Sophia Michaels
Lily Gladstone is getting standout acclaim for her work in Killers of the Flower Moon as wealthy Osage womanMollie Kyle, opposite Leonardo DiCaprio’s Ernest Burkhart, Mollie’s duplicitous husband. And it turns out, the actress has a deep love for her co-star’s other standout performance in Titanic, as she has a VHS of the film. Let’s just say I love this ’90s nostalgia for Titanic just as much as both actors’ performances in Martin Scorsese’s latest movie.
Even more exciting than the awards buzz that’s been humming around the 37-year-old actress — she’s already scored a 2024 Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress— was the mere chance to meet the Titanic icon, Gladstone recently revealed to People:
I loved that movie. It was one of the first things I spent my allowance on. I pre-ordered the double VHS set from Toys ‘R’ Us when that was still around. I remember the Blockbuster commercial, [with store employees] hearing the crowd of young women approaching. [The workers] set the Titanic on the shelf, and then you hear all the young ladies, and they’re like, ‘Uh-oh, here they come.’
Can’t you feel all the ’90s nostalgia? I sure can. DiCaprio, of course, starred as the romantic artist Jack Dawson in the 1997 James Cameron-directed epic, opposite Kate Winslet’s debutanteRose DeWitt Bukater.
Gladstone praised both Winslet and DiCaprio’s performances in the beloved drama, but though she admitted that the character of Jack Dawson “was great,” she didn’t crush on the character like the millions of other ’90s-era moviegoers who fell for the Hollywood heartthrob. The actress said she would “project” her childhood crushes onto Jack, but that she never crushed on Leo’s character himself:
I loved that movie for the film and for Kate Winslet. Leo was great in it because Jack Dawson was great. And it’s funny, whenever I had crushes in sixth grade — because the year that it came out for me — I would kind of project my crushes into Jack Dawson. It was never on Jack Dawson.
The Montana native also revealed to the outlet that Titanic wasn’t the first time she saw DiCaprio act onscreen, citing his early films like the 1993 coming-of-age drama What’s Eating Gilbert Grape—for which the then-19-year-old actor received his first Academy Award nominations, becoming the seventh-youngest Best Supporting Actor nominee—and the 1996 Shakespeare remake Romeo + Juliet, which “she loved.”
I had been a fan of Leo long before [Titanic]. My first film that I watched him in was, I can’t remember which one came first, but it was either What’s Eating Gilbert Grape or This Boy’s Life. I loved Romeo + Juliet.
However, it was actually another one of young Leo’s ’90s roles that Lily cited as her favorite from the acclaimed actor: the 1998 action drama The Man in the Iron Mask, in which DiCaprio played both King Louis XIV and his twin brother Phillippe.
I already knew at that point I wanted to be an actor and getting to see one actor play that kind of duality, it was really cool.
Along with loving DiCaprio’s work in the ’90s, Gladstone also praised her Killers of the Flower Moon co-star’s recent work, him switching roles in the Martin Scorsese movie and pushing back against the “white savior” narrative found in so many films focused on indigenous communities.
Now it looks like Lily will very likely be joining her Titanic fave in the Academy’s storied history: she is this year’s Best Actress frontrunner in 2024 Oscar conversations, and DiCaprio will likely be nominated for his Killers performance as well, adding to a decades-spanning Oscar resume that includes five nominations and one win, for The Revenant.
Overall, I’m so here for Lily Gladstone’s appreciation for her co-star’s career, especially all those ’90s movies, and I can’t wait to see how her career flourishes, just like DiCaprio’s did because of films like Titanic.
