Lily Gladstone Considered Quitting Acting Before ‘Killers Of The Flower Moon’ Came Along

By now you’ve probably heard the glowing buzz from Cannes about Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon. While performances by Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Jesse Plemons have earned raves, too, it’s been Indigenous actress Lily Gladstone who has won everyone over. A decade after her breakout performance in Kelly Reichardt’s Certain Women, Gladstone is having her moment, but it almost didn’t happen.

Speaking with THR, Gladstone revealed that she nearly quit acting before the ‘Flower Moon’ gig came along and her interview with Scorsese. She was actually about to start applying for data analytics jobs in August 2020, during the peak pandemic time, when Scorsese came calling…

“You just wonder if it’s going to be sustainable,” Gladstone said. “So I had my credit card out, registering for a data analytics course.” 

Gladstone mentioned that her first experience with Scorsese came as a kid, watching one of his films that…well, isn’t exactly targeted at children…

“I was watching some pretty sophisticated things for a kid. My first Scorsese movie was ‘Kundun.’ My dad loved ‘Kundun.’”

This is shaping up to be the year of Lily Gladstone. On top of Killers of the Flower Moon, Gladstone had one of the most popular films at Sundance with Fancy Dance, which was picked up in February and should be released later this year. Now would probably be a good time to drop a trailer, while Gladstone is red-hot.

Travis Hopson
Travis Hopson has been reviewing movies before he even knew there was such a thing. Having grown up on a combination of bad '80s movies, pro wrestling, comic books, and hip-hop, Travis is uniquely positioned to geek out on just about everything under the sun. A vampire who walks during the day and refuses to sleep, Travis is the co-creator and lead writer for Punch Drunk Critics. He is also a contributor to Good Morning Washington, WBAL Morning News, and WETA Around Town. In the five minutes a day he's not working, Travis is also a voice actor, podcaster, and Twitch gamer. Travis is a voting member of the Critics Choice Association (CCA), Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA), and Late Night programmer for the Lakefront Film Festival.