Fancy Dance: Lily Gladstone & Cast on Native American Stories in Cinema

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In this episode of pop Culture Weekly, I talk with the Academy Award nominated

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Lily Gladstone and the cast of the
new Apple TV Plus movie Fancy Dance.

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Let's go Welcome to pop Culture Weekly
with Kyle McMahon from my Heart Radio,

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your pop culture news, views,
reviews and celebrity interviews on all the movies,

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TV, music and pop culture u
CRABE Weekly. Here's Kyle McMahon net

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Nana nut Net, Hello and welcome
the pop Culture Weekly with Kyle McMahon.

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I of course am Kyle McMahon,
and I can't thank you enough for once

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again hanging out with me to discuss
pop culture, movies, music, TV

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news, streaming technology, whatever it
is you know, we cover it here

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today. It is all about the
brand new film Fancy Dance, which is

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in select theaters across the country and
debuting and exclusively on Apple TV Plus.

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Fancy Dance is it's a really incredible
film that you have to see. It

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really is just that good. So
it's directed and written by Erica Tremblay and

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the byeline is following her sister's disappearance, a Native American hustler kidnaps her niece

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from the child's white grandparents and sets
out for the state powwow in hopes of

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keeping what is left of their family
intact. It is. It stars Lily

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Gladstone and Isabelle Deroy Olsen, who
I talk to both of those as well.

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It is really, really, incredibly
powerful. It's a great film that

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you know, opened my eyes to
Natives, Native Americans, indigenous people to

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the land of America and North America. And wow, it is really good.

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It is touching, it is powerful, It is sweet in moments,

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it is shocking in moments. It
is incredible. I highly suggest that you

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watch Fancy Dance exclusively on Apple TV
Plus, or if you're lucky enough to

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be in one of the major markets
to go see it in the theater.

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Do that because it's, you know, always the best if you can to

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see it in the theater. So
I speak with director, writer Erica Tremblay

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as well as the amazing Lily Gladstone
and Isabelle Deroy Olson all about Fancy Dance.

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So Erica Tremblay will start with her. She is a Native herself.

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She was a producer on Reservation Dog
on FX, which I absolutely loved.

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She also was a director there.
She did a short film in twenty twenty

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called Little Chief, which also starred
Lily Gladstone, and that is really amazing

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as well. Well, let's just
get into my conversation my interview with Erica

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Chremblay. Thank you so much,
Erica for speaking with me. I really

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appreciate it. So, first of
all, congratulations on an incredibly beautiful and

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powerful film. It is stunning in
so many ways. This is your first

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feature length film. Why was it
important for you to tell this story as

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your first feature Yeah, you know, as a Native woman who grew up

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in my community, I really was
just inspired to tell a story about like

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the women in Queer folks who have
made me who I am, and I

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wanted to, you know, tell
a love story back to these incredible women

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who work so hard to educate our
kids, keep our kids safe. And

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Jax is this amalgamation of so many
people in my life and my co writer,

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Michiana's life, and you know,
Jax is trying so hard and doing

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so much to keep her niece safe. And I'm just really inspired people who

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may not have a lot but can
do a lot. And that is certainly

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a character that I want to write
for and was so grateful that Lily so

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beautifully brought to life. Did you
you had worked with Lily previously? Correct?

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Did you know as you were,
you know, putting the film together,

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like I like Lily, this is
going to be Lily. Yeah.

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Right after the success of our short
film Little Chief, I said, hey,

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do you want to do a feature
together? And so as Michiana and

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I were writing, we were sharing
drafts with Lily, and Lily was really

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instrumental in helping build Jack's as a
character. And just to be able to

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like imagine Lily as we as we
were writing was was so helpful. Uh.

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And and you know, Lily's want
incredible. Lily is Lily Gladstone.

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And what a wonderful experience to have
gotten to work with with them twice now

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and then of course to find Isabelle. And two of them have so much

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chemistry in real life and on screen, it's like as a director, it's

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like I just would sit there and
be like, okay, I do your

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thing and cut, Okay, We've
got it, because they're both just so

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incredibly wonderfully talented and so refreshing,
you know, to see on screen.

