Dear Gossips,
As Sarah has been saying for several months now, and as we approach the release of Killers of the Flower Moon, we are at the start of Lily Gladstone season. To be clear, Lily Gladstone won’t just be around for a season, of course, because she is a generational talent, but this is about award season. And Lily Gladstone will be at the forefront of the Best Actress Oscar race for her performance in this film. Variety reported yesterday that she will indeed be competing in the lead category instead of supporting. Which also means that the studio, Apple, will be putting resources into the effort. And this is a big deal indeed, because visibility matters. So to see an Indigenous woman getting the shine for a project that’s directed by Martin Scorsese and co-stars Leonardo DiCaprio is, well, totally correct.
Lily and Leo cover the new issue of British Vogue. It is noted that the interview and the photoshoot “predates” SAG-AFTRA calling the strike, so as I noted yesterday in my post about Chris Evans, we should be seeing a few more of these banked promotional pieces over the next few weeks which aligns with print publication deadlines, but then, mid-October, there should be a drop-off. For now, though, we get to enjoy a glorious Lily, draped in fashion and accessories that have mostly been produced by Indigenous creatives in the pages of British Vogue. And the article itself, because writer Afua Hirsch takes the time to focus on the story in Killers of the Flower Moon, the crimes committed on the Osage people by white racists who couldn’t stand that this community was independently thriving financially from the gifts of their land. Osage leader Principal Chief Jeffrey Standing Bear tells Vogue that:
“It’s a specific and horrible story, but I can tell you every tribe I know, that I’ve worked with, which is many, have their own Trail of Tears. It’s not unusual that we Osage have lost 80 to 90 per cent of our people in, well, 90 years. And when you lose so many of your people, your culture goes with it.”
It’s not the usual content that we get in a cover story in a fashion magazine – but this is what the film is about, to bring to a wider audience this tragedy and in turn get people thinking about the devastating consequences of colonialism and its impact on so many communities, still, today.
As for the question of WHO is telling this story, the fact that a mostly white production team is behind it, Principal Chief Standing Bear “fully endorsed” the project and this was Lily’s pragmatic response:
“Nobody is going to hand an Osage filmmaker $200 million,” she reflects. “There’s a level of allyship that’s absolutely necessary.”
Given that that’s the current reality, collaboration and sensitivity are paramount. And it sounds like, so far, Scorsese and his team worked diligently to make a film that truthfully acknowledges what happened to the Osage people and exposes the systems that are still in place today that continue to jeopardise the sovereignty of Indigenous peoples around the world. For more on Lily in British Vogue, follow the links below.
Yours in gossip,
Lainey
