Lily Gladstone’s awards run for Killers of the Flower Moon was historic, with the performer knocking down milestone after milestone: first Indigenous Golden Globe and SAG winner and first Native American Oscar nominee.
Although the votes fell just short of securing her that final superlative — Poor Things’ Emma Stone won the Academy Award for best actress — the Gladstone effect will continue to ripple throughout the industry, say Native members of the community.
Spirit Rangers writer Joey Clift was at a viewing party with other Native creatives on Sunday night. “To see a traditional Osage group performing a song, to be included in the conversation, being honored by this industry that for 100 years hasn’t honored us in that way, it feels like anything’s possible,” he says. “I was having this feeling of for the first time being allowed in the room in a real way.”
TV writer Lucas Brown Eyes (Young & Hungry, Alexa & Katie) agrees. “Every Native I know was super pumped. They were watching with their kids. It was almost like the moon landing, someone on that stage collecting an award that the industry agreed they earned,” he says. “When a Native project gets made it’s usually through a lot of hard work from a few people, not the industry saying, ‘Of course’ and opening its doors. It was, ‘Oh, this is what support looks like?’”
Gladstone’s name continued to trend on social media the day after the Academy Awards with both disappointment over her Oscars loss and appreciation for her performance both on and off the screen. “At every step of the way, she signal boosted other Native creatives, shouting out Native comedians she’d like to work with in big interviews,” says Clift, adding that Gladstone not only participated in the “high-profile advocacy” via legacy outlets like The Hollywood Reporter and Vanity Fair but also took the time to sit down with Native-run podcasts and radio shows, like A Tribe Called Geek’s Nomadcast. “She really used her platform to meet the excitement over her nomination not just for her career, but for the millions in the community.”
Gladstone herself has only posted once on social media since the Oscars – a few hours after the ceremony ended, she responded to a fan asking about her outfit to note that the embellishment on her Gucci gown was done by Ironhorse Quillwork’s Joe Big Mountain.
“All these Native designers that got to have red carpet moments [during Gladstone’s awards run] – this is what we do. We look to our left and to our right as Native people and we work with each other,” says actress and writer Jana Schmieding (Rutherford Falls, Reservation Dogs, Clone High). “To bring these lesser-known artists and designers into a heavily viewed space is truly a gift for everyone. Seeing Lily do this entire awards season with such grace and class and humor and dignity, there was not a single misstep taken at all. No notes!”
Clift adds that Gladstone’s awards campaign decisions are additionally impactful because of the precedent they set for future contenders from their community. “We don’t necessarily have a path of, ‘Here’s how you act on a red carpet,’ so it’s cool to see folks like Lily Gladstone, [Reservation Dogs creator Sterlin Harjo] and a lot of Native creatives smashing it out of the park and hopefully also leaving a good example of not only how to work in the entertainment industry but also how to boost people up.”
Much of the disappointment over Gladstone’s loss was tied to the fact that opportunities for Indigenous people to come within sniffing range of an Academy Award are exceedingly rare to the point of being nearly nil. Not only is she the first Native American to have been nominated for an acting Oscar, few have even been cast in roles substantive enough to qualify for any awards consideration: Before Killers of the Flower Moon, there was only one Native American lead character among the top 1,600 theatrical releases from the past 16 years, an Annenberg Inclusion Initiative research brief found.
“A lot of times when [someone loses an award] people say, ‘It’s ok, they’ll be another opportunity,” says Brown Eyes. “But there hasn’t been another opportunity like this [for Native Americans], and that’s why it was disappointing. If you look at most actors, they do many films and then every once in a while they get nominated. That would require a Native actor to get, what, five amazing roles for one to get nominated? That’s unheard of. When you’re getting anywhere from zero to one or two movies a year where Natives are featured, that person would have to get every single role for a decade.”
In contrast, 15 white women have won the best actress statuette more than once, including this year’s winner, who is a five-time nominee.
“The hurt is more representational of where we are because we know that this was lightning in a bottle – not only the performance and the opportunity to be in a role, but the support [Gladstone] had,” Brown Eyes continues.
Still, many Native creatives say that Gladstone’s awards season has been a powerful inspiration to the community. “It’s a bummer for the Oscars to not honor Lily Gladstone last night, but all of Native Hollywood is ready to write her the script that gets her that Oscar,” Clift says, adding that the actress is already also set to star in a Charlie Kaufman movie. “It’s amazing to see Native folks, kids and adults, who aren’t in the industry yet who are now motivated to pick up a pen or a camera.”
Schmieding agrees with the optimistic outlook. “Being this visible right now, I think people are awake to the value of Native storytelling,” she says, noting something Ava DuVernay once shared with her. “She said that she doesn’t want Black media to be considered a renaissance because that implies it’s going to end. I really take that to heart and see that as where we are too. This isn’t a renaissance. We’ve got our heels dug in and now we have the leadership and the leverage in the industry to continue on.”
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