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Lily Gladstone makes Oscars history as first Native American to be nominated for best actress
Lily Gladstone is making history with her Oscar nomination, becoming the first Native American to be nominated in the best actress category at the Academy Awards.
Other Indigenous actresses have been nominated before, but as a member of the Blackfeet Nation, Gladstone is the first Native American nominated. She lived on reservations until she was 11 years old, she told The Guardian in 2017.
In “Killers of the Flower Moon,” Gladstone portrays Mollie Kyle, a wealthy member of the Osage Nation. In the film, which is based on a true story, Gladstone falls in love with Leonardo DiCaprio’s character Ernest Burkhart, and the two become suspicious of the murders of Osage Nation members who became wealthy after striking oil.
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Gladstone studied acting at University of Montana and went on to nab roles in TV shows like “Billions” and movies like “Certain Women,” a film based on short stories by Maile Meloy. In 2016, she spoke to her alma mater about getting the role. “It’s pretty revolutionary that part went to an almost total unknown and that it went to me, a Native actress, without it being a trope,” she said.
She has already made history this awards season with her Golden Globe win for best actress in a motion picture – drama, becoming the first Indigenous person to ever win that award, Entertainment Tonight reports.
During her acceptance speech, Gladstone spoke in her native language, saying: “Hello my friends, my name is Eagle Woman, I’m from the Blackfeet Nation,” according to a translation her representative provided to CBS News.
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Switching to English, she said, “I’m so grateful that I can speak even a little bit of my language, which I’m not fluent in, up here because in this business, Native actors used to speak their lines in English and then the sound mixers would run them backwards to accomplish Native languages on camera.”
Gladstone said her win was for “every little rez kid, every little urban kid, every little Native kid who has a dream, who is seeing themselves represented and our stories told by ourselves in our own words with tremendous allies and tremendous trust with and from each other.”
Only four Indigenous actresses have been nominated for best actress at the Oscars before: Merle Oberon and Keisha Castle-Hughes, who are both Maori, native to New Zealand, and Yalitza Aparicio, who is Native Mexican.
“Killers of the Flower Moon” is nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including one for Scott George, nominated for best original song for “Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People).” George is the first member of the Osage Nation to be nominated for an Academy Award.
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Long before comic book characters dominated movie screens, actor Christopher Reeve made the world believes in superheroes with the 1978 classic “Superman.”
Reeve died in 2004, nearly a decade after an accident re-shaped his life. “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” is using interviews with family and friends and never-before-seen home videos to explore his real-life heroism.
Reeve started his career on the stage, studying at the prestigious Juilliard School and living with comedian Robin Williams. The pair had a friendship that was “more like a brotherhood,” said Reeve’s son Matthew. Reeve was in awe of Williams’ energy and versatility, Matthew Reeve said, but audiences quickly clued into Reeve’s own star power when he took on the role of the Man of Steel.
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To his children, though, he “was just dad,” Matthew Reeve said. The documentary explores how Matthew Reeve and his sister Alexandra Reeve Givens grew up watching their dad take the stage as Superman. “Super/Man” also reveals their heartbreak over their parents’ breakup and the joy they found when Reeve re-married. He tied the knot with Dana Reeve in 1992, and the pair welcomed another child, William Reeve, later that year.
“Dana was sunshine,” Alexandra Reeve Givens recalled. “She just brought joy with her wherever she was and could find it even in the darkest moments.”
Those dark moments came suddenly, when in 1995, a near-fatal horseback riding accident left Reeve paralyzed from the neck down. The documentary allows viewers to see, for the first time, what went on out of the public’s view. Reeve can be heard talking about how he “ruined (his) life and everybody else’s,” but in a touching moment, old friend Robin Williams is seen visiting him in the hospital.
“Robin showed him ‘Hey, you’re still you,'” Alexandra Reeve Givens said. “‘You still have this foundation of friendship and people around you, who adore you. And you’re going to find those fun moments in life again.'”
That support from friends and family re-ignited Reeve’s legacy of activism. He made appearances at the Democratic National Convention and the 68th Academy Awards in 1996, about a year after the accident. Matthew Reeve said watching his father address his industry peers at the Oscars was “one of (his) most proud moments.”
“It was just a production for him to get out of bed every morning, let alone get across the country and go out in public for the first time,” Matthew Reeve said. “It was a big deal. It was a big deal to him, but it was also a big deal to the entire disability community. We stayed up in London till like three in the morning to watch that live. It’s a fond memory.”
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Reeve also went on to launch what would become the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, which is dedicated to advancing research into spiral cord injury and help individuals and families impacted by paralysis. It was his dad’s mission to find a cure, Matthew Reeve said, while his stepmother wanted to focus on improving the lives of paralyzed people and their families. The foundation and Reeve’s platform helped bring unprecedented attention and funding to spinal cord injury research.
Reeve even kept acting and realized his lifelong dream of directing with the 1997 HBO movie “In the Gloaming.” Reeve died in 2004 from heart failure at 52.
“There is a huge amount of great actors and actresses out there, where their filmography might be amazing and what they achieve on a cultural level might be amazing, but have they actually achieved anything really as a human that moves the needle for our society?” said filmmaker Ian Bonhote, who made the documentary with Peter Ettedgui. “And Chris has done both things.”
“Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” will open in theaters on Friday, Oct. 11.
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