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Ever since Lily Gladstone graced the screen as Osage woman Mollie Kyle in Martin Scorceses’s Killers Of The Flower Moon, netizens have been actively campaigning for her awards season sweep.
Now, at the 81st Golden Globe Awards, the actress has made history by becoming the first-ever Indigenous actress to receive a Golden Globe, setting the tone for what we can inexplicitly say is her month-long showering of honours.
Arriving at the 2024 Golden Globes, Gladstone adhered to the sartorial adage of “dressing for the job you want”. The role in question? The winner of this year’s ‘Best Actress in a Motion Picture—Drama’.
It wasn’t until the end of the evening that Gladstone received the prestigious accolade. The breakout star contend against Hollywood heavyweights like Annette Bening (Nyad) and Carey Mulligan (Maestro) in the aforementioned category, alongside emerging actresses Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla) and Greta Lee (Past Lives).
Gladstone did so by bringing the procession of Indigenous designs she started at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival to Los Angeles’ Beverly Hilton Hotel. Or as she said during a pre-ceremony interview, “repeating a beat that works” referencing the sculptural Valentino Haute Couture ensemble she wore at the film’s debut.
Taking the floral step-and-repeat with her co-star Leonardo DiCaprio, Gladstone brought a touch of old Hollywood in her Pierpaolo Piccioli-designed white column dress and draped black cape. The latter a nod to the blankets and shawls worn by Gladstone in the film, her ancestors and the rich cultural significance and heritage the garment holds in Indigenous communities.
As a First Nations actress, Gladstone has perpetually used her platform—and her presence on the red carpet—to spotlight the myriad of must-know Native fashion talents. As we were disavowed a comprehensive press tour for Killers Of The Flower Moon due to SAG-AFTRA strike guidelines, Gladstone has delivered a taste of not only what could’ve been, but also what is to come at the Oscars.
However, Gladstone’s impeccable red carpet style isn’t the only way she’s spotlighting First Nation’s voices. As she’s continued to remind the mainstream of through interviews and speeches, her community is at the forefront of everything she does.
“I was raised on a reservation, went to public school. It’s a very normal, sort of working-class upbringing in one way, and in another way, I’m just a rez girl,” she told the New York Times ahead of the Golden Globes. “I can’t speak from the heart if I’m not connected to what’s real about all this,” she added. “I know that all of this attention on me right now means so much more than just me.”
“Native women do things in community. We do things with each other,” she also noted during her speech at ELLE‘s annual “Women In Hollywood” gala. “Our representation in Hollywood is a legacy of survival. Our representation in the stories that we tell, it’s really how we’ve kept going. And a part of that is the stories that women carry forward, the way that we carry each other forward.”
Yet it was during her acceptance speech that the star made her most stirring delivery yet. Gladstone began her speech in Blackfeet, the community nation that raised her and “encouraged me to keep doing this”.
“This award belongs to…and I hope I don’t get counted down too fast because this is a historic one, but I’m so grateful that I can even speak a little bit of my language, which I’m not fluent in, up here.
“In this industry, Native actors used to speak their lines in English and the sound mixers would run them backwards to accomplish Native languages on camera. This is a historic win. It doesn’t belong to just me. I’m holding it now with all my beautiful sisters and everyone at this table…standing on all of your shoulders.”
Gladstone continued to thank Scorcese, DiCaprio and Robert De Niro for “changing things” and “being such allies”. She concluded her thanks by shouting out the Osage Nation, which horrific murders of multiple members of the tribe in the 1920s were told in Killers Of The Flower Moon.
If you haven’t had a moment to see the spiel in full, it would be remiss of you not to take a moment to watch Gladstone’s powerful tribute to her fellow Indigenous artists and the First Nations community at large.
"This is a historic win, it doesn't belong to just me." – Lily Gladstone wins her first Golden Globe for Best Female Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama for #KillersoftheFlowerMoon at the 2024 #GoldenGlobes pic.twitter.com/VMHA8rg7LC
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) January 8, 2024
Lily Gladstone, you will always be a star. Now for you to bag that Oscar!
Watch Lily Gladstone in the trailer for Killers Of The Flower Moon below:
