Martin Scorsese’s ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ Adds Four Indigenous Actors Alongside Leonardo DiCaprio

Matt Donnelly
·3 min read
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Apple Studios’ hot Martin Scorsese project “Killers of the Flower Moon” has added four new cast members, set to play opposite Leonardo DiCaprio and “Certain Women” star Lily Gladstone.

Indigenous actors Tantoo Cardinal, Cara Jade Myers, JaNae Collins and Jillian Dion will all take key roles in the project, based on David Grann’s bestseller about the serial murders of members of the oil-wealthy Osage Nation in 1920s Oklahoma.

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Cardinal, a preeminent indigenous actress (“Dances with Wolves,” “Godless”), will play the role of Lizzie Q, mother to Gladstone’s character Mollie Burkhart. Myers, Collins and Dion will play the roles of Mollie’s sisters — Anna, Reta, and Minnie. Jesse Plemons was also previously announced as a co-star.

Scorsese is producing and directing the project from a script by Eric Roth. Imperative Entertainment’s Dan Friedkin and Bradley Thomas are also producers, with DiCaprio’s Appian Way Productions.

Cardinal was born in Ft. McMurray, Alberta. She is of Dene, Cree, Metis and Nakota heritage, and has more than 100 film and TV credits to her name. She’s spent her career paving the way for recognition of Native American performers in the industry. Cardinal is a member of the Order of Canada, the country’s second highest civilian honor, and a recipient of the Governor General’s Arts Award, the highest civilian honor for arts in Canada. In 2017, she was awarded the Academy of Canadian Cinema and TV Earle Grey Award for Lifetime Achievement. She is repped by Murray Gibson at RED Talent Management.

Myers is an enrolled member of the Wichita Tribe. Born in Phoenix, Cara was raised in the small Arizona town of Prescott Valley. She has appeared on film and TV in “Rutherford Falls,” “Masters of Fear,” “This Is Us,” “Hermione Granger & The Quarter Life Crisis” and “Ward of the State.” Film credits include “Proximity.” She is repped by Chris Roe Management.

Collins is an enrolled member of the Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes from Poplar, Montana but is also half Apsáalooke (Crow). She studied acting at the University of New Mexico under Paul Ford, and later at Upright Citizens Brigade. Unrepresented and independent, JaNae’s film/TV credits include “Longmire,” “Fukry,” “Kindred Spirit” and “Gunfight at La Mesa”.

Dion is a Canadian-born actress of Plains Cree, Metis and French-Canadian descent, raised in a Dene/Metis household. After attending an open call during the Gathering of Nations in Albuquerque she was cast in the mini-series “Into the West.” Dion has appeared on “Motherland: Fort Salem,” and “Legion.” She belongs to the Saddle Lake Cree Nation. She is repped by Skye Matheson at KC Talent Management.

Imperative is behind projects such as the Clint Eastwood’s film “The Mule,” “All the Money in the World,” and the acclaimed Ruben Ostlund film “The Square.” They wrapped production on Ostlund’s follow-up “Triangle of Sadness” and produced Apple’s forthcoming “In WithThe Devil” starring Taron Egerton.

“Killers of the Flower Moon” joins a slew of upcoming Apple original films including Brie Larson’s “Lessons in Chemistry,” Ridley Scott’s “Kitbag,” Will Smiths’ “Emancipation,” and the Sundance sensation “CODA.”

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