Mountlake Terrace pulling for hometown star Lily Gladstone to win Oscar

MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro are big Hollywood names with Oscars wins.

To Lily Gladstone, they are “Leo, Marty and Bob.”

Gladstone, a 2004 Mountlake Terrace High School graduate, is in the running for best actress at Sunday’s Academy Awards.

It could be a trifecta of sorts for Gladstone, 37, who won Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe best actress awards for her role in the movie “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

She is the first Native American actress to win those awards and to be nominated for the Oscar. An Academy Awards watch party will be held at the high school, where she was voted by her graduating class as “Most Likely to Win an Oscar.”

“Marty” and “Bob” also are nominees for Oscars this year for the movie, which is up for 10 Academy Awards.

“Leo” didn’t make the cut.

In the movie, based on a true story and directed by Scorsese, Gladstone is Mollie, whose family members were killed in the Osage murders in the early 20th century in Oklahoma. DiCaprio plays her yokel-yet-sinister white settler husband, Ernest.

The movie is 3 hours and 26 minutes. It cost $200 million to make.

Gladstone’s performance has been described as “quietly powerful” and “stunning, subtle.”

Kimberly Nelson, a retired Mountlake Terrace home economics teacher, made theater costumes when Gladstone was a student there.

“Lily was always so calm and nonplussed. She was very thoughtful,” Nelson said. “We all knew she was something special.”

Gladstone was named “Actress of the Year 2001-02” for her role as Emily Webb in the school’s production of “Our Town.”

Mountlake Terrace Mayor Kyoko Matsumoto Wright saw the teen actress perform on a scouting trip of high school plays while a drama advisory board member at the University of Washington.

“I remember saying, ‘There was one person who outshone everybody,’” Wright said.

Win or lose on the red carpet, Wright plans to proclaim a “Lily Gladstone Day” after the Oscars.

“We are very proud of her,” Wright said.

Stephanie Rios is among former classmates organizing the Oscar watch party at the high school.

“Lily has been genuine from start to now,” Rios said. “She is down-to-earth and absolutely sweet. And that is something that I think represents Mountlake Terrace. She has always been a person about lifting other people up.”

Gladstone grew up on the Blackfeet Nation reservation in Montana and later moved to Mountlake Terrace, where her parents still live.

She graduated from the University of Montana. Her acting roles include the TV series “Reservation Dogs” and the movie “Fancy Dance.”

At the Globes, Gladstone began her acceptance speech in Blackfeet language, then went on to thank her mother and others, including “Leo, Marty and Bob.”

She dedicated the award to “every little rez kid, every little urban kid, every little Native kid out there who has a dream, who is seeing themselves represented.”

That speech hit home with Janella Lewis, the city finance director for Mountlake Terrace from a small village in Alaska, with Koyukon-Athabascan heritage.

“It was so moving. The Athabascan language is dying and to hear somebody speak in their native language was so amazing,” Lewis said. “A lot of kids don’t know what they can achieve. I never thought I would be a finance director. Here I am a Native kid from a little village.”

Other Oscar nominees for best leading actress are Annette Bening, Carey Mulligan, Emma Stone and Sandra Hüller.

Gladstone’s Globe win for actress in a drama motion picture edged out Bening and Mulligan. Stone won for actress in a musical or comedy motion picture. Her SAG contenders were Bening, Mulligan, Stone and Margot Robbie (“Barbie”).

Gladstone similarly began her SAG acceptance speech with a few words in Blackfeet language, then went on to praise the solidarity of the unions and the voice of all storytellers.

“Keep speaking your truths, and keep speaking up for each other,” she said. “Have a good one. I’ll see you again.”

De Niro is up for the actor in a supporting role Oscar as a crooked-yet-charming crime boss and uncle in “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Contenders include Robert Downey Jr., who took the Globe, where De Niro was a nominee.

De Niro, 80, won his last Oscar for best actor in 1981 in “Raging Bull.” (He also is among the oldest dads for fathering a baby at age 79 last year.)

Other locals who made it big in Hollywood include Chris Pratt and Hillary Swank.

Swank grew up in Bellingham. She won two Oscars for best leading actress, for the 1999 movie “Boys Don’t Cry” and the 2004 Clint Eastwood film, “Million Dollar Baby.” Her new movie “Ordinary Angels” is getting a lot of buzz.

Pratt grew up in Lake Stevens. He has won many awards but never an Oscar, though some movies he starred in were nominated. He is the voice of the orange cat in “The Garfield Movie,” predicted to be one of this summer’s blockbuster movies, so maybe in 2025.

Correction: A previous version of this story included incorrect information about the movie “Fancy Dance.”

Andrea Brown: 425-339-3443; abrown@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @reporterbrown.