The first Native American actress to win a Golden Globe in Killers of the Flower Moon talks about why her new film, Fancy Dance, is personal. Four years ago Lily Gladstone applied for a job tracking dangerous hornets for the US Department of Agriculture. The actress had been in a few successful films, including Certain Women with Laura Dern and Kristen Stewart, but acting work had dried up, so she thought she’d try something different.
Then Martin Scorsese called. He cast her in Killers of the Flower Moon , alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro — and she hasn’t looked back. Her poised performance as the Osage tribeswoman Mollie earned her a Golden Globe for best actress and an Oscar nomination, the first for a Native American woman in a leading role.
Gladstone, 37, smiles proudly as she talks about it. The highlight was when her tribe, the Blackfeet Nation, based in Montana, held Lily Gladstone Day to celebrate her Oscar nomination. There are videos online of her receiving a special headdress — never mind Academy awards, this is one of the highest Blackfeet honours.
“One of the most moving things was getting to meet these kids that I had seen making TikToks cheering me on all through awards season,” she says. “I’d look at their little faces every time I needed a pick-me-up, listening to them tell me to try hard. I’ve wanted to step back from acting at points because I felt like it wasn’t serving anybody, not even me, but [the tribe] supported me.
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