Lily Gladstone has recalled growing up as a devoted fan of her Killers of the Flower Moon co-star Leonardo DiCaprio.
As well as discussing the influence his work had on her acting ambitions, she also revealed that her favourite performance of his is in 1998’s The Man in the Iron Mask.
Randall Wallace’s Alexandre Dumas adaptation starred DiCaprio as both King Louis XIV and his exiled twin brother Phillippe.
“I already knew at that point I wanted to be an actor,” Gladstone told People, “and getting to see one actor play that kind of duality, it was really cool.”
Gladstone, who grew up in Montana, also said she “loved” 1997’s Titanic. “It was one of the first things I spent my allowance on,” remembered Gladstone. “I pre-ordered the double VHS set from Toys ‘R’ Us, when that was still around.”
By that point, she was already a dedicated follower of DiCaprio’s career. “I had been a fan of Leo long before that,” she added. “My first film that I watched him in was, I can’t remember which one came first, but it was either What’s Eating Gilbert Grape or This Boy’s Life. I loved Romeo + Juliet.”
Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone at the ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ press conference at Cannes 2023— (Mohammed Badra/Pool/Getty Images)
Over two decades after discovering DiCaprio’s work, Gladstone auditioned for Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon and won the role of Mollie, an Indigenous Osage woman who is married to DiCaprio’s character Ernest.
Gladstone has been widely praised for her performance in the film, and has been tipped as a potential Oscar winner following her success at the Gotham Awards last month.
The 37-year-old won the Outstanding Lead Performance trophy for the little-seen drama The Unknown Country, beating out contenders including Greta Lee (Past Lives), Teyana Taylor (A Thousand and One), Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla), Andrew Scott (All of Us Strangers) and Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction).
In a five-star review of Killers of the Flower Moon The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey singled out Gladstone for particular praise, writing: “It’s Gladstone who provides the film’s centre of gravity. She gives one of the most extraordinary performances by a woman in any of Scorsese’s movies. She is serene but not saintly; a figure of tragedy with a fire in her belly.
“The first time we dive into Mollie’s perspective, it’s with a force that could suck the breath out of your body. The eyes of the white men and women around her are curdled with disgust. Hers are all-knowing about the future that’s barreling towards her.”
