Oscar 2021: Frances McDormand's journey towards her third conquest as best actress

04/25/2021 11:20 PM

• Clarín.com

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Updated 04/26/2021 12:13 AM

Katharine Hepburn

,

Ingrid Bergman

,

Meryl Streep

and now

Frances McDormand

.

The 63-year-old artist won the Oscar for Best Actress for the third time and found a place in the select group of those who did it three or more times.

The emotional catharsis of

Fern

, her nuanced character from

Nomadland

, materialized in a new statuette.

Her nearly forty-year career playing American women did not hamper her new professional challenge.

The renewed interpretive exploration, thankfully, remained.

Because McDormand never stops learning and always finds different ways to empathize with the audience.

In the Nomadland project, the actress found herself touring the United States just as the protagonist of

Chloé Zhao's

film does

in her works.

When the filming of the film began, she was the largest of a team led by the director of

The Rider

who ventured for five months to shoot in seven different states with a group that, according to a note, functioned as "an organism." .

Frances McDormand in Nomadland.

Photo: AP.

Fern is a woman who, in the midst of an economic crisis, loses her job in a mining company, her house and her husband.

In the most difficult moment of her life, the protagonist takes hold of the wheel and travels where the wheels take her.

He works here and there and, while he is as a person in a new stage of his life, he meets a community of nomads and forms medium-term emotional ties with its members.

The actress started the project that resulted in a film full of poetry, sentiment, confidence in its themes, flawless visuals sustained in sunsets magnificently captured by the lens of cinematographer

Joshua James Richards

.

After attending a performance of The Rider at the Toronto film festival, the actress, dazed by what she had seen, contacted Zhao and offered to direct the film.

The experience was challenging on both sides: McDormand had never worked with a cast of non-actors, and Zhao had never directed an actress of the renown of the leading

lady

in

Fargo

.

McDormand after receiving his second Oscar.

Photo: EFE.

Four years ago, Frances also managed to mobilize the Dolby Theater.

After winning her second Oscar for an equally loaded job in 

Three Ads for a Crime

, the actress thrilled those present with her speech.

A message in which she crystallized her feminist militancy and her more sensitive side that concluded with an invitation to investigate the term “inclusion rider” (which is the equity clause in contracts that ensures diversity in filming).

Do not look for it in networks because it is not there

.

Like many of her memorable characters, Frances McDormand behind the scenes escapes the clichés.

It is worth witnessing his relaxed look at the ceremony in which he received his second Oscar.

McDormand grew up in rural areas or small industrial towns and his characters, he says, were always inspired by people he met throughout his life.

Fern is no stranger to this question.

Frances McDormand at Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Photo: EFE.

Her training ranged from Lady Macbeth (the first character she played in high school and the next character she will play in a new movie for her husband) to graduating from Yale. His first works were in theater and he continued in theaters with

Simply Blood

, a film directed by

Joel Coen

, who would be the love of his life and with whom he would raise

Pedro

, a young man of Paraguayan origin.

Frances worked repeatedly with the brothers

Joen

and

Ethan

.

The grateful cinephilia had breakfast at the same time its debut in cinemas and that of the aforementioned directors.

Fortunately, the trio was repeated a few years later in

Educating Arizona

, reached festive glory with

Fargo

and momentarily concluded with

Hail, César!

.

Other directors who stumbled upon McDormand's unique talent and tone were

Robert Altman, John Boorman, Ken Loach, Alan Parker, Niki Caro, Wes Anderson, and Paolo Sorrentino

, to name a few.

At the 2021 Oscars, McDormand beat out other incredible performances.

Her competitors were

Carey Mulligan

(Beautiful Revenge),

Viola Davis

(The Mother of Blues),

Andra Day

(United States vs. Billie Holiday) and

Vanessa Kirby

(Fragments of a Woman).

Frances McDormand with a place to wow at Nomadland Photo: AP

Look also

Oscar 2021: curiosities and everything you need to know about the Academy Awards ceremony