David Grannis no stranger to having his writing adapted for film.
What’s it been like to watch the reaction to the film now that it’s out?
That’s been remarkable to see.
Lily Gladstone, Robert De Niro, and Leonardo DiCaprio in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’.Melinda Sue Gordon/Apple
It’s what gives the film its power, I think, and its authenticity.
They were acting in the film and playing key roles.
One of the scenes I watched that was so powerful is the scene with the Osage tribal council.
Lily Gladstone in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’.Apple TV+
It gives the film its kind of bracing power.
You spent many years researching someone like Mollie Burkhart, piecing together her life through interviews and historical documents.
What’s it like to see Lily Gladstone bring her to life on screen?
David Grann at the New York premiere of ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’.Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images
You get to know them through documents or photographs.
There’s always a kind of surrealness when you see these people especially Mollie suddenly brought to life.
Suddenly, her conscious is being inhabited.
For me, Mollie Burkhart was always the heart and soul of the book.
I can’t think of anyone who could have played her better than Lily Gladstone.
Mollie had this quiet force about her.
She was somebody who was born in this lodge, speaking Osage and practicing the Osage traditions.
She had to capture what they referred to as “the white man’s tongue.”
She could no longer wear her blanket.
She has married her chauffeur, Ernest Burkhart, this white settler.
So, she’s somebody who straddles not only two centuries but two civilizations.
She is banging on the doors of the authorities, trying to offer evidence and testimony.
It took this remarkable force and courage, and I thought Lily captures that so well and so brilliantly.
It was the first time I could really understand the power of what a silent actress does.
She does so much just in her expressions.
you might see that in the letters.
I found a letter from Mollie to Ernest where you get a sense of that.
I think she refers to him as “my dear husband.”
I asked many Osage this question, including the descendants of the family and others.
The other thing that was so critical for me in trying to understand Mollie was interviewing the descendants.
One of the people I tracked down was Margie Burkhart, who’s the granddaughter of Mollie.
She was so helpful to me on so many levels.
She shared with me oral histories.
She also shared what she had heard, which is that there was affection between them.
That affection was then betrayed in the most horrifying way.
We’re not talking about colonial times.
When I was doing research, it was less than a century ago.
Even today, it’s just a century ago.
I remember she shared a photograph with me.
It showed them as two little kids, maybe 6 or 7.
They’re holding the hands of a man.
I obviously suspected what it was, but I asked her, “What happened?”
She said, “Well, my father ripped it off.”
It showed his father, Ernest Burkhart, whom he referred to as “dynamite.”
That’s what’s so powerful about this story.
Like you said, it’s not colonial times.
This was just a generation ago.
It really does still reverberate to this day.
It was William K. Hale who committed them, with his nephew Ernest and another henchman.
And I found other records that really revealed that this had been a systematic murder campaign.
I realized that this was much less a story about who did it than whodidn’tdo it.
It was really about this culture of killing and complicity.
I think the film shows that, and you get glimpses of that.
This was really about the many people who were carrying out these crimes.
There were all these guardians and businessmen and lawmen who were in on it or on the take.
But what I think we need to process is that these crimes were really systematic and societal.
How did you feel about that shift in focus?
So, the book was really told in three points of view.
It was a kind of a triptych of a book and a very sweeping history.
In a film, I don’t think that’s possible.
you could’t, nor should you.
So, I think their decision to focus on that relationship was the right decision.
I never saw the first script, so I don’t really know exactly what it contained.
So, I thought that was the right way to go about it.
Your writing has been adapted into films several times below.
I’m curious: What, if anything, felt different about this film?
I really love what I do, and I focus on that.
I will say that none of those projects were of this scale and magnitude.
So, based on the subject matter and the scale, in that sense, it was different.
And therefore, the development of the project was different.
Any writer who says they’re not nervous when a book is going to be adapted is lying.
You’re nervous about what could happen, especially with a subject matter like this.
For me, the thing that makes this film so good is that it’s its own thing.
So when they expressed interest inThe Wager,it was the easiest decision I’ve ever made.
[Laughs] I don’t think the project could be in better hands.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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