It was a most intriguing way to begin a Hollywood acceptance speech. When Lily Gladstone came to the stage to receive her Actor® statuette, she addressed the audience in the Blackfeet language, saying, “My name is Eagle Woman. I am Blackfeet. I love you all.”
Gladstone, for her performance in Killers of the Flower Moon, is the first Indigenous woman to win the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role. In the film, Gladstone plays Mollie Burkhart — an Osage heiress being poisoned by her white husband. Gladstone, who uses she/they pronouns, delivers a performance that illuminates the bedrock of a complicated individual. Burkhart is savvy and guarded yet also incautiously tender to the not-so-terribly-bright man she loves but cannot trust.
In a scene that epitomizes the duality of the character’s heart, Gladstone transforms Burkhart’s veneer of wariness into endearment as she refers to Leonardo DiCaprio’s Ernest as “coyote.” It was a line Gladstone came up with herself and one that helped her understand Burkhart’s weakness when it came to this man who would become her attempted murderer.
She “has his number,” knows he’s self-serving, but, as Gladstone explains in her Feb. 2 SAG-AFTRA Foundation interview, didn’t think he was “capable of it.” In addition to her win at the SAG Awards, Gladstone’s performance has garnered a number of other honors this season, including an Astra Award, a Golden Globe, and a Best Actress Oscar nomination — the latter another first for an Indigenous performer.
Continuing her acceptance speech — in English — Gladstone made a point to speak to the sacrifices made by all industry workers.
“This has been a hard year for all of us,” said Gladstone, who was a regular on the picket lines during the 2023 strike against the studios and streamers. “Those in this room, those not in this room, I’m so proud that we’ve gotten here in solidarity with all of our other unions. It’s truly a gift that we get to do this for a living. That’s the win. It’s getting to be here.”
In a post-acceptance interview with SAG-AFTRA, Gladstone said, “This one is a special award. It’s from your peers. It’s your fellow actors. Others who have gambled a comfortable life on doing what we do and pouring everything into it. This was such an incredible year of feeling solidarity with your fellow actors.”
When asked what advice she would give to the younger generation, Gladstone said, “Don’t try to fit any mold. I know it’s tempting. I know there’s people on the other side of the casting table, who are in the audience, that are keeping some kind of score ... People are honestly rooting for you. For incredible performances. They want to see you. They want to see what you bring. And there is a time where you have to compromise a lot of it. But also just embrace what makes you weird and makes you unique. Don’t shy away from it.”
She added, “We survived as a people because of our banding together, as well as passing our stories forward. Collectively creating new ones. Collectively continuing on as humans ... Storytelling is certainly not new to this continent.”
Gladstone currently stars as lead detective Cam Bentland in Hulu’s Under the Bridge, a limited series that’s an adaptation of Rebecca Godfrey’s true-crime novel of the same name. Godfrey handpicked Gladstone and co-star Riley Keough prior to Godfrey’s death in 2022. Gladstone has also recurred in Billions and Reservation Dogs.
What’s ahead for Gladstone?
She’s set to star in The Memory Police, an adaptation of the acclaimed novel by Yoko Ogawa which is penned by screenwriting legend Charlie Kaufman and executive produced by Martin Scorsese.
With her star on the rise and boundless potential, Gladstone’s current triumphs indicate a promising future for an actor who consistently demonstrates such an extraordinary devotion to craft.
This item originally featured in the SAG-AFTRA spring 2024 magazine.