MOUNTLAKE TERRACE, Wash — Lily Gladstone has made history as the first Native American to be nominated for best actress at the Academy Awards.
Gladstone, who graduated from Mountlake Terrace High School, was nominated for playing Mollie Burkhart in "Killers of the Flower Moon," a film based on David Grann's 2017 nonfiction novel. Burkhart was a member of the Osage Nation whose family was murdered for their oil rights in the early 1920s.
The murders spawned a lengthy investigation and the birth of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
"It is definitely a lot of out-of-body experience," Gladstone told KING 5's Evening in January. " I mean, my dad told me when I was younger, and kids are mean - I was an exceptionally exuberant, expressive, loud kid so I caught a lot of bullying. But he always said, 'Don't worry, all of those kids are going to want to be friends when you win your Oscar.' He put that in my head when he was young enough that I was just like, 'Okay dad, you're right. I'll just keep going.'"
Gladstone became the Golden Globes' first Indigenous winner of Best Actress in a drama on Jan. 8, paving the way for the Mountlake Terrace grad to make more history in March at the Oscars.
Gladstone will be competing against Annette Bening (“Nyad”), Sandra Hüller (“Anatomy of a Fall”), Carey Mulligan (“Maestro”) and Emma Stone (“Poor Things”) for the best actress award.
“This is a historic win,” Gladstone said after winning the award at the Golden Globes. "This is for every little rez kid, every little urban kid, every little Native kid out there who has a dream, who is seeing themselves represented and our stories told — by ourselves, in our own words — with tremendous allies and tremendous trust from and with each other."
Gladstone said her acting career began in middle and high school productions in Snohomish County.
"We had to write out our 10-year plan when we were seniors, and I'd written back then 'Maybe my career will start lifting off, nothing too big, some good indies,'" Gladstone said. "I just had a lot of encouragement. I mean, my graduating class voted me 'Most Likely to Win an Oscar.'
The 2024 Academy Awards ceremony will be on March 10. Martin Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon" earned 10 nominations in this year's Oscars, including for best picture and best director.
“It would be an incredible moment in my life, but it would mean so much more than just me," Gladstone told The Associated Press.