Leonardo DiCaprio Calls Out Hollywood’s ‘Checkered Past’ with Depiction of Native American People

“We are coming towards a great reckoning of our past,” the ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ actor said

Leonardo DiCaprio. Photo:Ethan Miller/Getty

Leonardo DiCaprio thinks Hollywood has work to do in regards to past portrayals of Native American people.

DiCaprio, 48, and his Killers of the Flower Moon costar Lily Gladstone spoke to Vogue UK prior to the ongoing actors’ strike. In the interview, they expressed their appreciation for the way the Martin Scorsese-directed film depicts an era known as the Reign of Terror among members of the Osage Nation.

“Hollywood has a long history and checkered past in its depiction of Native American people,” DiCaprio said. “We need to do more. You know, we are coming towards a great reckoning of our past.”

He added, “The more that these stories can be told in a truthful way, the more it can be a healing process.”

The movie is based on David Grann’s 2017 bestseller Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, and tells the true story of Ernest Burkhart (DiCaprio) and Mollie Kyle (Gladstone).

The unlikely pair became a couple after Burkhart moved to Oklahoma in the 1920s in hopes of striking it rich in the Osage oil boom.

At the time, the Native American people living on the Osage Reservation were in large part independently wealthy thanks to the oil on their land. Their prosperity ended when White residents orchestrated a series of killings targeting the Osage people.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone Star in Epic New Trailer for ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’

Lily Gladstone and Leonardo DiCaprio in “Killers of the Flower Moon.”.Courtesy of Apple TV+

Shedding light on this forgotten piece of history is part of what drew DiCaprio and Gladstone to the film.

“It’s not that long ago that the Reign of Terror happened,” Gladstone said. “I don’t want to label this a Western. I’m happy that it’s being labeled a tragedy.”

DiCaprio added, “It’s a completely forgotten part of American history and an open wound that still festers.”

While the production crew behind the film was largely White, Vogue UK noted the Osage leader, Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear, gave the movie his full support. For her part, Gladstone sees the production crew as allies.

“Nobody is going to hand an Osage filmmaker $200 million,” she told the outlet. “There’s a level of allyship that’s absolutely necessary.”

DiCaprio noted the parallels between the Reign of Terror and the Tulsa Race Massacre. DiCaprio stayed in Tulsa while the movie was filming, and he told Vogue UK his time in Tulsa coincided with both the 100 anniversary of the first murder of the Black Wall Street Massacre, as well as the beginning of the Reign of Terror on the Osage Nation.

“It was very important to me to realize these were two sides of the same coin … people of color that were independently wealthy amid a massive population of incredibly racist White people who want to extract those resources at any cost,” he said.

“Look at Standing Rock. Look at what’s going on in Indonesia, in the Amazon. These places that are home to incredible resources are also places that are most drenched in blood.”

Leonardo DiCaprio

In addition to DiCaprio and Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon also stars Robert De Niro, Jesse Plemons, Tantoo Cardinal, John Lithgow, Brendan Fraser and Cara Jade Myers.

Scorsese, 80, recently told Time magazine he rewrote a draft of Killers of the Flower Moon to shift it from being centered on the White characters.

“After a certain point, I realized I was making a movie about all the White guys … meaning I was taking the approach from the outside in, which concerned me,” he said.

The movie is in theaters Oct. 20, before later streaming on Apple TV+.