Lily Gladstone Brings the 'Power of Her Ancestors' in Met Gala Debut (Exclusive)

Following a breakout awards season celebrating her performance in Killers of the Flower Moon, Lily Gladstone made her debut on another iconic red carpet on Monday, attending the 2024 Met Gala.

The actress stunned in a black gown and cape, with studs meant to look like the stars. She accented the look with a silver hair clip representing the moon. The ensemble was a collaboration between designer Gabriela Hearst and Kiowa artist Keri Ataumbi, who added native influence that made the fashion even more meaningful to the Oscar nominee.

"We need fierce warrior women to the front and she is one of them," Gladstone praised Hearst, who joined her when she spoke with ET's Rachel Smith on the Met Gala carpet.

"Both Kiowa and Blackfeet, my nation, we have an origin in the stars," she shared. "Our people came from the stars and that's where we return when we leave this Earth. We join the Milky Way, we join our ancestors, and that's what the stars are to us."

"So Keri and Gabriela wanted me to be draped in the power of my ancestors," she added, with Hearst chiming in that the stars were arranged to represent "the great plains on the 21st of June."

"Summer solstice, it's the most powerful time of the year," Gladstone added of her powerful look.

Gladstone's attendance at the Met Gala comes just months after her celebrated performance in Martin Scorsese's latest epic -- centered on the real-life systematic murders of members of the Osage Nation over oil rights in 1920s Oklahoma -- made her the first Native American to win a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, as well as the first to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

In her Golden Globes acceptance speech, she dedicated the honor to "every little rez kid, every little urban kid, every little native kid out there who has a dream to see themselves represented, and our stories told by ourselves in our own words, with tremendous allies and tremendous trust with and from each other."

This year's Met Gala theme is "Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion." Max Hollein, CEO of The Met, said in a statement that the "innovative" exhibition -- and the accompanying star-studded annual fundraising gala -- was imagined to "push the boundaries of our imagination and invite us to experience the multisensory facets of a garment."

Entertainment Tonight is on the iconic Met Gala red carpet, so keep checking back with ETonline for more coverage from fashion's biggest night, including all of the jaw-dropping red carpet looks.

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