We found her last May where it all really began. For almost a year, she traveled around the world to promote Killers of the Flower Moonby Martin Scorsese, however, it was at Cannes that Lily Gladstone’s talent was revealed.
The actress, almost unknown to the general public, starred alongside Hollywood megastars Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, and yet we only saw her. Long jet-black hair, a stature that immediately inspires respect, a face imbued with gentleness and serenity evoking that of the Mona Lisa…
The first Native American actress nominated for the Oscars leaves no one indifferent and stands out without any special effects. No doubt because she is a fighter, one of those whom the vagaries of life have never managed to bring down. Quite the contrary.
Born in Browning, Montana, Lily Gladstone spent her early years on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, before moving with her parents to Seattle for economic reasons.
Very quickly, she became passionate about theater, which she studied at university. At the age of 20, rather than going like so many others to castings in New York or Los Angeles, she chose to continue creating where she feels at home, within the framework of local troupes and projects combining art and media. For four years, she worked in a company that brought to life forgotten stories from American school textbooks.
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In 2013, she landed her first film role in Jimmy P. (Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian)a film by French actor Arnaud Desplechin shot in the United States. Her on-screen partner, Benicio del Toro, praises her magnetic presence, but the young woman’s career does not take off. She has to wait three years to be offered a real role in Some womenby Kelly Reichardt, alongside Kristen Stewart.
If she subsequently shoots a few low-budget independent films, stars in a few episodes of series and plays in plays, she must resolve to return to her parents’ home in Seattle. She was considering taking training from the Ministry of Agriculture when Martin Scorsese offered her a first contact by Zoom, in the middle of Covid.
Four years and a Golden Globe for best actress later, the 36-year-old actress savors her consecration, without talking about it. Devoted to her role as a member of the jury under the presidency of Greta Gerwig, she found a little time on the Croisette between two screenings of films in competition to defend Fancy Dancea feature film by Erica Tremblay shot before Killers of the Flower Moonof which she is the main heroine and which is very close to her heart.
The JDD. How does it feel to be back in Cannes, a year after the screening of Killers of the Flower Moon that put you in the spotlight?
Lily Gladstone. In my community, we think that in our world, everything is a story of circles and cycles. And finding myself here a year after this incredible climb of the stairs with Leonardo [DiCaprio, NDLR]Marty [Scorsese] and the members of the Osage people whom the film pays homage to, a few months after this incredible and exhausting Oscar campaign, I feel like we have come full circle.
I am very grateful to the festival for offering me a place on the jury: what an honor, really! It feels good to change gears: you’re in a particular state of mind and a strange form of energy when you’re promoting a film, especially one as anticipated as Killers of the Flower Moonwhich made me travel and kept me away from home for many months.
There, watching numerous feature films made by filmmakers from such different backgrounds, I get a huge dose of creativity. Exactly what I need before going back to work on a new shoot.
“The release of “Killers of the Flower Moon” crushed everything”
You have very often been managed by women. It is voluntary ?
Which makes me say “ oui » to a project, it is above all the story, but it is true that I was particularly sensitive to the scenarios written by authors belonging to very specific communities.
And here again, the theory of circles is verified: it is my role in Some women, by Kelly Reichardt, which led me to be spotted by Martin Scorsese, and this director’s cinema, her way of making a film, is unlike any other. When I met Erica Tremblay three years later, with whom I first shot the short film Little ChiefI told myself that I had found the indigenous version of Kelly!
I was not mistaken, because Erica very admires the work of her colleague, and she too has her own way of operating on set, based on the collaboration of all the members of the team and the circulation of ideas.
I was very happy, and flattered, that she proposed to me Fancy Dance to continue and deepen the very strong bond that had been forged between us. Each time I collaborated with women, I was touched by the great curiosity for others that they demonstrated, their desire to embark, without making any difference between one or the other, in an adventure unique and participatory human. And that’s what I expect from an artistic project.
What did you like about Fancy Dance?
Let this be a tribute to all Native American women: it is the love they have that allows us to resist and survive, to maintain cohesion within our community.
