Martin Scorsese made significant changes to the script of ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’, altering Leonardo DiCaprio’s role due to concerns about the film’s focus on white characters. Scorsese collaborated with Eric Roth to write the screenplay based on David Grann’s book, which delves into the FBI’s investigation of the murders of Osage Native Americans in 1920s Oklahoma. Originally, DiCaprio was set to play the lead investigator, Tom White.
However, Scorsese ultimately decided to overhaul the script completely, shifting the story’s focus to the character of Ernest Burkhart and his marriage to Osage woman, Mollie. Scorsese expressed his reasoning for these drastic changes, stating: “After a certain point, I realised I was making a movie about all the white guys. Meaning I was taking the approach from the outside in, which concerned me.”
Following the script revision, Scorsese swapped DiCaprio’s role with Jesse Plemons, who now portrays Tom White as a supporting character. DiCaprio took on the role of Ernest instead. Lily Gladstone plays the character of Mollie, Ernest’s wife. Gladstone expressed surprise at the script changes that occurred after her initial audition. She had originally struggled with dialogue-heavy scenes but was later given revised sides that allowed her character to have minimal dialogue and more room for her own interpretation.
Gladstone shared her perspective on the changes, revealing that the original focus of the film would have been on the FBI, with Mollie and Ernest serving as supporting characters rather than the central storyline. The rewrites completely reversed this approach, offering new opportunities for character development in the revised script.