Lily Gladstone names her six favourite movies
Martin Scorsese’s ‘Best Picture’ nominee Killers of the Flower Moon might have considerably elevated the career of lead star Lily Gladstone, but the Oscar hopeful has been impressing on the silver screen ever since 2012. Collaborating with the likes of Kelly Reichardt and Taika Waititi, Gladstone’s mighty performances have helped her to be considered one of contemporary cinema’s greatest talents.
Alongside her other Killers of the Flower Moon co-stars, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, Gladstone has enjoyed completing the press tour for the American epic, where she plays the pivotal role of Mollie Burkhart. Stuck in the middle of a conspiracy to take the oil beneath her tribe’s land, Gladstone sees her character wilt as death and deceit begin to steadily suffocate.
Talking to A-Frame about the movie and her wider career, Gladstone was given the chance to reveal her favourite films of all time, telling the publication, “I was a very comedy-driven kid…that’s always where I thought this was leading”.
Such is well reflected in three of her picks, starting with Spike Jonze’s 2002 Oscar winner Adaptation, starring Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep and Tilda Swinton. “Adaptation is a masterclass in writing, directing and acting,” she reveals, “The humour in that film, and the way it’s so deeply enmeshed with how finely developed all the characters are, and every single actor and every character that they create— It’s all stunning”.
Sticking with the genre, Gladstone picks out two very different types of comedies in Mel Brooks’ 1974 spoof film Blazing Saddles and Taika Waititi’s 2007 comedy Eagle vs Shark. Finding it hard to pick the two films apart, the actor states: “Can I say that it’s a tie? Eagle vs Shark is such a perfect, textured indie comedy that is very character-driven…The other one is Blazing Saddles, which I probably watched more than any other movie in my childhood”.
Although far from a comedy, Gladstone’s next pick does have elements of subtle humour, choosing Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2012 movie The Master, which tells the story of a WWII veteran who seeks solace in a cult leader. Calling the director “probably my favourite filmmaker,” Gladstone went on to comment about the movie, “I feel like there are huge conversations being had in that film that I really value. He’s talking about this pull between nature and control, and you could very easily try and codify it and say it’s an indictment of Scientology, but it’s not. It is, and it’s not. It lives in its own world”.
From one Oscar nominee to another, Gladstone’s next favourite is the 2002 Niki Caro drama Whale Rider, which saw Keisha Castle-Hughes get the nod for ‘Best Actress in a Leading Role’. Considered a classic of New Zealand cinema, as an Indigenous American, Gladstone saw some parallels: “As a teenage Indigenous girl, I was just developing my love of film. So, when Keisha Castle-Hughes was nominated [for the Oscar] and nominated for Leading Actress – I know there were conversations about her being supporting, which is insane to me if you know that film – but I just remember what it felt like for me”.
To bookend her list, Gladstone opts for a film by the great Kelly Reichardt, with whom she has collaborated before in the past, choosing 2008’s Wendy and Lucy starring Michelle Williams. Adoring the simplicity of the director’s style, Gladstone asserted, “I felt like, ‘Oh, there it is. There’s the film that’s just about flowers. This is a simple tale about a woman and her dog. It’s not completely dressed up. The camera’s just letting you watch this’. That got me into all of Kelly’s other films”.
Take a look at the full list of Gladstone’s all-time favourite movies below.
Lily Gladstone’s favourite movies:
- Adaptation (Spike Jonze, 2002)
- Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks, 1974)
- Eagle vs Shark (Taika Waititi, 2007)
- The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012)
- Wendy and Lucy (Kelly Reichardt, 2008)
- Whale Rider (Niki Caro, 2002)
