LOS ANGELES – Lily Gladstone, the star of “Killers of the Flower Moon,” recently criticized the hit series “Yellowstone” for its portrayal of the American West. Despite her critique, Gladstone revealed that she had previously auditioned for the show. The 37-year-old actress made history earlier this month as the first Indigenous person to win a Golden Globe for best actress in a motion picture drama.
In an interview with Vulture from August, Gladstone expressed her disdain for “Yellowstone” and its “cowboy mythmaking.” Referring to the series as “delusional” and “deplorable,” she called out its creators, Taylor Sheridan and John Linson. Gladstone clarified that her criticism wasn’t aimed at the Native talent involved in the show, as she herself had auditioned for several roles.
Gladstone, who has Blackfeet and Nez Perce heritage from her father’s side and is of White descent on her mother’s side, revealed in a 2017 interview with The Guardian that she lived on the Blackfeet Nation reservation in Montana until the age of 11. She has been praised for her groundbreaking performance as Mollie Kyle, an Osage Nation woman, in “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
The film, directed by Martin Scorsese and based on David Grann’s book, follows Mollie’s fight to expose a series of murders committed against the Osage community after the discovery of oil on their land in the 1920s. Gladstone commended the movie for its focus on Indigenous characters and emphasized that it was not a “White savior story.”
Responding to critics who labeled “Yellowstone” as “anti-woke,” Sheridan defended the show in a November 2022 interview with The Atlantic. He dismissed the claims, stating that the series delves into important topics such as the displacement of Native Americans, the mistreatment of Native American women, corporate greed, and the gentrification of the West. Contrary to assumptions, Sheridan asserted that it was not simply a “conservative show” or a “red-state ‘Game of Thrones.'”
“Yellowstone,” starring Kevin Costner as ranch owner John Dutton, is set to conclude its final season in November 2024 on Paramount+.