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What do you hope that people particularly
like me people that are not Native or

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Indigenous, which, by the way, that's one of the reasons I love

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film is that, you know,
it is able to show me slices of

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life that otherwise I would be ignorant
to and really opens my eyes to these

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worlds that are right next door to
me. What do you what do you

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hope the viewer takes from from watching
Fancy Dance? Yeah? You know,

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we really tried to construct a narrative
that doesn't beat you over the head with

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like a procedural of like we're going
to teach you this lesson. And I

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think by way of Frank and Nancy, who are these non native characters in

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our film who really, in their
hearts are trying to do the best thing.

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I'm hoping that people will see the
humanity in Jackson Rokie and what they're

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traversing and what they're going through.
And my hope is that non native folks

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will watch this and be like,
WHOA, what's happening next door to me?

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And they will they'll recognize their role
potentially in some of these oppressive systems

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and and want to be a better
citizen to their native neighbors. And I

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feel exactly the same like art can
build bridges between us, and hopefully this

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film will will have the ability,
uh to do just that. Like that's

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that's the hope and the dream.
Yeah, I think you've absolutely aced that.

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It is such an incredible film.
I can't wait for everybody to see

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Fancy Dance exclusively on Apple TV Plus
and actually a theatrical release first, but

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then exclusively on Apple TV Plus.
Thank you so much, Erica, Thank

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you, Erica Tremblay. Love her, She's incredible. I can't wait to

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I can't wait for everybody to see
Fancy Dance. But I can't wait to

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see what Erica does next. All
right. Next up Isabelle de roy Olsen.

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So she plays Rokie in the film
in Fancy Dance, and she is

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awesome as well. She was in
Three Pines this series and now stars as

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Rokie in Fancy Dance. Lily Gladstone
plays Jacks in Fancy Dance. Lily is

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just a powerhouse. She's from Montana, was raised on the black Feet Indian

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Reservation, went to University of Montana
where she got a bachelor's in acting and

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directing and a minor in Native American
studies. So she has come up.

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I mean she's put in all of
the work, but she has really come

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up in the last couple of years. She played Molly Burkhardt in Killers of

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the Flower Moon, which of course
landed her a Oscar nam for Best Actress

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for the twenty twenty four Academy Awards
the Oscars. With that, Lily became

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the first ever Native American actress to
be nominated for an Oscar, which is

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insane, literally insane, but it
is well deserved. And she's amazing,

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and she's amazing in fancy dance.
I mean, Lily is just a powerhouse

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and she's such a nice person.
I can't wait for you to hear this

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interview. So let's jump right in
to my interview with the one and only

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Lily Gladstone and Isabelle Deroy Olson.
Thank you both so much for joining me.

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I really appreciate it. Thank you
of course. So first of all,

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congratulations in the film. It is
powerful cinema. It is beautiful and

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heartbreaking and incredible all at once.
I wonder, as a viewer, what

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is it that drew you to tell
the story? What really drew me towards

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it was how real it felt,
you know, upon first reading the script,

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you know, my mom and I
sat down at breakfast and just started

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crying because we were so moved by
it and we really saw ourselves in it.

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You know, I grew up without
a lot of representation and without being

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able to look at a film and
say, oh, that's me. But

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the fact that I get to be
a part of something that can do that

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for my younger cousins and my younger
sibling who's thirteen, you know, they

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can really relate to it, and
I'm really grateful that they can look at

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me and see themselves. I was
on board no matter what the project was

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going to be because I'd done a
short film with Erica Tremblay in twenty eighteen.

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It premiered at sun Dance in twenty
twenty, right before the Pandemic,

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that one she had developed in the
dance labs. Sterlin Harjoe was her mentor,

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and Sterlin and I have been friends
for a long time. So I

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got a text from Sterlin out of
nowhere one day saying, hey, and

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my mentee at Sundance, Erica Tremblay
has a short film she wants you to

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look at. So I'm like,
great, send it over. And meanwhile,

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on the other end, Eric is
like, oh my god, you're

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not. I'm not going to get
Lily Gladstone because she loves Kelly Reichert and

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was obsessed with certain women. And
Sterlin said, yeah, just just dreamcast

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your short film and she wanted me, so it was It's so funny now

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that she was blown away that that
actually happened, that Sterlin just texted me,

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because on the other end, I'm
sitting there looking for my next project

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that's going to really excite me.
And then her beautiful script comes in and

