Success takes years, sometimes decades.
When Lily Gladstone lit up the stage accepting her Golden Globe Award for her role in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” — the first Indigenous woman to win best actress — she became a bona fide celebrity.
“This is for every little rez kid, every little urban kid, every little Native kid out there who has a dream,” she said.
On Tuesday, the 37-year-old made history again when she was nominated for an Academy Award for best actress — the first Native American ever nominated for a competitive (non-honorary) acting Oscar. But long before she was captivating viewers opposite “Flower Moon” mega-costars Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, Gladstone was acting and directing on stages around the Seattle area.
According to those who know her, Gladstone’s seemingly meteoric rise from working actor to household name isn’t a sudden lucky break; it’s the result of many years of dedicated, thoughtful work, executed with the joy, generosity, integrity and advocacy that Gladstone has always possessed, and which seem to have taken her to Hollywood’s heights without sacrificing her values or sense of self.
“She’s worked so hard, she’s so talented, she’s so focused and discerning,” said Fern Naomi Renville, the former executive director of local Native-youth-focused theater organization Red Eagle Soaring, where Gladstone directed summer shows in 2014 and 2015. “The choices she’s making are so self-respecting, it’s wonderful to see the impact she is having right now.”
Growing up on the Blackfeet reservation in Montana, Gladstone’s first performing love was ballet, she recently told The New York Times. Some early negative experiences with body-shaming soured her on that particular art form, but her love of performing only grew.
When Gladstone was 11, her family left the Blackfeet reservation in Montana. Landing in the Seattle suburbs was a tough transition for young Lily, said Maureen Miko, the founder of local youth theater organization Stone Soup Theatre. Stone Soup became something of a home for the preteen during a tumultuous time. “It was where she felt safe, where she felt good, where she felt nurtured,” said Miko, who remembers being on the phone with Gladstone’s mom, Betty Peace-Gladstone, a lot in those days. Gladstone, in Miko’s memory, was a standout as far as her desire to learn, to do the work of understanding her characters.
Jeannie Brzovic, who has taught drama at MTHS for more than 20 years, echoed that assessment. Gladstone was one of her many students over the years who found meaning and belonging in the school’s theater community.
Rather than striving to be the center of attention, Brzovic said, Gladstone’s demeanor was more watchful, preferring to observe, listen and occasionally drop a perfectly timed, wry one-liner that brought the house down.
“She was always a very grounded person,” Brzovic said. “She always had a real sense of self about her and a real determination.” Gladstone, she said, wanted to develop and deeply understand her characters, which in high school included the plum lead role of Emily from “Our Town.” Always an advocate, she also infused roles with elements of her Native heritage, when fitting, Brzovic said. In a production “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” set in turn-of-the-20th century Pacific Northwest, Gladstone wore a Native cape to portray the Amazon queen Hippolyta.
“She’s always used a moment in the spotlight, if she had someone’s attention, as a learning moment,” Perez said.
(And yes, in her senior year, Gladstone was voted “Most Likely to Win an Oscar” by her classmates, along with fellow student Josh Ryder.) “She was an old soul,” said Gladstone’s high school friend Stephanie Rios.