Killers of the Flower Moon star Lily Gladstone made Oscars history as the first Native American ever nominated for Best Actress — something her high school classmates predicted two decades ago.
Lily Gladstone’s Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her work in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon was a groundbreaking moment for the Academy — but it was also predicted exactly 20 years ago.
After Gladstone became the first-ever Native American nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, an old photo from her 2004 high school yearbook resurfaced, showing her and fellow classmate Josh Ryder dubbed “Most Likely to Win an Oscar” by their classmates.
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With less than two months before she could fulfill that prediction, Ryder spoke about how her nomination has touched her entire high school class and brought them together in support of her achievements.
20 year after being named the Most Likely To Win An Oscar by her high school classmates, Lily Gladstone is the first Native American Best Actress Nominee! pic.twitter.com/kD0TdkLRP5
— theloftcinema (@TheLoftCinema) January 23, 2024
@TheLoftCinema
“Everybody’s so excited about this,” he told Entertainment Tonight. “It would be a storybook ending, for sure. And I mean, you know, maybe not the ending. We’re not even 40 yet. If she stays in the game, she might be able to rack up, you know, a few.”
Ryder marveled at his friend’s success, telling ET, “I don’t think I had the capacity necessarily to think, or the understanding of what it would take to put oneself in that position to be nominated for an Oscar and Lily has done it.”
“It is extraordinary that she did such high-caliber work,” he added, “and is getting recognized for it rightfully.”
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Gladstone told USA Today that her co-star Leonardo DiCaprio sent her the photo from her yearbook after it went viral on social media following her nomination. “It’s crazy when Leo DiCaprio is texting you your own high school yearbook photo,” she said.
She also said that she’d been in touch with Ryder, as well. “He told me, ‘I don’t know if you know this, but all of this greatness in your life has brought our whole class back together,'” she told the outlet.
“They’re having an Oscars watch party,” she continued. “They already scheduled it to happen in our old high-school theater [before the nominations], so I’m happy that I didn’t disappoint there.”
As for her historic nomination, Gladstone is disappointed that it’s taken this long. She’s already made history earlier this month as the first Indigenous person to win best actress for a drama film at the Golden Globes.
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“I’m elated and excited and also just amazed that it took this long,” she told USA Today. “The Oscars take place on Native land, are telling stories that are largely shot on Native land. Why is it taking this long?”
She credited another Indigenous first, that just happened to coincide with her yearbook prediction, as an inspiration. In 2004, Keisha Castle-Hughes, who is Indigenous to New Zealand, was nominated in the Best Actress category for Whale Rider.
“That felt like my moment, too,” Gladstone said of Castle-Hughes’ nomination. “I know if I felt that way, there’s a lot of little actresses with aspirations who feel like it’s really possible. It’s an incredible honor.”
“I just happened to be placed in history with this filmmaker and this film at this time,” she added of her own groundbreaking nomination. “It’s circumstantial that I have that moniker of ‘the first,’ but I’m certainly not going to be the last.”
