With the 2024 Oscar nominees announced, Killers of the Flower Moon star Lily Gladstone’s momentum has only grown more powerful with every passing day, but that momentum may have begun far longer ago than we realized.
Indeed, Gladstone being pegged as the Best Actress favorite for her planet-shattering performance in Killers of the Flower Moon is old news, but we now know that her distinction as an Oscar favorite isn’t just old news; it’s a piece of history.
As reported by Deadline, an old high school yearbook photo of Gladstone went viral shortly after the nominees were announced, and perhaps to the surprise of absolutely no one, she was voted by her then-classmates as “Most Likely to Win an Oscar.”
Indeed, we Oscar analysts might just have to hang up our room-reading abilities for good now, for even the keenest eye in the business doesn’t seem to be any match for the Mountlake Terrace High School Class of 2004. I, for one, welcome our new overlords, have every intention of following them into whatever predictions battle they may charge into in the future, and will let them be the first to hold my firstborn so that they can glance into their eyes and tell me on the spot if they will get nominated 30-odd years down the line.
Gladstone later revealed in an interview with USA Today that Josh Ryder—the classmate in the photo with her—had been texting her during the nominations, telling her that their graduating class was reuniting for an Oscars watch party in their old high school auditorium for the occasion.
“He told me, ‘I don’t know if you know this, but all of this greatness in your life has brought our whole class back together.’ They’re having an Oscars watch party. They already scheduled it to happen in our old high-school theater, so I’m happy that I didn’t disappoint there.”
If Gladstone ultimately hoists that statuette, the cheers that will come out of that building will no doubt detach it from its foundations, and they certainly won’t be alone in that regard if that history-making moment does indeed decide to make an appearance at the ceremony.
The 96th Academy Awards will air on March 10.
(featured image: Paramount Pictures)
Published: Jan 25, 2024 02:47 pm