Welcome to The Come-Up, where rising talent checks in on their way to the top. In this edition, we catch up with Amber Midthunder who’s taking Hollywood by storm all while proudly repping the Indigenous girlies.
Amber Midthunder is having a month that even veteran actors can only dream of. On March 14, she had not one, but two movies debut — gory action-comedy Novocaine and celebrity cult thriller OPUS — a milestone that still hasn’t registered for the 27-year-old. “I feel like maybe the moment [will happen] when press is over and I'm sitting on my couch in my living room by myself,” Midthunder tells me over Zoom ahead of the two films’ releases. “It will all-of-a-sudden hit me, which I think is the marker of truly something surreal.”
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Surreal could describe the last few years for Midthunder, who’s been working as an actor since she was a kid. Her breakout moment arguably came through 2022’s Prey, where she portrayed an early 1700s Comanche warrior under threat from colonizers and, of course, aliens. Prey wasn't just critically acclaimed and beloved by fans; it was also the first film in the longstanding Predator franchise to feature a predominantly Indigenous cast, something that Midthunder takes a lot of pride in as an enrolled member of the Assiniboine tribe at the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana. “There was obviously the risk that [Prey] could not be good or that it could go wrong, and having representation that you’re not proud of is honestly so devastating. But I don’t think I could have been in safer hands than with Dan Trachtenberg as our director. He is the picture of an ally. To have that movie have the impact that it did both in and out of the Indigenous community, that meant the world to me.”
This month’s double-feature release though truly cements Midthunder as one to watch. In Novocaine, she plays Sherry, the love interest of assistant bank manager Nathan Caine (Jack Quaid) who has a genetic condition that causes him to not feel any physical pain. When Sherry is taken hostage during a robbery, Nathan leverages his unique situation to embark on an unlikely rampage to get her back. But don’t call Sherry a damsel in distress. Using Megara of Hercules as a character reference — “She is my hero,” Midthunder says — Sherry is not one to just sit back and wait for a knight in shining armor. “The point is not that [Sherry] needs to be saved. She’s very capable of doing that herself, but the biggest gesture of love is that even though you can do it, it doesn’t mean you should have to.”
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In OPUS, Midthunder plays the mostly silent but deadly Belle who chaperones-slash-spies on Ariel (Ayo Edebiri), a music journalist who’s invited to a remote compound of elusive pop icon Alfred Moretti (John Malkovich). The film explores the “cult” in celebrity culture, something that still feels foreign to Midthunder. “I definitely don’t think of myself as somebody who has any celebrity status. Maybe that’s a good thing.”
What is on Midthunder’s mind is the responsibility she carries navigating Hollywood as an Indigenous person. “I constantly think about it, I think it’s impossible not to,” Midthunder says. “Not everybody obviously has to think about that, not even actors but just [people] walking around every day. Not everybody has to constantly think about the fact that when they're in a room, maybe they're the only person who is making an impression for that community. Or what will their community think about this.”
That kind of inner dialogue with yourself sounds exhausting — and that's because it is. It's also very necessary. Across 1,600 top-grossing films from 2007 to 2022, less than a quarter of one percent of all speaking characters were Native Americans, according to a study from the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. Which is why Midthunder, along with Reservation Dogs’ Devery Jacobs and Baby Reindeer’s Lily Gladstone, are representing something bigger than themselves. “I always want to do what's best for not just me, but really for my people, big or small,” Midthunder says. “I feel like I want to be opening doors for the people who are coming behind me however I possibly can.” And those doors are opening for even more as Midthunder starts to connect more with her Asian identity (her mother is half-white and half-Thai Chinese). “When you’re mixed, there’s all kinds of different ways to feel. And sometimes it’s different every day.”
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Ahead, get to know Midthunder because this is just the beginning.
FACTS
NAME: Amber Midthunder
AGE: 27
HOMETOWN: Santa Fe, New Mexico
PRONOUNS: she/her
INSTAGRAM: ambermidthunder
TIKTOK: N/A
SUN SIGN: Taurus
WHERE YOU'VE SEEN ME: Prey, Legion, Roswell, New Mexico
WHERE YOU'LL SEE ME NOW: Novocaine, OPUS
FAVES
CAUSES I'M PASSIONATE ABOUT: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) and environmental rights
FICTIONAL CHARACTER: Meg from Hercules
COMFORT FOOD: Xiaolongbao, som tum, or Indian taco. Or Hot Cheetos! I literally have people smuggle Hot Cheetos into countries that I’m working in.
HOBBY: Crafting
CURSE WORD: (whispers) Fuck
FIRSTS
SPEAKING ROLE: Sunshine Cleaning
COUPLE I STANNED: Robin and Starfire from Teen Titans
TEEN SHOW I LOVED: That’s So Raven
TIME I SAW MYSELF REPRESENTED ON SCREEN: It’s a mix between Smoke Signals and Reservation Dogs and anything that’s ever had Hapas in it.
WHEN I FELT LIKE I "MADE IT": Probably the first day of my first job — and also never.
FIELD
WORK I'M MOST PROUD OF (SO FAR): Prey
MOVIE GENRE I'D LOVE TO TAKE ON NEXT: Straight drama
DREAM PROJECT: I keep saying that I want to find whatever my Winter’s Bone equivalent is.
ACTORS AND CREATORS WHO INSPIRE ME: Obviously [Prey director] Dan Trachtenberg. Viola Davis, Michelle Yeoh, and Jennifer Lawrence are three of my most favorite actors.
A ROLE THAT CHANGED MY LIFE: Prey changed my life. Also Legion.
ADVICE FOR ASPIRING ACTORS: To not deny your instincts.
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BIGGEST LESSON I'VE LEARNED SO FAR: To not deny my instincts.
FEELINGS
SOMEONE IN INDIGENOUS HISTORY WHO DESERVES THEIR OWN BIOPIC (AND THAT I'D LOVE TO TAKE ON): Maria Tallchief. I love Maria Tallchief and I would love to see a Maria Tallchief biopic.
HOW I WANT TO CHANGE THE WORLD: By creating space for Indigenous people to have as many seats at the table as we please, wherever we choose.
HOW MY CULTURAL HERITAGE PLAYS INTO MY LIFE: I wake up every day and I am what I am, whether [it’s] a character that I play or an interview that I do focuses on that or doesn’t. That is who and what I am all the time, and I carry that with me everywhere I go.
PIECE OF ADVICE I'D GIVE TO MY YOUNGER SELF: That it’s okay to be scared.
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