‘Wind River’s Birmingham is a familiar face
Chances are you’ve seen the actor before
You’ve seen his face. Now it’s time to learn Gil Birmingham’s name.
The San Antonio native and star of the new thriller Wind River (in theaters Friday in New York and Los Angeles, expands nationwide Aug. 18) has appeared in everything from Transformers: The Last Knight to Unbreakable
Kimmy Schmidt to House of Cards, and he’s got at least one fan on a mission to make him an A-list celebrity.
“I keep telling him I’m trying to make him too famous to take my calls. And we’re getting there,” says Wind River writer/director Taylor Sheridan, who also cast Birmingham in last year’s Hell or High Water.
While show business has come a long way from “casting people who are not native and just throwing a coat of paint on them,” there’s still work to be done, adds Birmingham, 64, who’s of Comanche descent. “Most people surprisingly enough don’t know that Native Americans still exist ... but we’re here and we’ll continue to be here.”
Here are five things you need to know about Birmingham and his long career:
HE GOT HIS START IN A MUSIC VIDEO. Before acting, Birmingham was a bodybuilder and petrochemical engineer scouted to be in the music video for Diana Ross’ 1982 hit
Muscles, written by Michael Jackson. “I had a great time on it and my girlfriend at the time said, ‘Why don’t you study (acting)?’ ” recalls Birmingham, who became fascinated with the creative expression. “I love examining the human condition. It’s of neverending interest to me.”
‘TWILIGHT’ FANS STILL LOVE HIM. Birmingham had a breakthrough in 2008 with the younger generation playing Billy Black, the father of werewolf Jacob (Taylor Lautner).
Billy was “a real person of emotional challenge and understanding, even in a fantasy world, of what it’s like to want to protect not just your own tribe, but your child,” he says.
But the franchise, in which the Quileute people play an important part, also gave Native American actors a platform to reach a larger audience.
“We have been able to transition the excitement of that whole profile into deeper native stories,” he says.
HIS BROMANCE WITH JEFF BRIDGES WAS REAL. Birmingham’s favorite experience on Hell or High Water was playing a Texas Ranger opposite Bridges, who operated with an “old married-couple dynamic,” Birmingham says. “The nature of these two characters (was) as men having a very difficult time telling each other how they’ve loved each other until something drastic happens. And that is really the condition of a lot of men, and their hesitancy or awkwardness to be able to express those kinds of things.”
HE WEARS A DEATH MASK IN ‘WIND RIVER.’ The thriller centers on the murder investigation of a young Native American woman, and Birmingham plays her father, Martin. The grieving dad has an emotional meeting with his friend, wildlife tracker Cory (Jeremy Renner), while wearing a face-painted mask that spoke to “the ever-increasing disconnect from trying to survive in a colonized world, as well as not having that engagement with tradition because of a loss of elders,” Birmingham says.
HE’S HOLDING COURT IN HIS TIMELY NEW GIG. In the upcoming indie drama Saint Judy, Birmingham plays an attorney and boss to influential L.A. immigration lawyer Judy Wood. The actor says the biopic “takes you through a very personal journey of a couple immigrants and how the government is treating our immigrants — which is so timely with this whole Trump ban thing going on.”