Many of us spent the COVID lockdown binge-watching shows and baking bread, but Jacqueline West had a mission: to learn everything she could about The Osage Nation for Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon. Our Staff Writer, Cassie Hager, was able to speak to West about coming on to the project, her research process, and working alongside the Osage consultants to bring their history to the screen.

“I’ve worked with some really good directors,” West says, “but when I got hired by Marty, my husband said, ‘ok now you can quit.’”

Jacqueline West is no stranger to period pieces. She’s been lauded for her costume work on films such as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Argo, and The Revenant. Still, the plight of The Osage was one of which she, like many of us, was largely unaware. “You don’t learn about The Osage in school, for obvious reasons,” she says. “I had to really start from scratch.”

When Martin Scorsese came calling during the early days of pandemic isolation, West had nothing but time to immerse herself in research. The 1920s was an era when The Osage people were the richest group, per capita, on earth. That’s when they mysteriously began dying under suspicious and often violent circumstances. Blessed to be hunkered down in an idyllic location, she went right to work.

 “I love research,” says West. “I was an art historian by training, so it’s one of my favorite things. It’s like time travel for me because it transports me to the period I’m working on.” West says her husband, finding a personal connection to the story, also got involved with collecting information, stories, and photos; anything to help the pair paint a picture of the period in their minds. “My husband had fun getting involved since he is ¼ Blackfeet,” she says, “and we both worked all day long because we had nothing else to do.”

And there was plenty of work to be done. West spent countless hours collecting images from the era, as well as home movies — something only the very affluent Osage could afford. Those personal videos weren’t the only films that helped West bring her vision to the big screen. “We didn’t really watch films about Native Americans because those films were mostly full of cliches,” she says. Instead, the pair relied on classic black-and-white films to get a deeper understanding of the aesthetic of the time.

“I really based Robert De Niro’s character, William Hale, on Ronald Colman in The Winning of Barbara Worth from 1926,” she says. “I mostly relied on Gary Cooper for Leo’s western wear. They are similar in that they’re both long and lanky and look great in buckle back jeans.” West admits she may have done more research than she needed, but the desire to depict The Osage in an honorable light took over. “By the time I got to Oklahoma to film, I had these 10×4 boards and I lined the walls with them,” she says. “I separated them into tradespeople, doctors, townspeople… I just went crazy with it.”

West says it was on location in Oklahoma that the Osage community’s impact truly shone brightest. “They were so giving, because this was such a seminal time for them in their history,” she says. “It meant so much for them to be part of it. Marty included them in our casting, I included them in helping me make the costumes and helping me research. It was all-inclusive.”

At the end of the day, West says, it was their opinion of the film that mattered most. “You want to look them in the eye and know you didn’t take shortcuts.” The level of detail is apparent in all aspects of the film, she says, because of the authenticity of the tools at their disposal. “Anyone who was in the movie who was Osage would wear personal pieces from the ‘20s, if they had them,” she says. “That way they could really feel like they were contributing.” Even some of the chiefs in the film’s pivotal council scene are wearing pieces passed down from their ancestors. The grand wedding scene, however, took a lot more time and tailoring to create. Namely for Lily Gladstone’s character, Mollie, whose look west compares to an “Osage Marie Antionette.”

“With Mollie, though she is traditional, you’ll notice sometimes she will have an expensive alligator handbag, or French shoes with a stacked heel,” she says. West adds that the Osage people were more concerned with sharing their wealth than hoarding it for themselves.

One of West’s “secret weapons,” as she lovingly refers to them, came in the form of Osage costume consultant, Julie O’Keefe. West says O’Keefe found the process of working on the film cathartic.

“Julie said that this is such a tragedy among her people, and they didn’t even talk about it among themselves,” she explains. “It was such a sad moment in their history, and this got everyone talking about it again.” It’s a conversation West says was encouraged — and succeeded in flourishing — thanks to Scorsese’s relentless pursuit of accuracy and respect.

“Marty really instilled trust in The Osage,” she says. “They knew when he came to meet with them in Oklahoma that his heart was in getting it right.” 

Killers of the Flower Moon is currently in theaters.
You can read our review of the film here.