A biography for Lily Gladstonehasn’t been written yet.
“I think a lot of Natives, when they're working in any environment - not just film - may many times be the first Native person in that environment, so that can get really, really lonely. It can get really heavy.”
“Throughout the history of mankind we've always been subject to the whims of whatever our ruling body is saying. However the political pendulum swings, that human-level, grassroots resistance remains.”
“I do feel that historically having gendered categories has helped from keeping women actors from a lot of erasure because I think historically people just tend to honor male performances more.”
“I want to do something like 'Stranger than Fiction,' like a Native version of 'Stranger than Fiction.' That's one that comes to mind.”
“It's always paramount that people tell their own stories, but it's also really important that Native stories get the attention of these filmmakers like Scorsese... It wouldn't have been Marty's place to tell an Osage story as an Osage filmmaker, but his place was to tell this story with Osage people.”
“I live out of a suitcase.”
“I think my dad knew that I had this performance streak, so he would often put on movies and he says I really studied them hard. And he encouraged that! Some of them were for kids, some of them were a little bit more complex: 'The Brother from Another Planet' was one that was on repeat.”
“Things move at their own pace.”
“Given the community that I come from and the structure of what's expected of you at every stage of your life, you are constantly a role model for the generation to step right behind you. I've always operated in this space of: 'There's somebody watching what I'm doing.'”
“American history is not history without Native history.”
“Being known as an actress felt good even when I wasn't working, even before I got my SAG card, when people asked what I did: 'Yeah, I'm working at Staples right now, but I'm an actress.'”
“There's a lot of figures in history that are Native that had a really broad cultural impact; our communities raised some really incredible, prolific people. There's some pretty big names in music that people don't realize were Native who were so foundational, who have gotten completely erased from history.”
“I feel probably more feminine when I'm around other men.”
“For me, just the sheer fact that I get to act and do this for a living is enough personal gratification and individual fulfillment. That's all I need.”
“Our society moves so fast, and I was brought up in circles that have the belief that you only move as fast as your slowest. Meaning you're constantly taking care of and attending to elders and young children first. They're kind of the center of your whole world.”
“My pronoun use is partly a way of decolonizing gender for myself.”
“Regardless of politics, that's one thing I admire so much about Leo's activism - it acknowledges human beings and grassroots efforts.”
“When I moved to Seattle, oftentimes I was the only Native kid in my class. So would be put on the spot, sometimes, if Native history would come up in the curriculum. And a lot of times I didn't know. I couldn't speak for everybody.”
“I was bullied a lot when I was a kid, partly because I was just goofy.”
“Native American people have been all over the world. One example I use is that I met a Blackfeet man in Vienna. He was Viennese-born.”