The Stunning Transformation Of Lily Gladstone
Lily Gladstone may be about to win an Oscar for Best Actress for their portrayal in "Killers of the Flower Moon," and have already made history as the first Native American ever to receive a nomination in the category. In the critically acclaimed film directed by Martin Scorsese, Gladstone plays Mollie Burkhart, a survivor of the Osage murders. However, Gladstone's role as Burkhart is far from their first foray into cinema; but it has seen them catapulted into the mainstream.
Prior to joining Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro in the harrowing true story of the murders of dozens of Osage people in the 1920s, Gladstone had appeared in films like "Certain Women" in 2016 and "First Cow" in 2019.
Gladstone, who has Nimiipuu and Blackfeet heritage, grew up on a Blackfeet reservation with her mother and father, before moving to a suburb. Although she landed her first professional acting role when she was just 12, it would be a while before she would receive widespread acclaim for her work. Of course, now, that is all changing. Here is the story of Lily Gladstone's journey so far.
Lily Gladstone grew up on a Blackfeet reservation
Lily Gladstone was born in 1986 and raised on a Blackfeet reservation in Browning, Montana. Their father is of Nimiipuu and Blackfeet heritage and their mother is white.
Life on the reservation was removed from the outside world and was all about community. "It was very rural ... We were snowed-in nine months of the year, so people watched a lot of movies," Gladstone told The Telegraph. "My memories of early childhood were sitting on the laps of elders, spending a lot of time with grandparents, great-aunties, listening to stories, bringing firewood to elders." They spent much of their time on the reservation learning about the Blackfeet, which included using traditional techniques to gather mountain water and harvest plants for medicine.
Gladstone's mother, although white, pushed the community to continue to teach its children about the Blackfeet traditions. When Gladstone was in second grade, her mother successfully campaigned to bring Blackfeet language classes to her child's school. Years later, Gladstone honored the language she had learned on the reservation, speaking in Blackfoot during her Golden Globes acceptance speech in 2024. "She brought her ancestors and her people up with her up to that podium, and she's sharing it with us all," said Robert Hall, director of Blackfeet Native American Studies Program in the Browning Public School District, to NPR.
Lily Gladstone's parents supported their dreams of performing
Lily Gladstone grew up with a natural inclination toward performing. They were, as they told The Hollywood Reporter, "an energetic and performative kid who got made fun of a lot — just that chubby mixed girl on the rez who had a little bit too much creative energy and not enough outlets." Luckily, their parents could not have been more supportive regarding Gladstone's love of performing. Even though they had few outlets to express themselves, their parents always encouraged them and made sacrifices so that they could follow their passion.
"I've got a very close relationship with my parents, they just poured so much into making sure that their overly exuberant, super-energetic, adorably chunky little girl was able to dance," Gladstone told The Telegraph. Apparently, they even drove her on a 180-mile round trip every week just to take her to dance classes.
Lily Gladstone discovered a love of acting through ballet
When they were young, Lily Gladstone dreamed of becoming a ballerina. "America's first prima ballerina was Maria Tallchief, who was Osage," Gladstone told W Magazine of their early aspirations. "She had a very significant impact on American culture."
However, over the years, Gladstone realized that what they really wanted to do was act. It all began when their dance teachers started suggesting they try acting instead of dancing. "I was very performative in my roles," Gladstone said of their early dancing experiences. "I wasn't getting cast in roles like the Sugar Plum Fairy. I was getting the Rat King. I was very much a character actress."
Gladstone was also inspired by a rather unlikely film: "Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi." As Gladstone explained to Jimmy Kimmel, she was just 5 years old when she saw the movie, and she had been upset to see some of the characters die in the film. When her parents explained that they were simply acting, she realized she could be part of that world. "I really, really, really wanted to be an Ewok," she said. "So, if I want to be an Ewok, I've gotta be an actor."
Their family left the reservation when they were 11
When Lily Gladstone was 11, their family moved from the reservation in Montana to a suburb of Seattle. As the actor told The Guardian, they made the move to find more "economic opportunities." Living in a suburb proved to be a whole new world for Gladstone. "Everyone seemed so isolated in their little homes," they said of life away from the community-focused reservation. "You don't realize exactly how special it is until [you leave]," they explained to Jimmy Kimmel. Living in isolation from their community was, they said, a "culture shock."
