Martin Scorsese, Lily Gladstone and Leonardo DiCaprio cover the current issue of Variety, something of a reminder that the Killers of the Flower Moon team really didn’t get a chance to do much promotion for the film during the SAG-AFTRA strike. Lily and Leo only did a handful of interviews before the strike, which left Marty to do the bulk of the promotion. Variety got them all in the same room after the Oscar nominations came out and Leo was “snubbed.” Leo was also snubbed for a SAG nomination. I didn’t think Leo’s snubs were a huge deal because, frankly, he was the weakest link in an uneven and poorly written film. Some highlights from the Variety interview:

Lily’s parents were mad that DiCaprio was snubbed for an Oscar nom: “They were pissed. He was the first to text me congratulations, with popping confetti. I told him how upset we all were. My nomination is equal parts his. I would not have been able to do what I did without his generosity as an actor and as a human being.”

Scorsese on Leo’s work in KOTFM: “He went so far into the complexities and contradictions of a man who was so weak, so malleable, who did such unspeakable things, but who also truly loved his wife. Leo fearlessly created a true Everyman … an Everyman that people just don’t want to acknowledge. So that will endure.”

Leo on wanting to tell Ernest & Mollie’s love story: “There’s the underlying story of deception that’s occurring, but we knew there had to be a connection because, frankly, that’s what the Osage community kept telling us adamantly — that these two people did fall in love. It became incredibly corrupt, one of the most twisted love stories I’ve ever come across in my life, but all true. The challenge was how much she knew I was complicit.

Lily on playing the love story: “If you’re playing the complicity, then it doesn’t work. You play the love, and the complicity and the betrayal come out of what is built with love there. It’s hard to explain how you find chemistry between two actors. It’s there or it’s not.

Lily on writing a trigger warning for the film on social media: “That came out of a lot of conversations I’d had with the Osage. They said how thankful they were that they saw it together as a community, because they could unpack it and process it together. A lot of my Native friends were so excited and getting dressed up for the premieres and taking their nieces, and I thought, “This is also going to be really triggering for them.” As soon as I could speak [after the strike], it felt like that was the most important thing to say… There’s such a backlash now against being a good and decent person. We’re not telling anybody not to watch the film. It’s just, when you watch it, be aware this is going to be an experience. It’s an entertaining, arresting film, but a lot of people I talked to who had seen it alone outside of the community said they felt lonely and triggered afterwards.

Leo on whether he thinks Ernest was smart: “I went through a puzzling moment at the beginning of this shoot. I was struck by how slow Ernest was in his articulation. His writing seemed on the verge of having some sort of mental issue. At the same time, he was incredibly duplicitous and calculating. He was also manipulated by his uncle, who was the puppeteer of these heinous acts. I had a discussion in my own mind, wanting to make him culpable without going too extreme in either direction. It needed to be somewhere in the middle.

Leo has seen Barbenheimer: “Saw them both in the theater. That may have been the last theatrical film that I saw. But you just reminded me — I saw “Blue Whales: Return of the Giants” in the Imax theater in downtown L.A.”

Lily on missing Indigenous women: “It’s ironic that the FBI was formed on a case solving the murder of Indigenous people, when now they’re the only governing body that has authority to do something and they don’t. It’s always our communities that are searching for our missing women, that are finding answers. Our sovereignty has been stripped back to the point that we can’t prosecute those who kill our people on our tribal land. That’s all the feds. So it’s important that the FBI was formed solving Native murders, but it would have been tragic for people to think that they were still doing that. It just doesn’t happen.

Scorsese on the election year: “This is the most dangerous time I’ve ever lived through. I was born during World War II and lived through the Cuban missile crisis and all that, but it was never like this.

[From Variety]

Re: whether Ernest Burkhart was smart, conniving, or just an idiot being manipulated – frankly, that was a huge problem for the film. They couldn’t make up their mind whether Ernest was a gullible moron or a charming sociopath, and frankly, Leo’s performance wasn’t worthy of any awards. Using Ernest as the lead, and centering the story mostly through Ernest was deeply problematic. If I’m being fair, I understand why Scorsese and Leo wanted to frame it through “the love story,” but they should have left more room to show the investigation, the FBI, the trial and more. The last forty minutes of the film makes everything feel so compressed, like the FBI shows up and solves the crimes in a week. I’ll say one nice thing – Leo and Lily have chemistry with each other on and off screen, and you can really feel how much they like each other in real life.

This week’s Variety cover story with Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone:

Marty, Leo and Lily: 'Killers of the Flower Moon' Trio on DiCaprio's Oscar Snub, Runtime Discourse and Centering the Osage https://t.co/eDkMbS6Mjl pic.twitter.com/Htv533aTok

— Variety (@Variety) January 26, 2024

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.