Osage consultant helps ‘Killers’ costume designer sew up Oscar nod
For Julie O’Keefe, authentic cinematic storytelling is about more than the words spoken by the actors, the locations chosen for filming or the music crafted to enhance the emotion.
The multitalented Tulsan sees the storytelling in the distinctive way one of her fellow Osage Nation citizens wears a blanket, in the military stylings of an Osage woman’s traditional wedding coat and in the otter hat worn by an Osage spiritual leader or “roadman.”
“Those materials and our clothing, they’re telling you the story about our life and what happened to us within every thread of it,” she told The Oklahoman.
“My motivation is to get it right for our nation, to get the representation that we deserve in film and TV and to get our true story out there.”
Like many other Osage people, O’Keefe got her first experience working in the movie business on “Killers of the Flower Moon,” iconic filmmaker Martin Scorsese’s sweeping fact-based cinematic epic. She worked as the lead Osage wardrobe consultant on the made-in-Oklahoma movie, dressing actors, producing costume pieces and collaborating closely with celebrated costume designer Jacqueline West, who received an Oscar nomination for her work on the film.
The Oklahoma State University alumnus will be cheering on West and the rest of the “Killers of the Flower Moon” nominees in person Sunday, March 10, at the Oscars in Los Angeles. The 96th Academy Awards are airing live from the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood at 6 p.m. Sunday on ABC.
“Killers of the Flower Moon” is competing for 10 Oscars, including best picture, best costume design for West and best director for Scorsese.
“Marty works with the highest bar of authenticity for all of his movies. There couldn’t have been a better person to ... come here, who really wanted to get the au
thentic heart of this,” O’Keefe said by phone from her Tulsa home before leaving for L.A.
“And Jackie was so open. ... I just walked in, and I was like, ‘We are going to make this work. We’re going to serve the community, and we’re going to figure this out together.’ And we did.”
How did the Osage Nation collaborate with filmmakers on ‘Killers of the Flower Moon?’
Filmed in and around Osage County in 2021, “Killers of the Flower Moon” focuses on a dark and often-overlooked chapter of Osage and Oklahoma history: The 1920s “Reign of Terror,” a series of ruthless murders of oil-rich Osage Nation citizens.
Hundreds of Osage Nation members appeared in or worked behind the scenes on the $200 million historical drama.
Raised in Pawhuska, O’Keefe said she got involved in “Killers of the Flower Moon” after Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear called to ask if she was going to submit her resume to Scorsese’s team.
“I didn’t have any intention of really doing it, and I didn’t actually think they would probably call me back, because Hollywood has their own machine. But once they did call me back, I really understood what the chief was saying: ‘We’ve got to have somebody in there with their eyes on this,’” she said.
How did the Osage wardrobe consultant work with the movie’s costume designer?
Along with her background in product development, procurement and art consulting, O’Keefe once owned and operated in her hometown the Cedar Chest Shop, which specialized in Native American clothing and custom regalia, making her uniquely qualified to consult with the film’s costume department.
She worked closely with West, a fivetime Oscar nominee whose credits include “Dune,” “Dune: Part Two” and “The Revenant.” In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar, West likened O’Keefe to “an angel flying into my studio.”
“I wanted to have somebody to say, ‘This is right, this isn’t.’ Because these are old traditions that need to be respected. ... They’re so particular, these clothes,” West said. “Even among the people of the Osage Nation, one mother may have taught it one way, another mother may have taught it another way. But there is a classic way — and Julie knows it.”
How many authentic costume pieces were made for ‘Killers of the Flower Moon?’
O’Keefe said she didn’t know what she was getting into until she walked into the movie’s massive costume shop in a converted Bartlesville airplane hangar.
The “Killers of the Flower Moon” team made nearly 4,000 costume pieces, from beaded vests and ribbon work blouses to embroidered broadcloth blankets to more than 500 pairs of moccasins. They also collaborated with Pendleton Woolen Mills to reproduce 500 of their signature blankets, which were coveted by wealthy Osages in the 1920s.
The costume department hired dozens of Native American artisans, especially accomplished Osages like Jennifer Tiger, Terrilynn Laird Salisbury, Sean Standingbear, Moira RedCorn and Jessica Moore Harjo.
Osage artists Anita Fields, Janet Emde and Ruth Shaw made traditional ribbon work, while metalsmith William “Kugee” Supernaw crafted the silver Wabonka pins and ball-and-cone earrings favored by the film’s protagonist, Mollie Kyle Burkhart, played by Oscar-nominated actress Lily Gladstone.
“It was really important to Jackie and to me that an Osage made those, because that was what was really going to make this truly authentic — and that was the No. 1 goal,” O’Keefe said.
“I would set the looks and decide with Jackie how these things would go, and a lot of times be with the actors, Lily in particular. ... I would go into their trailers and say, ‘OK tell me exactly the actions that are happening,’ because the way blankets and shawls were folded and what they’re wearing basically was telling the audience about the situation that was on hand at the time.”
How did the Oklahoma consultant go on to work on Netflix’s upcoming series ‘American Primeval?’
Although she was initially expected to consult for just 10 days on “Killers of the Flower Moon,” O’Keefe worked on the movie throughout production.
Soon after, she was hired as the Indigenous cultural consultant on the upcoming Netflix limited series “American Primeval,” billed as “a raw, adventurous exploration of the birth of the American West” that involves three Native American tribes, the Eastern Shoshone, Southern Paiute and Ute.
“You have people that are not familiar with Native culture at all, or have been influenced by ‘Gunsmoke’ and ‘Bonanza,” she said, adding that she has a new podcast coming soon called “Julie O’Keefe: The Indigenous Fixer.”
“You have to dig deeper than that ... so that culturally, you’re really not going to step on a major toe and end up someplace in the media or on the news that you don’t want to be, because Natives now have the wherewithal to know how to do that.”
She was working on “American Primeval” in New Mexico last summer when the actors strike shut down production and sent her packing back to Tulsa. Apple Studios quickly came calling, and she was reunited with West on a series of film festivals, premieres and events for “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
Even before she attends Sunday’s Academy Awards, O’Keefe has experienced the movie’s world-premiere standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival in France, been interviewed by Vogue and made a pre-Oscars trip to Los Angeles to prepare the “Killers of the Flower Moon” display at the FIDM Museum’s annual exhibit showcasing the best cinematic costume designs for the past year.
“I think film and TV is now my real life. ... In my whole life, I would never have guessed at 60 years old I would have a brand-new career with an agent. Holy cow,” O’Keefe said with a laugh.