FOR 50 YEARS, Gary Farmer (Cayuga from the Six Nations of the Grand River) has delivered performances infused with humor, depth, and authenticity, making him one of the film industry’s most beloved Indigenous actors. The Canada-born Santa Fe resident may be best known for his roles in cult classics like Powwow Highway (1989), Dead Man (1995), and Smoke Signals (1998), as well as his portrayal of the wise but eccentric Uncle Brownie on FX’s Emmy-nominated Reservation Dogs. An accomplished theater actor, artist, musician, and activist, Farmer chairs the Santa Fe International Film Festival, where he created and curates the annual Indigenous Film Program. Recently, Farmer appeared as James Toledo, governor of the fictional San Pedro Pueblo, on Showtime’s The Curse (2023), shot and set in northern New Mexico. “It was a quirky series—nothing like I’ve seen before,” Farmer says. “It was fun to be a part of it and to work at home in New Mexico.”
POWWOW HIGHWAY, the first major independent film I did, was partially shot in Santa Fe. I fell in love. I came back every summer after that, mostly because of Indian Market and my relationship with the pueblo communities, who really take care of the land. I finally moved to Santa Fe in 2004. It was a reclusive spot for me. I love the worldliness here.
I helped start the Santa Fe Independent (now International) Film Festival [in 2009] because I’ve done independents my whole career. Pretty much my only big studio movie was The Score, which was Marlon Brando’s last movie, who I was happy to work with. Over the past 16 years, the festival has really become international. I’m real proud of it.
I was always more than an actor. When I was younger, I started a radio network in Canada for Aboriginal people [Aboriginal Voices Radio Network], which is what they called us at the time, and a film festival in Toronto.
When I started, there was no Native nothing. You had to advocate for your own people, your own culture, against all these White writers or directors who were sweeping Indigenous peoples’ stories from under us and not giving our writers credit. Even when I did the president show [The West Wing]—I know quite a bit of my own history, so I told the writer there was some stuff wrong there; he accepted my changes.
I saw a bigger picture of how we could grab our stories back and start developing our own. It took years to happen. America is still growing up. I grew up with it, but I always question it. Always. So I guess I haven’t been the easiest person to work with.
Young people ask me what it’s like acting. The first thing is you can’t learn to act on a film set. I’ve done a lot of stage work, breaking down a script word by word. You’ve got to pull your heart out, rip it from your chest. It’s a spiritual thing, it really is—it’s a ceremony. But the most important thing is, you got to know how to put it back in and then go home and watch the kids. —As told to Candolin Cook
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