For 'Killers of the Flower Moon's' Lily Gladstone, Oklahoma was 'a different version of home'

Sitting in front of the big screen in the First Americans Museum's Five Moons Theater on a summery Oklahoma evening, Lily Gladstone acknowledged that her life was changing.

Or, as the Native American actor put it with a wry grin, "Things are about to be stupid for me," a quip that drew knowing laughs from the packed house at the Oklahoma City museum, which hosted a screening of her independent film "Fancy Dance" in June as part of the deadCenter Film Festival.

As it turns out, taking on the leading lady role in an epic $200 million film directed by cinema legend Martin Scorsese and co-starring Oscar-winning screen icons Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio can be a life-altering event.

Two years after filming in and around the Osage Nation in northeastern Oklahoma, "Killers of the Flower Moon" is one of the most anticipated movies of 2023. It is already widely regarded as an Academy Awards contender ahead of its Oct. 20 global theatrical release.

And so is Gladstone, 37, a NiMíiPuu, or Nez Perce, and Siksikaitsitapi, or Blackfeet, actor who hails from Montana but has spent much of the past five years working on film and television projects in the Sooner State.

"I come to Oklahoma for work pretty often, and I come to Oklahoma just to see people pretty often now, after spending so long making such incredible films here," Gladstone said in an exclusive interview during the June 11 deadCenter closing-night festivities. Gladstone spoke with The Oklahoman before the ongoing Screen Actors Guild strike began.

"Oklahoma's become very, very dear to me." 

What is 'Killers of the Flower Moon' about?

Adapted from David Grann's 2017 New York Times best-seller and National Book Award finalist “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI," Scorsese's fact-based Western drama is one of the biggest movie productions ever undertaken in Oklahoma.

But it's also chronicling one of the most horrific and, until recently, often-overlooked chapters in Oklahoma's complicated history.

More: Everything you need to know about the Oklahoma-made movie 'Killers of the Flower Moon'

With its screenplay co-written by Scorsese and Oscar winner Eric Roth ("Forrest Gump"), the almost 3 1/2-hour film chronicles the serial murders of Osage Nation citizens in 1920s Oklahoma, after an oil boom made them the wealthiest people in the world per capita.  

The killings became known as the "Reign of Terror" and led to an investigation by the then-fledgling FBI.    

Lily Gladstone's performance earns praise from Osage Nation leaders

In "Killers of the Flower Moon," Gladstone stars as Mollie Kyle Burkhart, a real-life Osage woman who lived on the tribal settlement of Gray Horse, near Fairfax. During the Reign of Terror, she and her family were marked for death in a vicious scheme to swindle away their oil money.    

DiCaprio portrays her treacherous husband, Ernest Burkhart, who is caught between his love for his wife and the deadly plot masterminded by his uncle, William K. Hale (De Niro).  

"To see Lily Gladstone hanging in there with such world-class actors was very good to see from a Native American standpoint. We're all real proud of her ability to do that," Osage Nation Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear told The Oklahoman in a recent interview.

The chief hasn't been the only Osage tribal member to laud Gladstone's performance: Apple Studios hosted on July 8 a private screening and reception in Tulsa for Osage Nation citizens who worked on the film, as well as for tribal elders and leaders. Attendees included Scorsese, Grann and cast members Gladstone, DiCaprio, Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, Cara Jade Myers and Tatanka Means.

More: 'Reign of Terror' in Oklahoma: the harrowing history behind a string of Osage murders

"I was so pleased, so excited about Lily Gladstone's performance. She just knocked it out of the ballpark. ... They did an excellent job, of course, Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio. But she's what stole the show for me, truly," Osage businesswoman Danette Daniels told The Oklahoman after the July event.

"She had gotten so close to us community members from the Osage (Nation), and she's such a nice person, such a wonderful person. She wanted to do her very best, and she succeeded in that."

Who is Lily Gladstone?

Raised on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana and later near Seattle, Gladstone graduated with honors from the University of Montana in 2008 with a bachelor of fine arts in acting and directing and a minor in Native American studies.

