out and proud

Jodie Foster kisses her wife when accepting her Golden Globe award

Jodie Foster kisses her wife while accepting her Golden Globe
(Photo: Golden Globes/NBC)

Jodie Foster won a Golden Globe yesterday evening for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture. It was for her role as real-life attorney Nancy Hollander in The Mauritanian.

This year’s ceremony was largely a virtual event, with winners accepting their awards from the comfort of home. Foster was shown in her pajamas, on her couch, with wife Alexandra Hedison by her side, and cradling her dog, Ziggy.

“Are you kidding me? I think you made a mistake. I’m a little speechless. I just never expected to ever be here again and wow, I have to thank all of my amazing filmmakers,” Foster, 58, said when she was announced as the winner, after planting a kiss on Hedison.

The Mauritanian is based on the 2015 memoir of Mohamedou Ould Salahi, who was held for 14 years at Guantanamo Bay detention camp without being charged.

Foster thanked her co-stars Kevin Macdonald, Tahar Rahim, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Shailene Woodley, as well as the woman she plays in the movie: Hollander. She also paid tribute to Salahi.

“Mohamedou, you’ve taught us so much about being a human being, about being joyful and loving and forgiving. And that’s a lesson that you bring to everybody.”

She then thanked her wife: “I love my wife! Thank you, Alex, and Ziggy [her dog] and Aaron Rodgers.”

Green Bay Packers player Rodgers is the fiancé of Foster’s Mauritanian co-star, Shailene Woodley. Last month, during his NFL MVP acceptance speech, Rodgers had said: “I’ve got a great group of people that support me, so I’d like to thank my team,” and included Foster, a big fan of the Packers, on this list. Foster’s mention of him was presumably her returning the compliment.

Related: TV features more LGBTQ characters than ever before

For many years, Foster kept quiet about her private life. In 2013, she publicly acknowledged a former long-standing female partner during the Golden Globes ceremony.

“There’s no way I could ever stand here without acknowledging one of the deepest loves of my life: my heroic co-parent, my ex-partner in love but righteous soul sister in life, my confessor, ski buddy, consigliere, most beloved BFF of 20 years, Cydney Bernard.”

Foster and Bernard had two sons together, Charlie and Kit.

By 2013, the women had already gone their separate ways. Foster married Hedison, 51, the following year.

Related: Jodie Foster Marries Girlfriend Alexandra Hedison, Remains Extremely Private

In the last decade, Foster had made only three movies. In a recent interview with the New York Times to promote The Mauritanian, Foster was asked why she appeared to have taken a step back from acting.

“I grew up in the film business, and I thought making films was the most meaningful thing anyone could do. More than being a soldier. More than being a doctor. And the world around me kept confirming that. That confirmation was a little like a steroid where you keep taking more and you’re like, I like the way that looks. Then you make a decision to stop the steroids, and you don’t recognize who you’ve become. I made that change in my life, and it was hard because I didn’t know who I was. It turns out that there are other things that are as meaningful as making movies.”

The big winners at last night’s Golden Globes were Nomadland, Borat, Schitt’s Creek and The Crown, with Gillian Anderson picking up an acting award for her role as Margaret Thatcher in the latter.

Most of the nominees accepted the awards via video. The smaller-than-usual live audiences of the bicoastal event were made up of frontline workers and first responders of the Covid-19 pandemic. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler hosted the ceremony from New York and Los Angeles.

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