Lily Gladstone stars in Hulu true-crime series ‘Under the Bridge’

Actor Lily Gladstone, an Oscar nominee this year for “Killers of the Flower Moon” and a graduate of Mountlake Terrace High School, stars in the new Hulu limited series “Under the Bridge,” which begins streaming April 17. The series, based on the 2005 true-crime book by Rebecca Godfrey, examines the 1997 death of Reena Virk, a Vancouver Island teen who in 1997 went to a party and never returned home. Numerous local teenagers were accused of her murder, in a case that gained national prominence.

In the series, Gladstone plays police officer Cam Bentland, who while investigating the crime re-connects with writer Godfrey (played by Riley Keough), who’s visiting her hometown of Victoria, B.C., to do research for a novel and becomes drawn into the circle of teens. (Bentland is a character created for the series; the real-life Godfrey, who also wrote the novel “The Torn Skirt,” died in 2022 but worked with writer/director Quinn Shephard for several years to adapt “Under the Bridge” for television.)

Gladstone, who was cast in the series in 2022, told Deadline in an interview that all involved with “Under the Bridge” took pains not to sensationalize its true-crime topic. “A lot of times, the human element, particularly the people who suffered the most are the ones who get erased,” she said. “The thing that happened to them becomes a sensationalized thing for the media and then it becomes something for consumption.” It was important, Gladstone noted, to include “the voices of the family and what their experience was with the media.”

Later this year, Gladstone will be seen in the independent feature film “Fancy Dance,” opening in cinemas June 21 and streaming on Apple TV+ starting June 28. She is also the narrator and executive producer of the documentary “Bring Them Home,” about a group of Blackfeet tribal members seeking to establish a wild buffalo herd on their ancestral territory. The film will screen at SIFF May 16 and May 18 at SIFF Cinema Uptown; for information, see siff.net.