How a new wave of Native stories took a 'sledgehammer' to Hollywood's closed doors
Three-decade stage and screen veteran Michael Greyeyes cemented a new phase of his artistic life this year when his acclaimed performances on Peacock's sitcom "Rutherford Falls" and in the thriller "Wild Indian" landed mainstream attention and awards laurels, including career-first double Gotham Awards acting nominations in both film and television categories.
As tribal casino boss Terry Thomas in "Rutherford Falls," set in a fictional American town confronting its own colonialist history, the Nêhiyaw actor and theater director from Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada, brings depth and pride to a type of figure often shallowly defined in narratives involving contemporary Native characters.
In "Wild Indian," arguably his darkest turn yet, he lends nuance and pathos to a portrait of generational trauma as Makwa, an Anishinaabe man hiding his true self and an abusive childhood behind a veneer of success.
On paper, the characters would appear to be polar opposites. "But the view from the inside is actually that they're incredibly similar," said Greyeyes, 54, "in that these characters afforded me a chance to be challenged in ways that I as an artist have not been asked to challenge myself."
In Hollywood, Indigenous artists have found that in the 2019-2020 season, not a single broadcast, cable or digital scripted show featured a Native person in a lead role; across the top films of 2020, Native actors constituted only 1.1% of leads.