But the character of Jax, which I had to embody, terrified me: I could roughly see the route I had to take him, yet I had difficulty getting out of me this girl that Erica had written to measure for me . I feared I wouldn’t live up to what she saw in me… Fortunately, those I love came to my aid. At first, Erica had imagined having me wear cargo pants with a tight-fitting tank top, which made me look like Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski !
I worked with the costume designer and ended up, unintentionally, dressing like my cousin Chad: he was the only boy among my relatives who had long hair. We grew up together on the Blackfeet reservation, and he was like a brother to me.
And then another of my cousins, Will, also imposed himself on me: he had chosen to live in the city but participated in many cultural events within the community, he always sought to help everyone world. He became a father at a very young age, taking care of his numerous nieces and nephews:
he understood that he no longer had to act like an adolescent, that he had to construct his own vision of the world to pass it on to future generations. Even though it happened very early in his life… The unconscious influence of these two boys whom I admired and who had always protected me allowed Jax to impose himself on me.
As well as the very maternal relationship that was immediately created with my young partner, Isabel Deroy-Olson. Once Jax was there, she never stopped surprising me, pushing me to surpass myself. And in the end, I was impressed by what I was able to give.
“All my prizes are at my parents’ house in Seattle”
The film denounces the racism that Native American communities are still victims of today. Just like the crimes their members are victims of.
We collaborated with the National Indigenous Women Resource’s Center, an NGO that deals with the disappearances and murders of indigenous women. The homicide rate in our communities is ten times higher than elsewhere, and authorities are doing little to bring the numbers down.
An irony, when we know that the FBI was originally created to solve the murders of Native Americans, as recalled Killers of the Flower Moon ! In Fancy Dancethe bad guys are no longer the cowboys or the sheriffs with big mustaches who took sadistic pleasure in torturing Apaches armed with a tomahawk, but a mother-in-law who absolutely wants ” civilize “her husband’s granddaughter by bringing her from the reserve to the city, and giving her ballet lessons to keep her away from the powwows in traditional dress.
Our shawls, our jewelry, our hairstyles, we treat them with respect, because we consider them extensions of ourselves. Calling them ornaments or costumes is part of a process of colonization that aims to disconnect us from our culture.
I have just produced a scientific documentary produced by Blackfeet scientists: they are interested in our quasi-biological connection with bison and are campaigning for their reintroduction into our community, because our survival has always been linked to them.
You were ready to give up acting before Killers of the Flower Moon. Have you found the desire to play today?
My desire to be an actress had never disappeared, and that was the tragedy! I could no longer afford financially to wait three years for a filmmaker to think of me for a real role.
I don’t like to say that Scorsese saved my career, because Fancy Dance had offered me a leading role a few months before: the film had been shown in numerous festivals and had received good reviews, but the release of Killers of the Flower Moon crushed everything.
I am happy to be able to give him the exposure he deserves today. But I want to say thank you to Marty, because he was the one who gave audiences around the world the opportunity to fall in love with a Native American woman, Mollie Burkhart, and we realize how much we missed that.
We want to see more women like her, like Jax, on screen, heroines from multiple tribes who have been invisible for so long. I am happy to be seen as an actress in my own right, and I consider it my mission to show that an indigenous artist can shine in all genres.
And that’s what’s happening: I’ve received offers for action films and comedies, and the studios are now letting me explain my desires to them.
“A little lightness will do me good, because I have mainly filmed dramas”
What are your upcoming projects ?
This summer I will be filming in Vancouver a reinvention of Best man, Ang Lee’s directorial debut (1993), an ensemble comedy bordering on farce directed by Bowen Yang. A little lightness will do me good, because I have mainly filmed dramas. I see it as a sort of return to basics: when I was a kid, I liked to create characters to make my parents laugh and I imitated the famous TV cook, Martha Stewart, very well!
Where did you put your Golden Globe?
All my prizes are at my parents’ house in Seattle. It’s always there, where my dog is also, that I feel at home.
