“Killers of the Flower Moon” Opens with $44 Million Weekend, While Actors Opt Out of Film Promotion as Strike Continues

HOLLYWOOD—As “Killers of the Flower Moon” celebrates its opening weekend, the film’s acting talent, including its A-listers, have opted out of attending the film’s premieres and promoting the film. The Screen Actors Guild—American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) organized a strike on July 14 against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers over streaming revenue and artificial intelligence digital recreation of actors and continues as the longest strike in SAG-AFTRA history.

The film is directed by one of cinema’s most recognized film makers, Martin Scorsese, and is based off a 2017 book of the same name, “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI” written by David Grann, a former staff writer for The New Yorker. The book is largely written about the FBI’s investigation into more than 60 murders of Osage Indian Tribal community members in Osage County, Oklahoma. After oil was discovered on Osage Indian lands, families in the Osage Nation became benefactors of oil developments on lands they owned, and were soon considered the wealthiest people per capita in the world by the early 1920s. As a result, more than 60 Osage tribal people became systematically killed, and efforts to investigate their deaths produced no results.

The film includes many of Hollywood’s most celebrated actors, including Robert DeNiro, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brendan Fraser, and introduces viewers to some of Indian Country’s acting talent including Tantoo Cardinal, Cara Jade Myers, Tatanka Means, Lily Gladstone and many from the Osage Nation. Gladstone, a Blackfeet actress who spent much of her upbringing on the Blackfeet Nation in Browning, Montana, has been considered an early contender for “Best Actress” in this year’s awards nominations.

The film’s screenplay is different than the book, though. While the film’s storyline is set during the Osage Reign of Terror, where more than 60 wealthy, full-blooded Osage people were murdered between 1918 and 1931, the bulk of the film is between Ernest and Molly Burkhart, played by DiCaprio and Gladstone. Gladstone, plays DiCaprio’s character’s Osage wife, Mollie Kyle, who later becomes Mollie Burkhart after she marries DiCaprio’s character, Ernest Burkhart.

The film includes a perspective not mentioned or included in Grann’s award-winning book. While Grann’s book predominantly focused on the Bureau of Investigation’s documentation of the Osage murders, it didn’t include viewpoints of the relationship between Ernest and Mollie Burkhart. So, those who read the book will not get the same story in the film.

Since the SAG-AFTRA strike began in July, actors from the film have opted out of attending pre-release screenings in New York, Los Angeles, and many other premieres where the film’s director, producers, and representatives of the Osage Nation have attended. The film’s worldwide premier at the Cannes Film Festival, brought in all of the film’s acting talent including Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert DeNiro, Tantoo Cardinal, Cara Jade Myers, Tatanka Means, and many Osage tribal dignitaries.

As opening weekend was approaching, many of the film’s Native acting talent omitted from posting on social media about the film, but some, including Cara Jade Myers shared her mixed emotions in being unable to attend the pre-screening premieres in New York and Los Angeles. “I am extremely disappointed I was not able to attend, but I’m not pointing fingers or blaming anyone,” said Cara Jade Myers, of recent premiers on her Instagram. “It is simply me being honest about how I felt in that moment. I fully support our union, but that doesn’t mean I have to be happy with the consequences. We all knew there would be things missed. But I am allowed to be upset even when I support the cause.”

Lily Gladstone posted from Fairfax, Oklahoma, where the story of the film is based, on the evening of the Hollywood premiere that she was exactly where she needs to be. There were no mentions or promotions of the film, and haven’t been from Gladstone since the strike began.

As part of the SAG-AFTRA rules, actors cannot engage in film or television productions and cannot take part in promotional work, such as press events, film premieres, and events. According to SAG-AFTRA membership rules, no member can render services, or make an agreement to perform services, for any employer the union is conducting a strike against. Any member who disregards the strike order could face discipline, per the union’s constitution.

There is no known number of Native, American Indian, Alaskan Native, or Indigenous actors in the union, but many of the Killers of the Flower Moon’s Native cast have posted on their social media protesting at major studio locations in Hollywood and New York. Union leaders are actively negotiating with the AMPTP for increased payments for actors from streaming services and want an active say with artificial intelligence.

Currently, actors receive very low royalties, or residuals, on streaming platforms such as Hulu, Netflix, Disney+ or any other outlet that has a streaming platform. Actors who appear in “Reservation Dogs” posted receiving royalties of 3-cents for every quarter. The union is asking for increased wages, health insurance and shared revenue.

With increasing representation of Indigenous content creators and the emergence of authentic and captivating Native narratives, there’s a growing number of Native Indigenous professionals in the film industry. While there are no definite numbers of identified Native actors in the union, there are definitely more in the industry than 10 years ago, or since the last actors strike in 1980.

2022-2023 is considered a flagship year for Indigenous representation in the film and television industry for Indigenous talent. Blackfeet and Comanche producer Jhane Myers’ nomination for her producing role in “Prey” earned her 6 Emmy nominations, the most for a Native person in history. Sterlin Harjo’s leadership in Reservation Dogs paved the path for many Native writers, producers, actors, extras in the historic three-season television show made exclusively for the Hulu streaming service.

The release of Killers of the Flower Moon has been widely reviewed, largely with positive reviews and is being celebrated by Native communities throughout Turtle Island. Some have that it has opened the conversation to land theft, and reconciliation, which is something an art medium like film, or cinema, can do—spark conservation by otherwise ignored subjects. Leaders of the Osage Nation praised the film, but criticism by the larger Native community has been supportive, but critical of including an Osage voice, or perspective, when trying to tell an Osage story.

 

Gianna “Gigi” Sieke, Lawren “Lulu” Goodfox, Chad Renfro, Scott George, Julie O’Keefe, Brandy Lemon, Martin Scorsese, Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear, Julie Standing Bear, Christopher Cote and Addie Roanhorse attend the New York premiere of Apple Original Films’ “Killers of the Flower Moon” at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center. “Killers of the Flower Moon” will open in theaters around the world, including IMAX theatres, on Friday, October 20, 2023.

The post “Killers of the Flower Moon” Opens with $44 Million Weekend, While Actors Opt Out of Film Promotion as Strike Continues first appeared on Native Sun News Today.

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