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seven pages feels like a full feature, like every single beat that she wrote

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in Little Chief spoke to this immense
larger picture with these very small, insular,

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intimate moments between these two characters.
It's a quiet film, but it

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spoke multitudes, and there are so
few filmmakers who were able to just do

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that. That's one of the powerful
things about cinema is just the language of

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film and being confident that you have
something to say. So I loved that

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Erica as a filmmaker, lets things
sit. She doesn't shove anything down in

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anyone's throat. It's their space to
create character and to have beats and to

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have those lived in moments. So
I was hoping that she was she had

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a feature in her because she's the
kind of artist that I wanted to keep

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working with and lo and behold.
By the time we wrapped, she said,

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I would really love to write a
feature for you. Haven't I have

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a character in mind. I don't
know what it's going to be yet,

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So I'm like, great, whatever
you want, I'm there for it.

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So I was just waiting for basically
Erica to call one day and be like,

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I have the feature. And then
I found out in COVID Lockdown summer

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she had connected with me Shianolese also
through Sundance, and co wrote what became

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Anti Dance. So when I read
it, I always knew that the character

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of Jacks, even though I didn't
know that would be her name, I

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knew that Jack's was going to be
an Anti. I knew that she was

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going to live in that same sort
of resourceful you know, bending the rules

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or breaking the law to feed the
community, to take care of people like.

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I knew she would exist in that
same pocket that Sharon did in Little

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Chief. But when I read the
script, suddenly it was like, oh,

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this is genre, this is like
this is an elevated story outside of

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it's still very grounded in reality and
feels so lived in. But it's like

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I would put it on the shelf
between Thelma and Louise and Paper Moon.

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It's just like it was the kind
of narrative I as an actor could really

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immerse in in a very natural way, but could also have some fun with

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in a narrative way. And I
was just so gut punched by how effective

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the conversations of the Indian Child Welfare
Act, removal of Indian kids from Native

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families and missing murdered Indigenous relatives was
had. Because both Michian and Erica come

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from families and from communities that are
do have people who directly addressed those things,

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they grew up knowing how to create
a world where those conversations could just

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exist where it wasn't being shoved down
anyone's throat, where the audience fell in

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love with these two characters and their
family and got invested and learns through the

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obstacles the characters face, what the
obstacles are that Indigenous people face, and

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finding and protecting our own and holding
on to our kids and our families,

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and like having access to you know, wealth, just the inequities in society

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that we that we remain in spite
of. So yeah, I was all

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there. I was already on board, and I was just so thrilled when

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I've read the first draft and was
just that was one hundred percent in.

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I love it, and I love
how it opens a world to Native and

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Indigenous people of America, to somebody
like me who wouldn't know otherwise. And

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you know this exists. You know
these people are living and in our society

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and the fabric of our society.
And to me, that's what great cinema

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does, you know, So thank
you both for sharing your gifts through Fancy

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Dance. I can't wait for everybody
to see it. You muyl Isabelle de

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Roy, I'll sin what a promising
talent. I can't wait to see what

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she does next. And she is
amazing in Fancy Dance. And Lily Gladstone

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such an amazing actor, such an
amazing person, such an amazing film.

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Fancy Dance is so good. Please
go. If you're in a major market

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that's playing it in the theaters,
go see it. If not, watch

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it at home the comfort of your
own home, exclusively on Apple TV Plus

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as you know, I'm a huge
Apple TV plus fan. They are prestige

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movies, prestige television. They just
do work that is just above the rest.

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So Fancy Dance is no exception,
and to me it's an perfect example

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of why you know they are cut
above the rest. All right, that's

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the episode for now. Well,
no, that's the episode. That's this

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episode forever. But that's the end
of the episode. I guess hit me

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up on socials, let's talk fancy
dance or whatever, you know, whatever

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you want to talk about in pop
culture. Some of your hate mail,

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some of your love mail. I'm
on all the socials. Head on over

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to podcast dot popculturewekly dot com.
You can get all the behind the scenes

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stuff or get the blog posts at
popcultureweekly dot com. All right, I'll

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00:15:43.200 --> 00:15:48.120
see you next week. I love
you well. Thank you for listening to

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00:15:48.200 --> 00:16:02.000
pop Culture Weekly. Here all the
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