Two decades ago, long before Lily Gladstone received an Oscar nod for her role in “Killers of the Flower Moon,” she had already envisioned herself standing on the Academy Awards stage.
With award season excitement surrounding her stellar performance in Martin Scorsese’s film, a throwback high school yearbook photo of Gladstone has resurfaced, featuring the superlative “Most Likely to Win an Oscar.” In the snapshot, a young Gladstone and her classmate Josh Ryder were acknowledged for their potential. As Gladstone inches closer to turning that prediction into reality, Ryder shared his sentiments.
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Ryder expressed his admiration, saying, “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. And it is extraordinary that she did such high-caliber work and is getting recognized for it rightfully.”
Ryder noted that the high school photo has rekindled connections among their former classmates, creating a wave of excitement. Pondering the prospect of Gladstone winning the Oscar, he remarked, “It would be a storybook ending, for sure. And I mean, you know, maybe not the ending. She’s — we’re not even 40 yet. If she stays in the game, she might be able to rack up, you know, a few [Oscars].”
it’s coming 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 pic.twitter.com/ckPGoaknVF
— ًً (@pscwyers) January 8, 2024
In an interview with USA Today, Gladstone shared that her co-star Leonardo DiCaprio sent her the high school photo following her nomination. She also emphasized the support from Ryder during this award season, revealing, “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.’” The former classmates are planning to celebrate the Oscars with a watch party in their old high school theater.
Making history as a Native American actor with her nomination, Gladstone raised poignant questions in an interview with Deadline, asking, “Why am I the first? Why did it have to take this long for me to be the first Indigenous North American? Most of the films that show up in these categories are shot on Indigenous land in North America, and it’s taken this long.”
