Frances McDormand: In Nomadland I represent the people I know culture

Before becoming an actress, Frances McDormand (Gibson City, Illinois, 63) did it all: cashier, waitress, babysitter, dishwasher, laundry folder … she even responded to fan emails for AC / DC. “Nobody should write this kind of message,” he asserts strongly in a conversation with EL PAÍS. That past served him in preparing his work on it Nomad, A drama about the homeless in America. “I represent the people I know,” he explains. He was born and raised in rural, blue-collar environments deep in America until he graduated from Yale University and spent the rest of his time between Hollywood and New York. “I don’t live in Hollywood,” he corrects, “I just work there.” He talks on a video call from his home in Northern California. Behind her, you can see the painting presented to her by her mother-in-law, Joel’s mother (her husband), and Ethan Quinn at their wedding, in which an open path is seen in an empty landscape.

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She was nominated twice for an Academy Award, which may give her her third win as an actress – yet Fargo s Three ads in the suburbs– Comes with her first figurine as a producer Bedouin, And it’s a movie that he watched as soon as he read journalist Jessica Broder’s book Nomadic Country: Survivors of the Twenty-first Century (Captain Swing). It was she who called director Chloe Chow. “We were fortunate that our paths crossed. It is very important to me as a producer that the directors I work with never feel chosen or hired for something.” Chow found out from his work on the movie The passenger (2017).

This is how I was born Nomad, Coming to cinemas in Spain next Friday, it is a lyrical and real movie that presents the life of a new class of American society. If the cinema depicts the nomadic spirit of other generations, with films such as Grapes of Wrath The Easy Rider (looking for my destiny)Now is the time to see those other rebels who may have voted for Trump and who travel across the American landscape in their cars’ homes struggling with the freedom of a system that they forgot about when they turned 60. They are not homeless. They do not have a home, which is not the same. It is your choice. They also do not like the word “Bedouin.” They prefer settlers. It is your choice to live this way rather than settling on a sofa in your children’s home or leaving all your salary to pay for a house It was sold to you as the American dream. The choice has a lot to do with the great economic disparity in the country. But we are not talking about politics. We wanted to show the strength of the spirit of the people of this country who control their lives in thick and thin. It is more than just a reflection of the economy. There is something very human. In motion. “

During the filming, which lasted five months and seven states with a team of 24 people escorting this caravan of independent spirits, McDormand would sometimes sleep like them in their cars, campgrounds, or roadside motels. It all reflects as faithfully as possible the life contained in it Nomad, Those who travel, as the actress explains, “between horror and freedom, sadness and the happiness of loneliness, and having to find out for yourself.”

This meticulous workout by McDormand is what makes her one of the best actresses of her generation, and it has managed to go unnoticed among real townspeople. “Part of my job is to make myself reliable,” he says. He says the other part of his secret is listening. “This is what I especially learned from this movie. To listen. It must be an indisputable thing in the acting profession. I closed my mouth and sat between them and listened to their stories.” And so I managed that until they offered him a temporary job in a large space. After the fern in Bedouin And Mildred Three ads in the suburbsAnd the He belongs to the same universe, and declares a “complete pause” in his career.

Change begins at her next job, which she will join with her husband The Tragedy of Macbeth. “I play a fierce person, who never apologizes, and is so ambitious that he comes close to insanity. I have interpreted her as a woman past menopause, angry at losing her children after multiple pregnancies, miscarriages and stillbirths. As an actress, I seek sympathy for my characters and surprise the audience. I am. I enjoy keeping everyone on the edge of the abyss, “he admits, a bit of malice.