But even though Gladstone may have felt out of place in Seattle, she wasn't afraid to stick up for her cultural background. In fact, she became a young advocate for Native Americans. "When we moved to Seattle, she felt very empowered to address some misperceptions about Natives [and] to share more about who she was with her peers," Gladstone's mother, Betty Peace-Gladstone, told NPR in 2024.
Lily Gladstone landed their first professional role at the age of 12
After falling in love with acting, Lily Gladstone began performing on stage with the Missoula Children's Theater in Montana. Soon after, however, they landed a small role in "Here Come the Disco Boys" — an indie film about a boy band — when they were just 12 years old. "My very first paycheck was for $125 dollars as a featured extra as 'a crying girl,'" Gladstone told W Magazine of their role in the film.
She also explained how she channeled her real-life experiences for the audition. "This was when the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC were huge," she said. "I was able to work up real tears in my audition, and they made me a crying girl. Screaming for the Disco Boys!" As she told Stephen Colbert, her real tears earned her a featured extra role — clearly, she was already showing talent.
In high school, Lily Gladstone's classmates predicted their Oscar nomination
As Lily Gladstone got older, they continued acting in high school and community shows in Seattle. "As a teenager, I was someone who didn't keep a lot of friends," they told the Montanan in 2016. "Theater and acting changed that. I loved being on stage."
In fact, Gladstone was such a prolific actor as a teen that her classmates even predicted that she would one day be nominated for an Oscar. In her high school yearbook in 2004, she was voted most likely to win an Oscar. "It's our 20-year reunion, so the reunion's kind of building around the watch party for the Oscars it seems," Gladstone said to Stephen Colbert after her Oscar nomination in 2024. Apparently, her classmates have even planned to rent out the school to watch the Oscars together and cheer her on — talk about a full-circle moment.
Lily Gladstone studied acting at the University of Montana
After graduating from high school, Lily Gladstone enrolled at the University of Montana where they majored in acting and directing and minored in Native American studies.
At university, they were in for a sobering reminder of just how difficult the entertainment industry is as one of their teachers said, "None of you is going to be famous. You are here because you want to study theatre," Gladstone later recalled to The Guardian. Although the teacher turned out to be wrong, their words spoke to Gladstone, who realized that their goal had to be the work itself. "Keep yourself interested and invested in the world and you will stay an interesting performer," they said. "As soon as you disconnect from the human experience, you'll be flat."
Despite this teacher's warning, other teachers saw Gladstone's potential. "There are a lot of talented kids at UM, but she's always been a standout," said one of her teachers, Greg Johnson, to the Montanan. "She's absolutely a transcendent actress. We were lucky to have her." He even noted that she would have what it took to deal with the ups and downs of showbiz. Gladstone graduated in 2008.
They joined a touring company after graduation
Lily Gladstone didn't immediately set off for Hollywood or Broadway. "My scene work in class was always praised, but I also got a little bit disillusioned with the whole casting process," they told The New Yorker. "If I had gone to L.A. or New York and done the classic [route] — audition endlessly, get an agent — just thinking about it was starting to kill my passion for it." So, instead, Gladstone preferred to stay in the relative safety bubble of Montana where they had connections and even a job lined up. First, they toured a production of "To Kill a Mockingbird" for a year, playing two small roles and even helping behind the scenes.
Shortly after that, she found herself acting with Living Voices, a Seattle-based touring company that brought shows to schools — many of them about the Native American experience. Some of the shows even involved conversations with the students. "Teens are the toughest audience," she said of the experience. "It was really rewarding but incredibly exhausting work, as any teacher will attest."
Their first big film role saw them returning home to Browning
In 2013, five years after graduating from college, Lily Gladstone landed their first major film role, playing Sunshine First Raise in "Jimmy P: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian," a period drama about a Native American war veteran. The film also starred Benicio Del Toro and Gina McKee and premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Oddly enough, the movie saw Gladstone returning to shoot in their old hometown of Browning, Montana.
