We often visualise runner-ups at the Academy Awards attempting to keep their composure. Take for instance, the incident when Michael Keaton, looking disheartened, neatly folded a supposed acceptance speech and stowed it away after Eddie Redmayne was called to the stage for The Theory of Everything. Or the instance when Martin Landau triumphed over Samuel L Jackson for the Best Supporting Actor award for Ed Wood, eliciting an expletive from Jackson.
Three months have passed since Emma Stone won the best actress Oscar over Lily Gladstone, the first nominee of Native American descent. However, Gladstone, who bagged the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards before Stone, appears unperturbed by the disappointment.
She expresses her delight simply by being part of this occasion.
These days, she’s part of Under the Bridge, a fresh crime show crafted around Gladstone’s character as the investigating officer. It’s based on the real murder case of Reena Virk, a Canadian. Besides, she is also part of Fancy Dance, a thriller of a road movie that had its debut at Sundance last year and is soon coming to Apple TV+. The movie highlights a significant concern faced by the Native American community, i.e., the numerous cases of missing and slain indigenous women. Shockingly, in 2020 alone, the FBI recorded 5,295 reports of missing American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls.
Gladstone shares that director Erica Tremblay had drafted her role keeping her in mind. Raised in Montana’s Blackfeet Nation reservation, Gladstone tells us, “Erica wanted me to play the leading part in a film that explored the unique queer, Native space. When I read the first draft, although it took an hour, it felt like only 15 minutes had passed. I was exhilarated. I kept this from Erica, fearing I might frighten her. I was worried I might not do justice to the role.”
“Fancy Dance” portrays a tale of life in Oklahoma’s Seneca-Cayuga reservation, with a narrative centred around two women. The character Jax, played by Gladstone, is thrown into turmoil after the disappearance of her sister, which leaves her caring for her adolescent niece. Jax, a frequent drinker, occasional shoplifter, and a queer regular at the local strip joint, fails to get the police to look into her vanished sibling. However, she quickly attracts the attention of child protective services who challenge her guardianship of Roki, played by Isabel Deroy-Olson. In a bid to locate Roki’s mother ahead of the girl’s scheduled ceremonial dance at an imminent powwow, they become fugitives. A high-stakes climax intersects with a dance tribute to lost and murdered indigenous women at the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City.
Gladstone, comfortable with she/her and they/them pronouns in line with her tribe’s gender-neutral custom, explains the roots of the ‘fancy dance’. As per her, a Ponca woman, discontented with traditional female dancing norms, sought to mimic the men’s dance style. She adopted the use of a scarf and began showcasing elegant footwork. This triggered the development of the fancy shawl dance that the movie features, which symbolically mirrors a butterfly. Gladstone acknowledges the dance as the powwow’s most ballet-like, further explaining the metaphorical meaning behind Jax’s performance, which is seen as upholding femininity while occupying a masculine-defined space – embodying a matriarchal presence.
Gladstone admits turning to her male relatives for inspiration in bringing Jax’s complex character to life, a significant part of this story that masterfully balances contemporary struggles and the power of community. Gladstone cites her cousin Will as a lifelong influence, commending him for overcoming adversity, becoming a community pillar, like Jax, incorporating traditional remedies, championing language preservation, and leading the search for their missing kin. Her upbringing on the reservation alongside her cousin Chet also played a crucial role in understanding Jax’s character, with something as simple as Chet’s long braid providing invaluable insight.
Gladstone, whose lineage traces back to the Blackfeet and Nez Percé tribes as well as William Ewart Gladstone, a late 19th-century British prime minister, exudes intelligence, grace and poise. She is renowned for her knowledge of the Choctaw tribe’s efforts towards aiding a famine-stricken Ireland in 1847, which she showcased during a recent visit to the Ifta awards. Her father’s great-great-grandfather was the Chief of the Kainai Nation, Red Crow.
