'Evil was all around us': Osage actor brought family connections to 'Killers of the Flower Moon'

For Yancey Red Corn, "Killers of the Flower Moon" is more than just a story that you can read in a book — or soon see in a movie.

It's part of his family history as well as an ongoing legacy.

"My great-grandfather was poisoned and murdered back then, and my dad never met his grandfather at all. We hear all these stories ... and we knew the families, too, that also have been killed. We've all known that," Red Corn told The Oklahoman.

"Even after the second time I saw it, it still hits me hard. It's just a hard subject. It's hard to put in words."

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Before David Grann put the Reign of Terror into the words of his best-selling book "Killers of the Flower Moon," Red Corn's father, the late Charles H. Red Corn, wrote about the serial murders the Osage Nation endured in the 1920s on its northeastern Oklahoma reservation in his 2005 novel "A Pipe for February."

Now, Yancey Red Corn is appearing in Martin Scorsese's hotly anticipated movie adaptation of "Killers of the Flower Moon," which filmed in and around the Osage Nation in 2021. The legendary director said at the Cannes Film Festival that he also took inspiration from "A Pipe for February" in making his fact-based Western.

"In the credits, they thank Charles H. Red Corn and his family, so pretty much just seeing his name up there in the credits, (it felt like) he was with them through the whole production through how his book was presented. I was there; my sister was in a scene. My son was working with the publicist, so he was there," Yancey Red Corn said in a July interview after attending a special screening in Tulsa for Osage Nation citizens who worked on the movie, as well as for tribal elders and leaders.

"My dad, even though he was not alive, he was part of it."

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A Norman resident and Osage Nation citizen, Red Corn portays Osage Chief Bonnicastle in "Killers of the Flower Moon," while his cousin, Talee Redcorn, plays Non-Hon-Zhin-Ga, a traditional leader of the tribe, in the fact-based cinematic epic. In May, the cousins traveled to France to attend the movie's world premiere at Cannes, alongside Sorcese, current Osage Nation Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear and the film's stars, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone.

In an interview done before the ongoing Screen Actors Guild strike, Yancey Red Corn talked with The Oklahoman about his work on "Killers of the Flower Moon" and Scorsese's support for a planned screen adaptation for "A Pipe for February":

Q: What has it been like for you to watch the Reign of Terror played out on a big screen?

It's great ... but it's not supposed to be an easy watch, because what was happening was evil. Evil was all around us. We couldn't trust anybody. We couldn't trust our neighbor, we couldn't trust the pastor, we couldn't trust the local businessman, we couldn't trust the morticians, we couldn't trust the doctors. We couldn't trust the Indian Affairs people, we couldn't trust the state government, we couldn't trust the federal government. So, we didn't have anybody to turn to.

I know when my great-grandfather (Raymond Red Corn Sr.) was poisoned, his sons tried to get them to investigate. And they didn't; they were like ... 'He died of kidney failure' or something like that. But they knew it wasn't that.

Q: What are your thoughts about aspects of your father's novel being incorporated into this movie?

I think this happened during COVID, and they were doing a little more research. And Scorsese read my dad's book, and a lot of the other people that were involved ... read my dad's book. And they went, 'OK, this is what we need. This brings color to "Killers of the Flower Moon."' 'Killers of the Flower Moon' is great, and I'm great friends with David Grann — and he was really good friends with my dad (who died in 2017).

But 'A Pipe for February' ... his four main characters are in their early 20s. My dad's book comes from the viewpoint of Osages, and the people like my grandfather and his great-uncle who survived it, who was born in the 1880s. ... And they told him what they were going through at that time.

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They could afford anything, they were trying to have fun, and at the same time, people were getting killed all around them. And so they understood that, but it was kind of almost out of their hands. And in my dad's book, it really was the culture that saved them and got them through everything, sticking to their core values as Osages. ...

It gave Scorsese more of a feel for who the Osages were and what they were thinking at the time. So, there's things in there that I brought — the thoughts from some of that book — to my lines in the movie.

And I was used as a consultant, too, and a lot of my consulting was coming from what my dad told me.

Q: How did you go about portraying Chief Bonnicastle in the movie?

The way I spoke is based a lot on my uncle, Wakon Iron, whose other name was George Red Corn. He was born in the 1880s, and I knew him in the 1960s before he died. And I remember how he talked: He talked very measured and very thoughtful. Then, the other chiefs and tribal leaders ... they didn't just blab or just keep talking about stuff. They thought about what they said, and they wanted to be correct about how they said it.

So, I was very measured as the chief in how I spoke: I spoke strong, but I also wasn't yelling or doing it like that, because I remember the old leaders back in the day, how they were strong yet gentle. And Osages are big, so they didn't really have to be hardcore ... so I wanted to make sure that I show that he was intelligent and that he was measured and that he was a leader.

Actually, I had a couple of Osages come up (after the Tulsa screening) and say 'thank you' for that. ... They really appreciated that, getting away from all the Hollywood stereotypes.

Q: How was your experience at Cannes with the movie?

After the Saturday showing in Cannes, I was walking through the hotel that I was staying at, which had a lot of other directors from other countries and actors from other countries. ... Some of them got to go see the premiere ... and I was getting stopped in the hallways or at the restaurant. They'd come and talk to me. They were like, 'You're in that movie last night,' and I go, 'Yeah.' And they were like, 'It was great.'

But everybody that talked to me, they were all people of color. And they were emotional about it, and they were saying, 'I know that story's about the Osages ... but I watched it. It was about me. It was about me and my family and history in Africa.' Or, 'It's about me and my family in Indonesia' or Thailand. ... They were like, 'Thank you, thank you. We're thankful that this film's coming out, because it's not just about Osages. It has to do with us and all Indigenous people all over the world where colonialism has come in and just taken the land and (committed) genocide on people.' So, it hit a chord internationally.

Q: At Cannes, Scorsese talked about hoping to see 'A Pipe for February' made into a movie. How has he been showing his support for that?

He's mentoring my son, Miles, who wrote a script for a TV series for 'A Pipe for February.' ... My son worked on the film, too. He was the publicist's assistant, so he got to hang out and see everything ... because he wants to be a filmmaker. He wrote that, and Scorsese says he's not going to direct it or do anything like that. But he's going to mentor my son and us through it and make sure it gets put on screen and put in the hands of the right people.

My dad's book, we republished it — it just came out about a month ago — and Martin Scorsese wrote a foreword for it. Also, David Grann wrote a blurb for my dad's book, too. ... So, that's how important that book was to them and how it influenced 'Killers of the Flower Moon.'

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: 'Killers of the Flower Moon' took inspiration from Osage family's book