Leonardo DiCaprio didn’t receive an Oscar nod for Killers of the Flower Moon, but that didn’t stop him from congratulating his costar Lily Gladstone on her nomination.
“He was maybe the third person to text me after the news came in. After my reps of course, because the second it came in, my reps were texting me,” Gladstone, 37, said of DiCaprio, 49, during a Thursday, January 25, interview with Extra. “But Leo was soon to follow and he was just so proud.”
Killers of the Flower Moon tells the true story of a series of murders of Osage Native Americans that took place in 1920s Oklahoma.
DiCaprio and Gladstone play married couple Ernest and Mollie Burkhart. Ernest marries Mollie at his uncle Bill Hale’s (Robert De Niro) suggestion, only for the pair to plan the murder of Mollie’s family to obtain the “headrights” to their oil-rich land.
Gladstone, who is the first Indigenous American to be nominated in the Oscars’ Best Actress category, was disappointed that DiCaprio’s work in the film wasn’t recognized by the Academy.
“I told him that I was watching [the nominations] with my parents and we’re celebrating me but we’re also, like, collectively very pissed for you,” she said. “He did such an incredible job in this and he made an impossible character just so vivid and it made my job so much easier.”
Although Gladstone “really [wanted to] share this moment” with DiCaprio, she recalled what he said to her “right before the [Golden] Globes” earlier this month when they were both up for acting awards: “No matter the outcome, I think you’re amazing and I’m proud of you.”
While DiCaprio lost the Golden Globe to Oppenheimer’s Cillian Murphy, Gladstone won in her category, Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Drama.
“This is for every little [reservation] 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,” she said during her acceptance speech.
Gladstone is nominated alongside Annette Bening (Nyad), Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall), Carey Mulligan (Maestro) and Emma Stone (Poor Things) for the Oscar. In a statement to Entertainment Weekly earlier this month, Gladstone noted that she shares the honor with Killers of the Flower Moon director Martin Scorsese and her costars, “especially” DiCaprio.
“His immense, exceptional talent and heart made this possible,” she added of DiCaprio. “I am forever a proud and grateful friend.”
DiCaprio, meanwhile, sang Gladstone’s praises when introducing her at Variety’s Power of Women event in November 2023.
“That an actor of such profound talent has found it a long and hard road to get this recognition speaks to the unfairness that still exists in our industry today,” the actor said. “I fervently hope that we’re entering a new era in which actors like Lily, who embody this authenticity and undeniable truth in their own storytelling, take center stage.”
The 96th Academy Awards will air on ABC Sunday, March 10, at 7 p.m. ET.
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