Lily Gladstone could not stay sad for long after missing out on an Oscar as her Blackfeet Nation tribe threw her an incredible homecoming party.
The Native American actress was nominated for Best Actress for her role as Mollie Burkhart in Killers of the Flower Moon at the awards bash in March, but lost out to Emma Stone for Poor Things.
However, Lily told Empire that the meaning the film, about a series of murders inflicted on the Osage people due to their oil wealth, had to people from her own Native American community in Montana.
“Well, I got to have this beautiful trip home,” she said. “My tribe, the Blackfeet Nation, is a part of a confederacy. And the whole confederacy came together for a Lily Gladstone Day.
“It was the biggest honour anybody could get. The confederacy decided together that they wanted to do it. It was a beautiful homecoming, and I could see my old house, the house I was brought to as a baby, right across from me.”
The star went on to describe the moment as, “absolutely one of the most moving things that has ever happened in my life”.
Organisers of the event had given cardboard cutout Oscar statues to children from the Reservation and asked Lily if she minded them being displayed – however she says she wasn’t bothered, just happy to gain recognition for her work.
“Nobody was upset that it didn’t happen,” the 37-year-old explained. “I feel like when the Golden Globe happened (she won Best Actress there), a lot of people who are very far away from the industry just kind of thought it was the Oscars.
“It’s about the fact that (the film has) been awarded and it’s historic, and it’s still just a really meaningful moment. So it’s irrelevant whether or not I walked home with that statue in hand.”
