Academy Award winner Jodie Foster marked her win of a Best Supporting Actress Award at the 2021 Golden Globes by kissing her wife, Alexandra Hedison.
Foster, 58, won for her role as Nancy Hollander in the legal drama, The Mauritanian, based on the 2015 memoir Guantánamo Diary by Mohamedou Ould Salahi.
Jodie Foster’s online kiss and Aaron Rodgers
Because of the pandemic, the Golden Globes for this year was the first bicoastal broadcast with hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler in different video setups in New York City and Los Angeles.
While some presenters appeared at those events, others just Zoom-chatted in– including Foster, who was declared the winner of Best Actress in a Motion Picture Supporting Role.
She accepted her award while sitting with her wife, Hedison, and their dog, Ziggy, at home. The couple were wearing pajamas.
Foster said, “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.”
After thanking people, she turned to Hedison and said, “I love my wife! Thank you Alex, and Ziggy, and Aaron Rodgers.” She then kissed her.
Foster had included football player Rodgers in her thanks because the Green Bay Packers star had earlier cited her in February during the latter’s acceptance speech as National Football League (NFL) Most Valuable Player (MVP).
Foster– who is described as a “big Packers fans”– had also starred with Rodgers’ fiancée Shailene Woodley in the film.
Jodie Foster’s film history and coming out
Foster’s rivals for the Best Supporting Actress Award this year were Glenn Close, Olivia Colman, Amanda Seyfried and Helena Zengel.
This is Foster’s fourth Golden Globe win, having won in 1989 for The Accused and in 1992 for The Silence of the Lambs. She was later awarded the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2013.
It was during the latter event that she came out publicly during her acceptance speech, having been private about her sexuality for most of her life.
“I guess I have a sudden urge to say something that I’ve never been able to air in public that I’m a little nervous about– but maybe not as nervous as my publicist,” she said.
She added, “So I’m just going to put it out there, loud and proud, right? I’m going to need your support on this. I am, uh… I’m single.”
She also publicly thanked her former partner, Cydney Bernard, with whom she has two sons. The next year, Foster married Hedison.
Queer women winners at the Golden Globes
Aside from Foster, another queer winner of the night was Gillian Anderson for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Supporting Role. Anderson played Margaret Thatcher in The Crown.
Two straight actors playing queer characters won the Lead Actress film awards: Rosamund Pike as Marla Grayson in I Care a Lot and Andra Day as Billie Holiday in The United States vs. Billie Holiday.
The Queen’s Gambit, which also featured a queer woman, won two awards.
While actors Sarah Paulson and Cynthia Nixon were nominated for their roles in Ratched, another series featuring queer characters, neither of them won.
The Canadian comedy Schitt’s Creek, which featured an LGBTQ relationship, also won two awards.