Imagine getting a text from Leonardo DiCaprio, and it's a photo of your old yearbook.
Well, that's exactly what happened to Lily Gladstone.
In high school, Gladstone was voted "Most Likely to Win An Oscar." She and her peers likely never imagined how true that might be and how prescient the superlative was.
Twenty years later, she's been nominated for Best Actress for her role in Killers of the Flower Moon, where she plays Mollie Burkhart.
Her Instagram post of the yearbook photo has gone viral, although it was actually posted back in 2017.
Gladstone told Entertainment Weekly, "It’s funny, I only posted that back when Certain Women was getting its accolades, back when I was told that I was on a long list for nomination that year. To me, it felt like that was it. That was the best feeling to get to be in a film like that, and to just hear rumors that I was at least on a long list for it, that felt beyond anything I could have dreamt. So I posted that like, 'Well, I got close, guys!' and then I forgot about it. I put that on my Instagram in 2017, and then some fan on Twitter pulled it up and blasted it again."
She's more than close this time, as she's now one of the five nominees for the top acting prize.
And her costar DiCaprio, who plays Ernest Burkhart in the film, made sure to remind her of that.
"Then, when that trended a little bit, I got texted that picture from Leo," Gladstone said. "It kind of blew my mind that Leo had access to my high school yearbook. I mean, he found it online, but for a second it was confusing, like, 'How did you get that?!'"
It turns out that Mountlake Terrace High School's class of 2004 are still supporting her, as they've planned an Oscars watch party. Gladstone said that it's planned to occur in the old high school theatre. How sweet is that?
I really hope she wins just so they can all celebrate together!
It's important to recognize that Gladstone is making Oscar history as well. This is her first-ever Oscar nomination, and she's the first Native American woman to be nominated for Best Actress.
Other indigenous actresses have been nominated before, like Roma star Yalitza Aparicio, but Gladstone is the first from the United States. She is of Blackfeet and Nimíipuu descent, and proud to be so.
