In Under The Bridge, Lily Gladstone Returns To The ’90s

In Lily Gladstone’s latest project, Hulu’s true-crime series Under The Bridge, the teenage characters wear Steve Madden, admire mobster John Gotti, and blast Notorious B.I.G. and Nirvana. For the 37-year-old actor, it made for a surreal experience.

“It was strange to be walking back into adolescence,” Gladstone tells Bustle of the series, which is set in 1997. “I was definitely listening to a lot of the same music, and wore the same necklace you see on [the character] Josephine, the one that almost looks like a neck tattoo. I still have and wear it.”

Set in Victoria, Canada, the historical drama follows an ambitious detective (Gladstone) and her estranged childhood friend (Riley Keough) as they investigate the real-life murder of 14-year-old Reena Virk. It’s a dark show that delves into race-based bullying, not entirely dissimilar from last year’s Killers of the Flower Moon, which propelled Gladstone into the national spotlight and earned her Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards.

After the Academy Awards, in which she became the first Native American woman nominated for Best Actress, Gladstone’s tribe, the Blackfoot Confederacy, gathered more than 2,000 people in Browning, Montana, to honor her. “I was transferred a woman’s stand-up headdress, which is the greatest honor that anybody could ever get,” she says. “They called it Lily Gladstone Day. And it was amazing seeing that many Blackfeet people from the whole confederacy celebrating what was really a shared triumph this entire award season.”

Since then, Gladstone has signed on to The Memory Police and the rom-com The Wedding Banquet. Her film Fancy Dance, about a woman searching for her missing sister, lands on Apple TV in June. Nevertheless, Killers of the Flower Moon continues to create an enduring legacy for Gladstone, and her co-star, Leonardo DiCaprio, even makes a surprising appearance in Under the Bridge.

“There was a poster of Leo on the wall in the teenager’s room, which I happened to find really funny,” says Gladstone. “When I walked in, I was like, ‘Oh, hey, what’s up, buddy?’”

Below, the actor reflects on middle school, Keough’s trickster spirit, and unwinding after awards season.

What drew you to Under the Bridge?

Riley. I had been sent the description, but I was shooting Fancy Dance so my time was limited. I wasn’t sure it was the right thing for me, especially coming off Killers of the Flower Moon. I was hesitant to do another quote-unquote “true crime.” But when I knew Riley was attached — having been a fan of hers for so long and knowing how thoughtful and committed she is to a lot of the same social issues I am — I was like, OK, there’s probably something here.

What makes Under the Bridge different from other true-crime dramas?

The project has a guiding empathy and social awareness that transcends the idea of true crime being a genre for entertainment. A true story is your access point for having these really important conversations.

I read Under the Bridge, and I was really happy to learn that [Reena’s father] had written a manuscript that they also optioned, to flesh out her and her family’s experience through the whole thing. It added a layer of nuance that was necessary.

How did you start researching Reena’s case?

A lot of the research I did was into the experiences of survivors of The Sixties Scoop, a widespread government initiative in Canada. It was a program that, for very stupid menial and arbitrary reasons, would take Indigenous children from their families and adopt them into non-Indigenous families. It was kind of an epidemic, and had incredibly long lasting impacts.

The impact of Reena’s case reminded me of Matthew Shepard’s in the States. [It gave me] insight into what made this crime so particularly heartbreaking.

You were close in age to Reena and the girls in the late ’90s. How did it feel going back to that time?

Being back in that space, I thought about what we’d gone through and how we’d experienced some of the same things. I was starting a new school, having just moved from a reservation and coming into suburban Seattle. As the only Native kid, I definitely felt marginalized.

I was 11 and in middle school, and I remember that suddenly our teachers and adult society became very preoccupied with our fascination with blood and crip culture. There was almost a “prevent gang violence” thing, which was very puzzling to me. It makes sense [in hindsight, having been] really close to Victoria, where this happened.

Then a couple years later, with Columbine, I remember it starting all over again. All of a sudden, adults were policing the kind of music we were listening to and the media we were consuming. Even back then, I remember thinking That's not what's causing this. Now we focus more on preventing bullying, and a lot of that has to do with looking at what creates bullies and what sort of inequities in society make a bully or victim.

How did you and Riley Keough work together to establish your characters’ chemistry?

You have to credit [the casting department]. They’re the people who just know we're going to work together. So Riley and I really didn't have to do much, except spend time with each other.

Tell me about a favorite on-set memory you have with Riley.

Riley’s got a little bit of a trickster spirit, which would come into play once in a while, particularly in scenes where we were in close proximity to each other physically. She has this very funny but also very annoying habit of [jokingly] saying “ouch” just to get a reaction. So it’s like you’re concerned with whether or not you’re stepping on [her] toes or doing something to hurt [her]. She does it to get a rise out of people. So that was pretty funny, exactly the right kind of annoying.

That’s funny. I’d also love to hear about what your life’s been like since the Oscars. How did you spend the week immediately after awards season?

I took my mom and dad to an amazing spa in Palm Springs, [visiting] the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. My best friend from childhood is their tribal lawyer. We grew up in Montana together. She and her boss, the tribal chairman, invited me to come to the spa after the Oscars to unwind. After promoting a film about the Reign of Terror, it was really lovely to walk into a vibrant, flourishing, strong sovereign tribal nation.

The interview was edited and condensed for clarity.