She made her feature film debut in 2013's "Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian," starring Benicio Del Toro and Mathieu Amalric, followed that same year by the drama "Winter in the Blood," led by Tahlequah native Chaske Spencer and David Morse.

More: Tickets finally go on sale for movie 'Killers of the Flower Moon': Here's how to get them

Gladstone's breakout role came opposite Laura Dern, Kristen Stewart and Michelle Williams in writer-director Kelly Reichardt's drama "Certain Women," with her performance as The Rancher earning her nominations for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female and Gotham Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Actor.

"I could stand here and fan girl about Lily Gladstone for hours. I think that while many are just going to be discovering Lily Gladstone, she's always been here, and she's been working since she was a young person," Oklahoma native and Seneca-Cayuga filmmaker Erica Tremblay, who directed Gladstone in "Fancy Dance," told The Oklahoman during the deadCenter Film Fest.

"I'm excited for everyone who will be blessed with her performances and her talent in their lives."

'Killers of the Flower Moon' star could be the first Native American Best Actress nominee

For her turn in "Killers of the Flower Moon," Gladstone could become the first Native American performer to be nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award. According to Variety, only three Indigenous women have earned Best Actress nominations in the Oscars' almost 100-year history: Mexican performer Yalitza Aparicio for “Roma” (2018), New Zealander Keisha Castle-Hughes in “Whale Rider” (2003) and Brit Merle Oberon for “The Dark Angel” (1935).

But it was Tremblay who first brought Gladstone to Oklahoma on a much smaller project: her short film "Little Chief," which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Gladstone told The Oklahoman a call from Sterlin Harjo, the Tulsa-based Seminole and Muscogee filmmaker behind the hit series "Reservation Dogs," put her on the path for her first Sooner State project.

"He called me because he was mentoring Erica and said that she wanted to cast me in her short. And I read the script, and it was just an immediate 'yes.' She's such a strong writer. She has such an impeccable voice that is delivered with such a light touch. And that's really hard to find in any filmmaker," Gladstone said.  

Gladstone said she and Tremblay have been talking since 2018 about returning to Oklahoma to make "Fancy Dance," an indie drama that premiered this year at Sundance, won best Indigenous feature and best narrative feature at OKC's deadCenter and screened along with "Killers of the Flower Moon" at this month's BFI London Film Festival.

"I read the first draft of it several months before the other movie," Gladstone said, but she ended up making "Killers of the Flower Moon" first.

Working in Oklahoma 'felt like coming to a different version of home' to Lily Gladstone

Filmed over five months in 2021, "Killers of the Flower Moon" hired numerous Osage Nation consultants, performers and artisans, along with other Oklahoma cast and crew, and recruited hundreds of extras. The moviemakers took over parts of downtown Pawhuska for more than two months so that the buildings could be transformed and Kihekah Avenue could be covered in dirt for the 1920s period film.   

"You can, if you want to, blow in and blow out and make a movie, stay on set, stay in your little bubble and then leave. ... But when you're representing communities, and you're working within the communities you're representing, it's important to develop those relationships ... and to really co-build trust together," Gladstone said.

"It'll make a better film, but it also makes for a better life."

Gladstone and Tremblay finally reunited in Oklahoma last summer to film "Fancy Dance" in the Cherokee Nation. The family drama was one of the first recipients of the Cherokee Nation Film Incentive that launched in early 2022.   

Plus, Gladstone returned to the state for a memorable guest-starring turn as the incarcerated Hotki in Season 2 of Harjo's groundbreaking series "Reservation Dogs." She made her way back to northeastern Oklahoma to reprise the role in the series finale, which bowed last month on Hulu.

Each trip to Oklahoma has afforded her opportunities to work in Native communities and widen her own circle.

"It's been wonderful. It's been like a lot of experiences that you have in Indian Country: I found Blackfeet in Osage Country ... so that was cool," she said. "At the 'Rez Dogs' wrap party, I got to hang out with some Blackfeet Osages.

"Certainly, Indian Country in Oklahoma is different than Indian Country in Montana, but in a lot of ways, it's not. It felt like coming to a different version of home."

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: After 'Killers of the Flower Moon,' Lily Gladstone returns to Oklahoma