At the time, the film was still unfinished with temporary effects and music.
“I had so many feelings,” she remembers.
I remember putting it on that day when it was 107 [degrees].'
Lily Gladstone in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’.Apple TV+
We’re going to tell this story through the eyes of Mollie.'
And it was a process of building trust like David [Grann] did."
An interior designer by trade, he had no experience in film production.
Lily Gladstone and Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’.Apple TV+
O’Keefe was one of those experts, with a deep knowledge of Osage clothing and tradition.
“I was like, ‘Wow, she really gets us,'” O’Keefe remembers.
“She is really working on this authentic piece, and it shows.
The wedding coats in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’.Apple TV+
I could tell right then that we were going to get on famously.”
O’Keefe adds that as helpful as photographs can be, there’s nothing like the real thing.
Those items were photographed and then replicated or used for inspiration.
Julie O’Keefe at the Los Angeles premiere of ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’.Frazer Harrison/Getty
“The community was so involved in making sure that the story was authentic,” O’Keefe explains.
Nobody knows what’s in my chest, and we don’t go around showing each other.
“It was like having little mini museums rolling up,” she remembers.
JaNae Collins, Lily Gladstone, Cara Jade Myers, and Jillian Dion in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’.Apple TV+
Wedding coats have a long history in Osage tradition, and there are about six in the final film.
Instead, the man gave it to his daughter, kickstarting a tradition that endured for decades.
“There was somebody in your family that had gone to one of those meetings.
Chad Renfro at the Los Angeles premiere of ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’.Frazer Harrison/Getty
That wedding coat, to me, is a perfect example of that.”
Killers of the Flower Moonalso assembled a huge ensemble cast, recruiting many first-time actors from the Osage Nation.
In all, the film has 63 credited and named Indigenous roles.
Of those, all but 14 are played by Osage actors.
(The others are members of other Indigenous communities.)
In late 2019, the pair launched a massive open casting call in Oklahoma.
Between Pawhuska, Oklahoma City, and Tulsa, they estimate they saw more than 2,500 people.
“And so many people had stories or family members who were affected by this story.”
In many cases, working onKillers of the Flower Moonwas a family affair.
While O’Keefe was working as a costume consultant, for example, her son appeared as a background actor.
Haynes and Lewis note that they discovered some actors only after a family recommendation.
One such example was Everett Waller, who plays Osage leader Paul Red Eagle in the film.
Waller didn’t initially attend the open casting call, but his daughter did.
“I said, ‘Will you go get him?'”
Haynes remembers with a laugh.
So, he came back, and he didn’t know why we wanted him there.
He thought he was coming back to help his daughter.
But he’s just a marvelous presence in the film."
“It was also primarily female Indigenous actors, and that is rare.
This was creating a family of women, and that was very special.”
“Her presence is almost indescribable as the matriarch of these four sisters.
And what a blessing for us to build a family of women in a movie like this.”
Some have criticizedKillers of the Flower Moonfor centering its story on white men like Ernest Burkhart and William Hale.
But when somebody conspires to murder your entire family, that’s not love.
That’s not love, that’s just beyond abuse."
“The movie doesn’t delve into all of our culture and our traditions,” he says.
“It’s only given a certain amount of time, but it’s given deference.
I would say it’s as accurate as possible.”
Besides, the film only covers a very specific (and very brutal) part of the Osage history.
“Marty always says he set out to make a film about trust and betrayal,” Renfro explains.
“We’re very generous.
We’re very giving.
We’re also very trusting, even after all these years of having our trust betrayed.
“It’s an epic film that felt like a community project,” O’Keefe adds.
Ultimately, Renfro hopes thatKillersis only a first step.
“We’re 25,000 members,” he says.
“Our language was nearly extinct, and here it is being spoken on the big screen.
Here we are being taken seriously in a new way.
We want to build off this huge platform, rather than pick this platform apart.”
“Let’s take that momentum and really move forward with it.
I really challenge filmmakers and Hollywood to take that to heart.”
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