One of her scenes was shot at the town's train station underneath a mountain she had grown up looking at. "That was incredibly surreal," the actor told Make It Missoula in 2014. "I will never forget the moment filming at the Browning train station. I remembered traveling out of there as a kid." As Gladstone recalled, after filming her scene with Del Toro, he told her, "You are good, keep doing it."
Lily Gladstone was the breakout star of 2016's Certain Women
It wasn't until 2016 that Lily Gladstone landed their first big breakout role. In Kelly Reichardt's "Certain Women," they played The Rancher, a Native American woman who lives alone on a farm in Montana. The film won Best Picture at the London Film Festival and Gladstone was widely celebrated by critics.
For the actor, the role was a breath of fresh air after a lot of discrimination within the industry. Prior to landing the role, Gladstone told The Guardian they were only ever considered for stereotypical Native American roles. "After one audition, I was sent an email expressed in flowery, PC language, yet what they were really saying was: You don't sound Indian enough," they recalled.
However, with "Certain Women," it was a different story. "The role was just such an incredibly revolutionary role for a Native American actor to get, period," Gladstone told The Film Stage. "I feel like I understood the character so well, in a lot of ways, especially when I read Maile's work, which talks about family history and boarding schools and marginalization in the education system."
They were about to give up acting when they landed the audition of a lifetime
Despite Lily Gladstone's blossoming career, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, they began to think about leaving the industry behind as productions shut down and Hollywood came to a halt. "You just wonder if it's going to be sustainable," they said to The Hollywood Reporter. "So I had my credit card out, registering for a data analytics course." Gladstone also thought about working with the Department of Agriculture to track "murder hornets," bees that were causing an imbalance in the ecosystem.
However, as fate would have it, the industry wasn't done with Gladstone yet — apparently, they got an email inviting them to a Zoom call with Martin Scorsese just before they signed up for the course.
Gladstone had auditioned for Scorsese's film "Killers of the Flower Moon" about a year earlier. "I assumed that I'd blown the audition," she recalled to Interview. The role, which she had originally struggled to connect with, had been rewritten and expanded, and suddenly, Gladstone felt an instant connection to her. Next, she had a Zoom call with Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio — "that was a two-and-a-half-hour conversation" — and soon enough, she was offered the part.
Lily Gladstone built a strong bond with Leonardo DiCaprio while preparing for Killers of the Flower Moon
Once Lily Gladstone signed onto the project, the work began. They did a lot of research and prep work alongside their co-star, Leonardo DiCaprio, who played their murderous husband, Ernest Burkhart, in the film. Throughout the production, the pair became fierce friends.
It began with DiCaprio inviting Gladstone to his house to discuss their characters. "One of the things that actually put me at ease is he pulled out his pack of American Spirits I'm like, 'Oh, thank god, can I bum one please?'" she recalled to The Telegraph. "So he's like, 'You smoke?' We went through a pack of cigarettes, sitting there, talking about Ernest and Mollie." They even ended up adding it into the film, having Ernest and Mollie smoke together during their first discussion. The pair continued to work together before filming began, meeting members of the Osage community and descendants of the characters they were playing. Since then, Lily Gladstone and Leonardo DiCaprio remain friends. "I wouldn't go on a yacht, but I do hang out with Leo when time permits," she said.
Lily Gladstone wants to usher in a new era of Native American representation in cinema
Lily Gladstone may be new to mainstream Hollywood stardom, but they're ready to put their stamp on the industry. As the first Native American to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, they're an advocate for more Native stories and filmmakers in the industry.
"I'm in a better position to advocate in rooms with people who can affect change immediately," Gladstone told The Wrap of their newfound success. "I don't necessarily like the cliché of opening doors. It's setting the table. There's a chance to bring community to the table in a way that I haven't really had the influence to do before. So that's nice." Their aim, they explained, is to ensure that Native audiences have the chance to see their own stories on the screen. Gladstone also wants to open up spaces for Native people to play roles that aren't merely in Native-focused films. "That's one of my other aspirations, to help expand our lens a bit to help place us in these moments where we always should have been," they said.
Based on the reception of "Killers of the Flower Moon," Gladstone is hopeful that her work really will make a difference. "I think we will get a lot of other TV shows and films that are made by Native people," she told The Guardian. And based on what we know about Gladstone's passion and determination, we're sure she's right.