Leonardo DiCaprio says Hollywood needs to “do more” when telling Native American stories
Leonardo DiCaprio says that he and his colleagues in Hollywood “need to do more” regarding telling Native American stories.
DiCaprio appears in new Martin Scorsese western crime drama Killers Of The Flower Moon, which follows the FBI investigation into a series of Oklahoma murders in the Osage Nation.
Speaking to Vogue alongside co-star Lily Gladstone, the actor spoke of the work that still needs to be done around white America’s portrayal of native peoples on screen.
“Hollywood has a long history and chequered past in its depiction of Native American people,” he said.
“We need to do more. You know, we are coming towards a great reckoning of our past. The more that these stories can be told in a truthful way, the more it can be a healing process.”
In the same piece, Scorsese added: “I hope that we did justice to, and raised awareness about, a horrifying chapter in American history, largely unknown outside of the Native communities. I can’t stress enough how important that is to me.”
After the first trailer for the film landed back in May, some viewers raised eyebrows at the authenticity of DiCaprio’s southern accent.
One viewer wrote: “Did Leo just invent a new accent, has anybody ever sounded like that?”
“Love him but why does scorsese feel the need to inflict leo dicaprio doing a terrible accent on us every decade or so,” another added.
Killers Of The Flower Moon premiered at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, where it received a nine-minute standing ovation.
Alongside DiCaprio and Gladstone, the film stars Robert De Niro, Jesse Plemons, Brendan Fraser, John Lithgow and Tantoo Cardinal.
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Will Richards
NME
