Emma Stone wins second Best Actress Oscar for ‘Poor Things’ in Lily Gladstone upset
Emma Stone’s Best Actress win at the 2024 Oscars prevented “Killers of the Flower Moon” star Lily Gladstone from making history as the first Native American woman to win in the category.
Stone, 35, tearfully accepted the award for “Poor Things,” although she, too, appeared stunned by her win. She also suffered a wardrobe malfunction onstage, telling the audience that her Louis Vuitton gown had ripped.
This is Stone’s second win in the category after taking home a golden statue for “La La Land” in 2017.
Gladstone, 37 — who is of Blackfeet and Nez Perce heritage — was favored to score the Oscar on Sunday after winning for her “Killers” role at the SAG Awards last month.
Her character in the film, Mollie Burkhart, is based on a real-life woman who was a member of the Osage Nation.
Born in Montana, Gladstone was raised on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and later near Seattle. Other Indigenous actresses, including Keisha Castle-Hughes and Yalitza Aparicio, have previously received Oscar nods.
The Martin Scorsese-directed film was up for 10 Oscar nods, including Best Song, which ultimately went to Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connelll for their mega “Barbie” hit, “What Was I Made For?” Still, the nod made Scott George the first Native American nominated in that category, too.
The star-studded cast of “Killers” also includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Brendan Fraser, Jesse Plemons and Louis Cancelmi.
Gladstone shared her reaction on getting nominated with Entertainment Weekly in January.
“I always say this, but it’s not fully mine. It belongs to so many people: the Osage Nation, the Blackfeet Nation, the Nez Perce Nation, every Indigenous actor whose shoulders I stand on,” she said at the time. “It’s circumstantial that I’m the first, and I’m so very grateful. I just know that I’m not going to be the last, not by a long shot.”
Gladstone also reflected on being given the title “Most Likely to Win an Oscar” in her 2004 high school yearbook.
“It’s funny, I only posted that back when ‘Certain Women’ was getting its accolades, back when I was told that I was on a long list for nomination that year,” she said of a 2017 Instagram post about the prediction.
“To me, it felt like that was it. That was the best feeling to get to be in a film like that, and to just hear rumors that I was at least on a long list for it, that felt beyond anything I could have dreamt. So I posted that like, ‘Well, I got close, guys!’ and then I forgot about it. I put that on my Instagram in 2017, and then some fan on Twitter pulled it up and blasted it again.
“Then, when that trended a little bit, I got texted that picture from Leo [DiCaprio]. It kind of blew my mind that Leo had access to my high school yearbook,” Gladstone laughed. “I mean, he found it online, but for a second it was confusing, like, ‘How did you get that?!'”
Despite her Oscars loss, Gladstone hopes to next host “Saturday Night Live.”
“That’s been probably a dream that I’ve held on my own,” she recently told People.
“It’s like my parents — and I think it’s just what people say when you have an aspiration to act, and they want to encourage you as a kid — it’s like, ‘Oh, you’ll get an Oscar one day.’ So it almost just becomes a platitude,” she continued. “But the thing that I’ve always wanted to do if I’ve had this moment is to host SNL.”
“Killers of the Flower Moon” can now be streamed on Apple TV+.
