While it may have taken Hollywood several years to see Lily Gladstone‘s potential, her high school classmates knew what she was capable of early on.
In a recently resurfaced photo from her high school yearbook, fans have discovered that the actress — who has received universal praise for her portrayal of Mollie Kyle in Martin Scorsese‘s Killers of the Flower Moon — was once voted “most likely to win an Oscar” by her peers.
In a photo posted to social media, a young Gladstone, 37, stands next to a classmate who was nominated alongside her for the entertainment industry-focused superlative. The pair — tapping into their dramatic sides — recreate Grant Wood’s American Gothic, with classmate Josh Ryder holding a wooden doll as a makeshift Academy Award.
ET reached out to Edmonds School District where the actress attended high school, and director of communications Harmony Weinberg had nothing but praise for the Oscar hopeful.
“We are beyond proud of Lily Gladstone and her amazing accomplishments,” she tells ET. “What an inspiration she is to our students! We here at the Edmonds School District are rooting for her and hope she takes it home!”
Additionally, Ryder has praised her on social media and is one of her biggest supporters as she continues her campaign leading up to the 96th Academy Awards.
“It’s so f**king cool to see @lilygladstone soar. Elegant and empowering others; she continues to be a class act. I’m over the moon for this badass babe. Go, Lily, go!” Ryder wrote in an Instagram post on Jan. 8.
The resurfacing of what some online are calling “a prophecy” comes as Gladstone is heavily favored to receive her first Academy Award nomination for her performance in the 2023 film. Oscar nominations will be announced on Jan. 23 and the awards ceremony is slated to be held on March 10.
On Sunday, Gladstone solidified her status as a frontrunner in the race, winning the coveted Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. She beat out Annette Bening (Nyad), Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall), Greta Lee (Past Lives), Carey Mulligan (Maestro), and Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla) to win the award. The Fancy Dance star’s win marked the first for an Indigenous woman in Golden Globes history.
ET previously spoke with the Golden Globe winner’s Killers of the Flower Moon co-star, Leonardo DiCaprio, who described her as the “heart and soul” of the film.
“I felt her at moments living as Mollie,” DiCaprio said of his on-screen wife, who plays a member of the Osage tribe. “She embodied that character, she took on the soul of this woman and embraced herself into the Osage community.”
Based on David Grann’s best-selling nonfiction book, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, the Western crime epic centers on a series of murders in 1920s Oklahoma, after oil is discovered on tribal land in the Osage Nation. The murders became known as the “Reign of Terror,” during which wealthy Osage Nation members were murdered for their oil money by the “white interlopers, who manipulated, extorted, and stole as much Osage money as they could before resorting to murder.”
Gladstone’s performance is one of the most salient to come out of the 2023 film season. Thus far, the actress has received more than two dozen nominations from film festivals and nominating bodies across the world, including the Astra Film Awards and the National Board of Review.
On Wednesday, she was announced as one of the five actresses to score a SAG Award nomination in the Outstanding Female Actor in a Leading Role category, once again joined by Mulligan and Bening alongside Margot Robbie (Barbie) and Emma Stone (Poor Things).
For more on Gladstone’s role and Killers of the Flower Moon, check out the headlines below.
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