She acquired the Osage language for her portrayal of Mollie Burkhart, the protagonist in Martin Scorsese’s film “Killers of the Flower Moon”, which explores a genocidal scheme. She also learned Cayuga, a language believed to have less than 20 native speakers left, for another project “Fancy Dance”. Despite the reduced budget of the latter, she invested significant time and effort to learn the language authentically, and the positive feedback from Cayuga-speaking elders reinforced her commitment.
Gladstone’s fascination with the world of film started at the age of five when she watched The Return of the Jedi and desperately wanted to be an Ewok. She drew parallels between those fluffy Star Wars characters and the age-old stories of indigenous resistance. As she grew up, she realised that she wasn’t the only Native child who admired Ewoks.
Her father planted the seed of aspiration in her mind early on, with visions of her becoming an Oscar-winning actress. The concept of acting was first explained to her as a consolation whenever a favourite character in a film would be killed. It was then that she decided that she would like to be a part of those reel-life stories.
Gladstone’s journey began at the age of 11 when her clan relocated to Washington State from the reservation where she was born and raised. She took her first steps in showbiz with Stone Soup, a Seattle-based educational theatre firm, during her adolescent years and got involved in student films. Despite this, her heart remained in Montana, leading to her returning for university. “I felt a deep longing when I was away. I am a child of my reservation, my mountains, my prairies. That’s where I feel my identity,” she confessed to the Seattle Times regarding her teenage days in the city.
She initially intermingled her professional career with community initiatives, assistance for domestic violence survivors, and complimentary acting lessons for Native American women. Gladstone’s subtle yet remarkable career spans a spectrum of roles, making her a frequent collaborator with acclaimed directors Alex and Andrew Smith, Morrissa Maltz, and Kelly Reichardt. Her talent caught the eye of Scorsese during her performance in Reichardt’s film, Certain Women, leading her to be his only consideration for the role in Killers of the Flower Moon. “She captured my attention intensely,” he commented.
Interestingly enough, she was on the brink of renouncing her acting career prior to Scorsese’s call. “To me, Marty seems like a walking encyclopedia, he truly understands actors,” she shares. “He allows actors a lot of freedom. He is fixated on his shots, relating to other films he references. He is constantly pondering about the film’s trajectory. He trusts his actors to bring life to a scene, then we collaborate on it.”
Her career progression is paving the way for the ascendance of indigenous artists and their representation. Just a year post the premiere of Fancy Dance at Sundance, seven indigenous projects were screened at the same festival. She admits to feeling a sense of relief in being able to break free from the stereotype of the “brutal savage and noble savage”. “Our stories, like Fancy Dance and Reservation Dogs, validate what we have always known,” she adds, “Years of responding to roles conceived by non-indigenous creators with predefined stereotypes have come to an end. Constant challenges to the relevance and appeal of our stories to wider audiences have been consistently rebutted.”
The art of film-making now encompasses more depth and character than during the era of John Ford’s preeminent westerns, which predominantly portrayed Native Americans from a single perspective. The hunger for more intricate narratives and assorted viewpoints suggests we are on the brink of a storytelling renaissance.
Drawing on Gladstone’s words, Fancy Dance serves as an excellent companion film to Killers of the Flower Moon. Set on the same terrain and confronting the same matters, Fancy Dance examines the evolution of these issues into the present day, precisely a century later.
While the Oscars may have overlooked Gladstone, her contribution was celebrated by the Blackfeet Nation. It recognised her achievements by inaugurating Lily Gladstone Day and presenting the actress with a treasured headdress last year. Fewer than a hundred women possess such an honour.
It is not granted lightly; the headdress either makes its way to its recipient in a dream or is presented to someone regarded as worthy of this significant emblem. This symbol elevates me within my community, marking me as a leader. Many women who hold this honour are at the forefront of non-profit establishments tackling domestic violence or teen suicide. They are challenging government restrictions preventing self-protection, and they are engaged in food banks and food sovereignty programmes. They are the builders of communities.
Although Gladstone admits she is uncertain why she was selected to enter this prestigious circle, she speculates it could be her acceptance of the Golden Globe in the Blackfoot language publicly affirmed their enduring presence. Fancy Dance is now available on Apple TV+.