Prior to Killers of the Flower Moon, Lily Gladstone considered a career change with a data analytics course

Lily Gladstone has been receiving accolades for her performance in Killers of the Flower Moon but before she landed the role, she was pretty close to quitting the business of cinema. So much so that back in 2020 she had taken her credit card out to register for a data analytics course so as to find an alternative profession. According to The Hollywood Reporter, just as she was entering her card information, Gmail alerted her to request for a Zoom meeting with a certain Mr. Martin Scorsese.

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Soon enough, Gladstone would be cast as Mollie Burkart in Scorsese's epic and perform the anchor role with such gravitas that the whole world would take notice of her. Beyond that, her presence in the film and her own Native American lineage would come in incredibly handy for the entire team of Killer of the Flower Moon, with co-star Leonardo DiCaprio admitting that she emerged as a "source of guidance" for them all. 

“She (Lily Gladstone) spent months studying Mollie Burkhart and her family, working extensively to understand the intricacies of this woman, her relationship with Ernest and her legacy within the Osage community," said DiCaprio in his conversation with The Hollywood Reporter. The 48-year-old actor plays Ernest Burkhart in Killers of the Flower Moon, which marks his sixth collaboration with Martin Scorsese. This is also the first occasion that DiCaprio and Robert De Niro are working together on a Scorsese picture, making it a rare opportunity for film buffs across the world to pass up. 

Also Read: Killers of the Flower Moon: Five essential, underrated works of Martin Scorsese to stream on OTT 

As for Lily Gladstone, she fell on the legendary filmmaker's radar after he spotted her in Kelly Reichardt's 2016 film Certain Women. Gladstone's powerful screen presence, combined with the control she executed on her character, caught his eye. "She understood her own onscreen presence as an expressive instrument that could speak for itself. That’s quite rare. Her silences, as Mollie, were often more powerful than her words," he said. 

Also Read: Leonardo Di Caprio on Killers of the Flower Moon: 'The initial script didn't get to the heart of the story' 

Killers of the Flower Moon, based on David Grann's non-fiction book, releases worldwide on October 20 but the Indian audiences will have to wait a week longer to catch the film in theatres. The Western epic is set to arrive in Indian cinemas on October 27, 2023.