“It’s been a crazy time, a crazy year” – what Devery Jacobs told ELLE CANADA in her cover feature for the magazine’s October 2022 issue. This is an understatement.
Season two of Reservation Dogs just wrapped up this week (it streams in Canada on Disney+) and season three was confirmed last week. Devery is an actor and writer and filmmaker. She was invited to participate in the expanded writing room for the series. So that’s already a workload.
But also? Devery is also now a member of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She’s joined the cast of Echo, led by Alaqua Cox, who was introduced as Maya Lopez in Hawkeye late last year. Echo will focus on Maya’s Indigenous past which means that Indigenous characters and stories will be front and centre. Devery’s character is called Julie…but that’s pretty much all we know because, you know, Marvel and all their secrets. Echo will premiere next year and Devery was recently at D23 with the Echo team to hype the series:
And also just this week, Devery was named to the Time 100 Next list and her profile was written by Guillermo del Toro.
Devery just turned 29 last month, so when I said earlier in my post about Bones of Crows that there’s a new generation of Indigenous talent creating space in show business, the momentum is there, and Devery is a big part of the movement. But it’s not a true movement if it can’t be shared. And on that note, I love what Devery told ELLE when she was talking about her friendship with Amber Midthunder who just delivered a breakout performance in Prey. Sarah called the movie “perfect on every level” and Amber its “unassailable star” in her review.
Devery and Amber connected recently and they made a promise to each other – here’s how Devery describes it to ELLE:
“Despite the two being similar in age and up for the same roles, they’ve decided not to compete with each other. “[We were] talking about how [roles are] so scarce for native artists, which ends up forming a crab-in-the-bucket [mentality] where [you think] ‘If I’m not cast, it’s going to be this other person, and there’s only room for one,’” she says. “But that’s just not true right now.” And while it was the case when Jacobs and Midthunder met, they chose to make a commitment to always celebrate each other’s wins because they would be wins for both of them—and for other Indigenous actors. “I turned to her and said, ‘It’s my hope that we can be old Totas [“grandmothers” in Kanien’kehá:ka] in the industry and that we can look back at the things we were able to do together and feel like we have left it in a better place than when we first came into it.’”
That expression “be the change you want to see” – these young artists are actively doing it, being the change they want to see. They’re modelling it for the rest of us. This is what leadership looks like. Also, I f-cking LOVE this Miu Miu fit on Devery.
