Lily Gladstone delivered the most rousing speech of the night at the Golden Globes, following her historic win for Killers of the Flower Moon.
The 37-year-old actor, who stars opposite Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese’s latest film about the early 1900s Osage Nation murders, has become the first star of Blackfeet and Nimiipuu heritage to win a Golden Globe. She won Best Performance by a Female Actor – Motion Picture, Drama.
Gracing the stage, Gladstone started her acceptance speech by speaking in Blackfeet. She then said in English: “I love everyone in this room right now, thank you. I don’t have words. I just spoke a bit of Blackfeet language, a beautiful community, a nation that raised me, that encouraged me to keep going, to keep doing this.”
The actor then praised her mother, telling the crowd: “I’m here with my mum who, even though she’s not Blackfeet, worked tirelessly to get our language into our classroom so I had a Blackfeet language growing up.”
Gladstone acknowledged that her win was “historic”, noting that she was particularly “grateful” to be able to speak in Blackfeet on stage as, in the early days of Hollywood, sound mixers would run Native actors’s lines, delivered in English, backwards “to accomplish Native languages on camera”.
She continued: “This is an historic win. It doesn’t belong to just me; I’m holding it with all my beautiful sisters, the film, my mother – I’m just standing on all of your shoulders.”
Gladstone thanked Scorsese, DiCaprio and De Niro, stating “for being such allies”.
JaNae Collins, Lily Gladstone, and Cara Jade Myers in a scene from ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’
Earlier this year, Gladstone criticised US drama Yellowstone, branding it “deplorable”.
Referencing the small number of Indigenous stories told on screen in Hollywood, Gladstone told Vulture that she had to audition forYellowstone as “that’s what we had”. However, she called the series “delusional” and “deplorable”.
The actor did not elaborate on her views, and said she meant “no offence to the Native talent in” the show.
Gladstone said she had “auditioned several times” for the neo-Western drama, which is written and directed by Taylor Sheridan and follows ranch owners and land developers in the Native American reservation of Yellowstone National Park.
Lily Gladstone wins Golden Globe for ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’— (Getty Images)
Oppenheimer was the evening’s big movie winner, with Succession and The Bear sweeping the TV categories. The ceremony was hosted by comedian Jo Koy, who seemingly left Taylor Swift unimpressed with a joke aimed at the singer, and dealt a particularly brutal jibe at Harry and Meghan.
Meanwhile comedian Jim Gaffigan left the audience wincing with a controversial quip addressing the unsealed Jeffrey Epsetin court records.
