, the whole cast, the whole crew was just really amazing to work with. I love working with HBO.

True Detective: Night Country, Streaming now, Max