Lily Gladstone, Oscar candidate for 'Moon Killers': “The world has to start worrying about Trump's return”

The father of Lily Gladstone (Kalispell, Montana, 37 years old) made his daughter believe for years, when she was a child, that she had powers. “He played jokes on me. For example, that she ruled the clouds because he was a magician. He used tricks that I didn't understand then. Continue with that playful spirit. Now take care of my dog ​​if I travel. And since we share a cell phone location, when I am 400 meters from our house, he opens the window and shouts my name, as if he were summoning me. Of course, my dog ​​is very convinced that when he calls me I will appear at the door,” laughs the actress. “But he is also a father who gave me courage to go out into life, and a deep respect for my roots.” [surgidas de la nación Piesnegros y de la tribu Nez percé]. He named me after her grandmother, Lily. I even got to know her youngest brother, my great-great-uncle. My father insisted that he not lose connection with either the family or my community. when I suffered bullying At school he always reminded me that I was better, and he told me: 'They will want to be friends with you when you win the Oscar.' That is to say, it has some power. “Who knows?” she says ironically.

Gladstone, protagonist of The assassins of the moon, by Martin Scorsese, passed through Madrid on Friday on a promotional trip sponsored by the Hollywood Academy. While the filmmaker attended a colloquium at the Spanish academy, the actress, nominated for best protagonist, sat down with EL PAÍS to chat and be photographed. Unlike her on-screen Mollie, Gladstone talks, a lot. A sense of calm and control of the situation emanates from her and her character, something that will not help Mollie Burkhart, an Osage Indian, to stop the misfortune that surrounds her. They called it the reign of terror, a time (the twenties of the last century) in which the whites—who had already forced them to leave Kansas and imprisoned them in Oklahoma in vacant lands—were taking away the riches obtained by the sudden appearance of oil. How they did it? Murdering and inheriting.

That genocide was the basis of the book The assassins of the moon, by journalist David Grann, and later Scorsese's film of the same name, which was presented at the last Cannes festival and can now be seen on Apple TV+ after having been in theaters. “I knew this story when I was a teenager, because I did ballet and I admired Marie Tallchief [la primera gran bailarina estadounidense, que era osage y se casó con el mítico coreógrafo George Balanchine], before moving on to interpretation,” he recalls. “But at that time neither I nor anyone around me knew how brutal the story was. It sounded like people who steal from natives to get rich. Only after the publication of Grann's book did we understand its seriousness and its curious relationship with the beginnings of the FBI. When I read it I understood that it was another example of racism and systemic corruption.”

The actress sighs and continues her dissertation: “That message that the Osage needed their lives tutored, that entire protection program that declared them incapable, for their own good, of managing their earnings, has painfully penetrated every Native American. Since the mid-nineties, and for a decade, there was a blackfoot lawyer, Elouise P. Cobell, who litigated against the US Government for the malpractice of this tutelage program, well, in reality just by its mere existence it was brutal. Because there was no refund.” In 2010, the parties reached an agreement that did not involve the restoration of what was stolen—only a part—but that has served to negotiate subsequent pacts. “Even today there are churches, congregations, banks and oil companies that own Osage rights. His fight to recover what is his, for what is right, continues.”

On the path of that fight lies the possibility that in November 2024 Donald Trump will once again be president of the United States. “This not only scares my community, but the world has to start worrying. The injustice of American policies, not just that coming from Trump, has a global impact. Now, Native Americans have survived every wave of colonization. And here we continue. Many things survived his first presidency. Our communities continued to take care of themselves, we found support in each other. I am more concerned about the global rise of authoritarianism. Never in history has there been a time like the current one, with such a large collective movement in pursuit of censorship and prohibitions. “I, at least, trust in the new generations.”

Spokesperson for a community

The Moon Killers They have made this actress, who was looking for another job, the global spokesperson for an entire community. “I actually feel the weight. There have been a lot of performers who suddenly found fame, and they don't have to worry about anything other than their art. I am the first Native American and the third indigenous person to be nominated for an acting Oscar. [previamente lo lograron Keisha Castle-Hughes por Whale Rider en 2004 y Yalitza Aparicio por Roma en 2018]. I have become a kind of ambassador for a community of very diverse people, who, yes, have a certain common past, but who in the end have experienced very different situations in the relationship of each tribe with the US Government. “It is a huge weight for a person,” she reflects.

In a few moments Gladstone looks in the eyes, concentrates on a pen, as another weapon to articulate his speech. Now, he does it and links: “My friend Sterling Harjo has decided to end his series Reservation Dogs [en la que Glasdtone ha trabajado] when he wanted. For these issues. As representatives of a community, our art carries a social burden. Sterlin, despite the success, preferred to finish when he decided, not to be cancelled. We owe it to those children, ourselves, who grew up watching westerns in which the Indians were the villains. Do you understand how we felt? How did we think the rest of society viewed us? That is why it is so important to see these indigenous women on screen in real, sincere stories.”

Gladstone fantasizes about girls around the world seeing her and thinking that they can do it too. “I was in high school, I think, when it came out Whale Rider. And I felt like it spoke about me, it inspired me. Then I was hurt by the cynicism that surrounded Aparicio in her awards season, about her not acting, when he put together a superb performance… I want to see her again in any other character.”

After studying acting, Gladstone turned towards teaching and became interested in the Brazilian current of Theater of the Oppressed. Little by little he found some roles, with, above all, director Kelly Reichardt, in Certain Women and First Cow. “That cinema, and its size, is what I adore. With Kelly I discovered the festival circuit, filming for the love of this art. And thanks to those roles Marty met me [Scorsese]”, remember. She was signing up for a data analysis course, in the middle of the pandemic in 2020, in Montana, at her parents' house, where she had moved to help them take care of her grandmother when she received an email announcing a test via Zoom to The assassins of the moon. “I never anticipated the explosion that working with Marty would entail.” Gladstone tells all about her comings and goings after her dream of being an actress, before that email: her need for a tangible job, caring for her father with a heart condition… After several interviews by video call, which included an essay with Leonardo DiCaprio, they announced his signing on December 1, 2020, on Mollie Burkhart's birthday. “For me it was a sign. Her spirit chose me… Well, she was Catholic, I don't think her spirit wanders around.”

Now the final campaign to win the Oscar awaits her, in which her main rival is Emma Stone, for Poor creatures. At first, there was a rumor that she would be presented in the supporting actress category. “They were initial speculations, because the character is not secondary, because the most important Osage role in the film should not be considered a filler character,” she analyzes. “It would have been going back to the spirit of that reign of terror, it would have been a disservice to Mollie and the Osage people who worked very hard on this film. Would she have been safer nominated for supporting actress? Maybe, but this is not about me, but about them. Competing for lead actress means respecting Mollie.”

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