Above the chaos of the Croisette in Cannes, in a quiet suite at the hotel Le Majestic, Lily Gladstone is making Earl Grey. Dressed in a crisp white suit and speaking in a low, subdued voice, she looked remarkably calm—certainly, too calm for someone who went from relatively unknown indie to Oscar frontrunner almost overnight.
) In Killers of the Flower Moon , Martin Scorsese’s sweeping crime saga is adapted from the David Grann’s eponymous non-fiction masterpiece about the oil-rich Osage community in Oklahoma, whose members begin dying under mysterious circumstances in the 1920 years , her commanding performance above the rest — no mean feat, considering her on-set co-stars included Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio. They play Bill Hale and Ernest Burkhart, uncle and nephew who covet the extraordinary wealth of their Native American neighbors and hatch a plan to get a piece of it for themselves, setting their sights on single and wealthy Mollie Kyle (Grey Ston).
She found out about their plan a mile away, but she fell in love with Ernest anyway, pulled him into her world, and taught him Osage , and even helped him dress up the character. Once they were married, however, she began to falter – first from heartbreak at the loss of several family members to a so-called Reign of Terror, and then from the diabetes that plagued her body, made worse by Ernest’s insistence on insulin injections. Bad
His crimes, and Bill’s, were eventually uncovered by FBI agent Tom White (Jesse Plemons) – in fact, an early version of the script centered on him , the focus shifted to Molly and Ernest earlier – but, despite her ill health, Molly seems to be capable of anything. Still stoic, Gladstone seemed to carry all the pride and pain of the Osage on her stiff spine, the gentle way she folded her hands, and the deep, melancholy look in her eyes.
This 1920 year old Native American actress has worked with countless Osage actors in films, but she is originally from Montana State’s Blackfoot, with a touching twist in Kelly Reichardt’s Certain Women and Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi’s Reservation Dogs , but this is undoubtedly the character that will change her life. At the start of her awards show, she spoke to us about the unimaginable strength of the real Molly, trembling in front of DiCaprio and De Niro, and how she’ll be buzzing with the next few months. The hum continued to heat up.
