Lily Gladstone remembers childhood obsession with Leonardo DiCaprio in “Titanic”

All these years later, she’s now costars with her former idol in “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

Lily Gladstone admired Leonardo DiCaprio long before she played his wife on screen. In a new interview with PEOPLE, the Killers of the Flower Moon star reveals that she was a bit obsessed with Titanic as a kid.

“It was one of the first things I spent my allowance on,” Gladstone said. “I pre-ordered the double VHS set from Toys ‘R’ Us when that was still around.”

Young readers should understand (and older readers may need a reminder) that when Titanic was originally released on home video, the 194-minute Oscar-winning epic had to be split into multiple VHS tapes. This was years before the age of Blu-Rays, fewer streaming services and their seemingly infinite libraries.

DiCaprio had established himself with several movie roles before costarring with Kate Winslet in the Best Picture winner, but Titanic marked the zenith of his power as a matinee idol. His character, Jack Dawson, became the archetypal crush for many young women at the time — including Gladstone.

“Leo was great in it because Jack Dawson was great,” Gladstone told PEOPLE. “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.”

Decades later, Gladstone was cast as Mollie Kyle in Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of Killers of the Flower Moon. Based on journalist David Grann’s Pulitzer Prize-winning nonfiction book, the film explores the “Reign of Terror” inflicted on Osage Indians like Mollie during the 1920s. After oil was discovered on Osage land in Oklahoma, the tribe members became some of the richest people in America — which tragically made them targets for merciless white murderers.

DiCaprio plays Ernest Burkhart, a white man who woos and marries Mollie. The question of whether he’s motivated by true love for her or just wants her money is a central tension of the film. In a recent interview with EW, Gladstone spoke highly of DiCaprio as a collaborator.

“We worked together very easily,” Gladstone told EW. “When we were volleying things back and forth, there was a natural cadence that developed. He also wanted to learn how Ernest would help Mollie put her blanket on or take it off. So, we developed this actors’ language for these two characters that ends up being very seamless. And it all goes to serve that grand betrayal.”

Killers of the Flower Moon is now available On Demand, and still playing in some theaters. It is one of EW’s favorite movies of 2023, and EW Oscars expert Joey Nolfi predicts it is currently the frontrunner to win Best Picture at next year’s ceremony.

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