VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Julie O’Keefe On Martin Scorsese’s Obsession With Detail In ‘Killers Of The Flower Moon’

In an exclusive uInterview, Julie O’Keefe spoke about her role as the lead wardrobe consultant in Martin Scorsese’s new film Killers Of The Flower Moon. 

O’Keefe explained how she worked with the costume designer Jacqueline West to create an authentic Native American wardrobe for the characters. 

“[West] and I sat down and started going through all of her amazing research which was thousands of photographs and home movies that she was watching,” she said. “And the first day that I walked into her studio I could see how she organized these photographs of Osages.”

This wardrobe included modern pieces to which they were able to add pieces of Osage culture, for example using blankets.

O’Keefe described how they were committed to accuracy. “So we would go through all of these looks including all of the extras just to make sure we had it, you know, that it was being represented authentically,” she said.

O’Keefe closely worked with one of the main actresses in the movie, Lily Gladstone. She praised the Gladstone for being “a consummate professional” throughout filming. She worked very closely with Gladstone as every morning, they would discuss what she would wear based on what she needed to film that day.

O’Keefe explained how she would “talk with her about how her character is using their hands and how she is moving her body. And I would understand, I mean the script is one thing but your actions say everything, and so I wanted to make sure because our blankets and shawls can be worn six different ways for a woman. And it really depends on what you’re carrying through the day.”

She noted that her main job “was really to make sure that Lily walked out of her trailer feeling confident that she had everything on properly and that she was going to be able to move.”

The film focuses on families in the Osage Nation, a Native American tribe in the mid-twentieth century. Scorsese made sure that the movie was properly researched and that he had people from the tribe to assist him in telling their story. 

O’Keefe shared how it “actually felt like a community project” rather than a film.

She applauded Scorsese for his extreme attention to detail.

“I don’t know anyone else could and at this point as a trendsetter, you know that he is and has always been, he’s now set a bar for other directors in Hollywood to really sit down when they tell these native stories, not just ours but you know any nations,” she added.