Despite not winning the Best Actress Oscar for her role in Killers of the Flower Moon, actress Lily Gladstone says her Native American tribe, the Blackfeet Nation in Montana, was not disappointed. In fact, they honored her historic nomination as the first Native American woman ever nominated in that category.
Gladstone, 37, earned acclaim for portraying Mollie Burkhart in Martin Scorsese’s period drama film. Though she lost the Oscar to Emma Stone, Gladstone had previously won a Golden Globe for the same performance.
“Nobody was upset that it didn’t happen,” Gladstone said about not winning the Oscar. She explained that some tribal members mistakenly thought her Golden Globe win was the Oscar.
“It’s about the fact that the film has been awarded and it’s historic, and it’s still just a really meaningful moment. So it’s irrelevant whether or not I walked home with that statue in hand,” the actress told Empire magazine.
Tribe Held “Lily Gladstone Day” Celebration
Instead of being let down, when Gladstone returned home to Montana after the Oscars, her tribe came together for a special “Lily Gladstone Day” celebration in her honor.
“It was the biggest honor anybody could get. The confederacy decided together that they wanted to do it,” she described. Around 2,000 people from across the U.S. attended the event near her childhood home.
“It was absolutely one of the most moving things that has ever happened in my life. Getting to witness what the impact was, going home to Montana and really having this moment shared by my tribe… it was amazing,” Gladstone said.
Her performance helped bring representation for Native Americans in Killers of the Flower Moon, based on the 1920s FBI investigation into murders of the Osage tribe after oil was discovered on their lands.