Fancy Dance is in cinemas and on Apple TV+ now – we had a chat with its young star about her feature debut…
Erica Tremblay's Fancy Dance is a coming-of-age story, a crime drama and a road movie all in one. A touching tribute to a side of the modern US not often seen on the big screen, the story finds Lily Gladstone’s Jax teaming up with her niece to track down the young girl’s mother.
Featuring whole sections in the Cayuga language along with an emotional crescendo in the form of an energetic powwow, the role of 13-year-old Roki can’t have been an easy one to take on for any actor – let alone one for whom Fancy Dance would prove their feature debut…
With the film now available on Apple TV+, we sat down with its young star – Isabel DeRoy-Olson – to talk working with Lily Gladstone, starting out on YouTube and making playlists for her characters.
You and Lily [Gladstone] have both mentioned how well you got on during production – how did that relationship develop?
Yeah, I mean, two weeks before we started shooting, we were rehearsing Cayuga, which is the language we speak, and we were also rehearsing the powwow. So we met then for the first time – we hadn’t done a chemistry read or anything. I met her at the production office, and we just clicked immediately. I always say that Roki and Jax’s relationship feels so lived in because that’s just Lily and I. That love for each other, that’s just us. I remember the first day of shooting, we were in the van heading back to base, and Lily looked up and was like: “This is going to be a good one. This is going to be fun.”
So is your relationship on-screen similar to the one in real life?
I mean, she’s one of my favourite people. She was working on a show, Under The Bridge, up here in Vancouver, so we got to stay in touch. But yeah, the relationship that Jax and Roki have, it’s so tight knit. I think the fact that Lily and I love each other so much really helps.
I think you two both have something else in common. You’ve done a web series for CBS Kids – and did you remember Lily from Crash Course Film Production?
Yes! I’m a huge fan of Crash Course. I didn’t process that it was her but yeah. Crash Course really got me through my high school years.
Did you bond at all over your shared YouTube fame?
Yeah, we definitely talked about it. She knows that I love Hank Green, and she’s seen a couple of my CBC Kids News stories… It’s a couple of years out for me, so those are definitely a difficult watch for me. But I’m really, really proud of those. And I’m really grateful that I got to do them.
How was it playing someone quite a bit younger than you are now? Was that an extra challenge, or was it easy to step back into those memories from a few years ago?
I found it really fun. When I was prepping for the role, I was really just looking at my younger cousins and my younger sibling, and thinking about how I was when I was that age. Roki’s really quiet, but she’s very present still. She’s not quiet in a way that she’s just there. She’s intentionally watching everybody and taking in that information and learning. And that’s kind of how I was like, really. Looking at my younger cousins, just the way they get excited about the things they love, like powwow, and dancing, that was really where I got that from.
But, you know, I’m an avid playlist maker. I have my Roki playlist that I still listen to so I you know, getting those songs that remind me of her – like the ones I was listening to on the drive down to Oklahoma just to get me in the headspace.
What’s on Roki’s playlist?
So much. It’s a public playlist, I’ll probably repost it. But there’s Two Of Us by The Beatles… Oh, I’ve forgotten every song ever… Anything by Adrianne Lenker, which is one of my favourite songs of all time…
How did you decide what songs made the cut?
I’m very much focused on lyrics. So for a lot of those I was like: “Oh, this really mirrors what’s happening in the film, so I’m gonna listen to it.” And then just vibes, too. Lyrics and vibes.
You’ve got a background in dance – did that help with learning the powwow at all? Or is it such a different style?
I mean, having that studio dance background, which Lily also has, was definitely helpful, because I’m very aware of my space. But our powwow teacher, Holly, she was really amazing in helping us decide styles, because there are so many different styles of powwow. So what Roki does, because she’s so much younger, is really a lot more of the contemporary style, and then Lily took from a lot of the men’s styles. So that part was really fun, getting to narrow down which kind of fancy dance we’re going to dance.
And a few months after you wrapped, Lily became Oscar-nominee Lily Gladstone…
Lily was gracious enough to bring me to a lot of events with her for that, which was really cool. So I got to go to the premiere, and Cannes, and I went to a couple of events in LA, but getting to see her get all of that attention for her work is so incredible, because nobody deserves it more than Lily. She’s just the most genuine, gracious, kind person ever. And she’s so talented. I just felt really happy for her.
Fancy Dance is in UK cinemas and streaming on Apple TV+ now.
