Leonardo DiCaprio was in a playful mood when he and Lily Gladstone, his co-star in Martin Scorsese’s disturbingly thrilling American history lesson Killers of the Flower Moon, were at the center of a small gathering at the Odeon Luxe in London’s Leicester Square.
DiCaprio ridiculed a suggestion that players for English Premier League teams were better athletes than U.S. basketball players. “Better than Michael Jordan?” he scoffed. “The greatest basketball player ever!”
Grinning, he conceded that he doesn’t follow soccer teams. “What’s Arsenal?” he demanded, going for the jugular. Sport wasn’t really on the agenda but it usually helps to encourage banter at these events.
DiCaprio and Gladstone were in the West End Monday night for an awards screening of Killers of the Flower Moon. DiCaprio’s friend, Cate Blanchett, was also in attendance, ready to introduce the actors at the screening.
“We didn’t get to talk or promote for the longest time because of the strike,” Leo said. “We’re making up for lost time,” he added.They were off to Paris on Tuesday. “Short visits. In, then out,” Leo explained.
The Oscar winner has made six films with Scorsese: Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, Shutter Island, The Wolf of Wall Street, and now Apple Studios picture, Killers of the Flower Moon.Does he figure he’ll do another movie with Scorsese?
His eyes widened. “This one took seven years of development and production. It would be great but any film takes time to develop. There’s rights to get right. We went up for this a couple of times.”
Well then, what’s his next project? “I have one but I don’t think I’m allowed to discuss it. I want to but I don’t think I’m allowed. I would love to give you a scoop, but I can’t,” he pleaded sheepishly.
Now, 1,101 actors and filmmakers have given me the exact same lament over the years but, hey, this was Leonardo DiCaprio being utterly charming and giving naught away.
We were having a laugh, though.
The fact that he was even exchanging banter, was in itself an occurrence rarer than hen’s teeth.
There can never be substantial conversations at such occasions but even having him take the piss out of my sporting favorites brightened up what could have been a dull Monday night.
His good cheer had something to do with the seven Golden Globe Awards nominations Killers of the Flower Moon had received earlier in the day, including both he and Gladstone being cited for their performances.
I should note that I did not have as much as a sip of water at the reception. Zero. Nothing. Not even a humble peanut. Wait. There weren’t any peanuts. Nothing to eat at all, actually. But plenty of booze and plenty of water. I had none of it.
Bit extreme. But there are practical reasons for not indulging at these soirées but now’s not the time.
I have thought about Lily Gladstone a lot since we met at Cannes where Killers of the Flower Moon had its world premiere.
At the heart of the movie is a love story of Ernest Burkhart, a blundering bounder who, with an unfriendly shove from his malevolent uncle, played by Robert DeNiro, woos Gladstone’s Mollie, because as a member of the Osage Nation, she’s heir to oil rights under Osage County in Oklahoma.
Even though Mollie’s hurled through hell, Gladstone gave her a calmness that’s utterly beguiling.
Gladstone said she remembers watching the film at Cannes and seeing members of the Osage community up on the screen riding around in their finest clothes in swanky cars. And hearing the score from Robbie Roberson, who died in August, was poignant because “my dad was a huge fan.”
The important point though, she noted, was that “Native people are really proud. We’re very clean, we’re well conducted, we have a regality about our tradition and our ways that people just don’t realize.
“Seeing Indian wealth represented on screen with Robbie Robertson’s score over the top of it was like, this is real. This is happening. This is the way it should be and I got emotional because it’s like, it should have stayed that way.”
Upcoming, after next March when awards season’s over, Gladstone has a movie project in development and she’s executive producing, plus a television drama, but, alas, “I can’t talk about them.”
But she was able to share details about a beloved project concerning a biopic of Mildred Bailey. Another example “of excellent Natives through history that we don’t ever see.”
A film about Bailey, ”the first woman to sing in front of a big band, she got Bing Crosby’s career going, and she gave a job to Billie Holiday’s mom when Billie was trying to break through,” is being developed with Erica Tremblay (Reservation Dogs), who directed Gladstone in the feature, Fancy Dance.
“A lot of people say Mildred Bailey was Billie Holiday before Billie Holiday was, and she sang in this very similar style,” Gladstone revealed.
Bailey’s singing, Gladstone noted, was “actually very influenced by where she grew up. She’s from Coeur d’Alene people from Idaho.”
During World War II, Bailey was a radio fixture. ”She had everybody on her radio show, she was a big deal at the time, but history erased her.”
Bailey was mixed Coeur d’Alene and Scandinavian but her record labels didn’t know how to present her. ”They tried to label her the Great White jazz singer and when she pushed back on that then they started writing about her as a Black jazz singer, and she’s like, neither,” Gladstone says.
“So they clearly erased her Indigeneity while she was famous and then since she passed away she got erased from history,” Gladstone sighed.
The Mildred Bailey film’s way off in the future, she and Tremblay are focussing on getting Fancy Dance sold.
Mildred Bailey’s turn will come though. Already Gladstone’s linked up with Stella Heath, an actor and singer who’s acting as her vocal coach and guide to all things concerning Mildred Bailey. ”She has the whole arsenal of Mildred’s history,” she said admiringly.
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