In Lily Gladstone’s latest work, ‘Under The Bridge,’ the actress noted that Native women on TV often end up in cop roles, which is why she had specific conditions when offered the role of Cam, a police officer investigating the murder of Reena Virk.

Lily Gladstone is cementing her way to one of the greatest in Hollywood with every project she decides to sign on. Her most recent, ‘Under The Bridge’, a true crime involving delinquent teens in a serene town, has Gladstone portraying the role of a cop (She looks very cool but that’s besides the point).

Gladstone opened up about native women on television mostly just playing cops.

“Not to take away from the performances of all these actresses, who I admire so much and are doing a beautiful job but it’s almost the only role that we get to see,” she said.

So we can understand why Gladstone had a list of requirements when the producers of the drama series approached her with the role of Cam, a cop investigating the 1997 murder of Reena Virk in Saanich Core, British Columbia.

One of the requirements put forth by Gladstone was her desire to pay respect to the first Oscar nominated indigenous North American actor, Chief Dan George. The most recent Indigenous actress who was nominated for the Academy Awards was Lily Gladstone herself.

Her second requirement was to have Cam come from Vancouver and even go back to the place. In the beginning of the series Cam reveals that she wants to move to Vancouver to advance her career. “I wanted her internal compass to be pointing to Vancouver for a different reason.”

Her third and final requirement was to play a cop who is brave enough to stand up for herself and against the system. “That’s kind of the exclusive way that I was going to play a cop: a cop who eventually ditches the badge. Maybe the Indigenous woman cop is a compelling character because it’s a contradiction. It’s having this desire to protect your community, but then seeing that you’re being mobilised against your own people.”

Cam is a native woman adopted by a white family and although a dramatic addition to the story, Gladstone’s character is fictional. But the murder investigation is not. Gladstone believes that usually in true crime stories “it’s the victims who become the most marginalised in their story all over again.” She needed the producers to ensure that this wouldn’t happed in ‘Under The Bridge.’

Lily Gladstone also revealed why her and Riley Keough are campaigning for the Supporting Lead category in this series, “Riley and I, we’re the ones on the poster. We’re the ones you would say are billed as the leading actresses but our characters are there to support the story of Reena Virk.”

The character of Cam was written with Gladstone in mind. Martin Scorsese had also written the role of Molly in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ for Gladstone.