In her acceptance speech as the first Native American woman to win a Screen Actors Guild Award in the lead actress motion picture category, Lily Gladstone thanked actors for continuing to “speak up” both in their performances and out in public, particularly during last year’s SAG-AFTRA strike.
“This has been a hard year for all of us. Those in this room, those not in this room, I’m so proud we have gotten here in solidarity with the other unions,” she said.
Gladstone won her SAG Award for her performance as Mollie Kyle in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.” The film follows Mollie as she gets married to white settler Ernest Burkhart, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, only for Ernest to betray her as she is poisoned and her family is killed off one-by-one to take control of their oil-rich land.
Gladstone called on actors to continue to “bring empathy into a world that so much needs it.”
“It’s so easy to distance ourselves, to close ourselves off, to stop feeling, and we all bravely keep feeling,” Gladstone said. “That humanizes people, that brings people out of the shadows, that brings visibility.”
“Thank you for all of the compassionate souls in the this room and all of the storytellers here tonight. Keep speaking your truths, and keep speaking up for each other,” she concluded. “Have a good one. See you again.”
Watch Gladstone’s acceptance speech in the video above.
