I prefer going to the theater and actually paying money to see the weird films. Like, I still haven’t seen Dunkirk (I will, I promise) but I saw Atomic Blonde. Basically, we’re coming up on my favorite film-going season: awards season, indie film season, etc. Where all the quirky little films come to town for maybe two weeks, tops, and you really have to hunt for the ones you want to see. Of all the Oscar-bait films I want to see so far, the one I’m most looking forward to is Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, starring Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson. The redband trailer is ridiculously funny and very NSFW because of language:
I CANNOT WAIT FOR THIS. Anyway, Frances and Sam Rockwell were in Toronto to promote the film. Can you believe that Frances didn’t even want to do it at first?
Frances McDormand didn’t immediately jump at playing a cursing mother in Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, she revealed Monday while promoting the Fox Searchlight pic at the Toronto Film Festival.
“I was flattered, but then I said no, I’m too old,” McDormand remembered telling McDonagh two years ago, when she was 58 years old. Her fretting over the role ended, however, when her husband Joel Coen, intervened. “My husband just said, shut up and do it,” she said. Now, as a 60-year-old performer, McDormand is happy to play a grieving mother with single-minded rage.
“I’m really interested in playing my age. I like being my age. I kind of have a political thing about it,” she added, as women from a working-class background, like her character in Three Billboards, don’t often show up in Hollywood movies. In the film, McDormand plays a mother whose daughter was brutally raped and murdered. Her character decides to call out the police chief, played by Woody Harrelson, on three giant billboards for failing to find the killer, hoping to drive him into action.
“She’s just a mother who’s lost her child, a parent who has lost her child. That kind of grief is something we all, as humans, understand,” McDormand explained. Having kept busy doing live theater, the Oscar winner added she has the luxury of turning down movie roles.
The movie doesn’t come out until November and I will be the first one in line. Because of TIFF and TIFF’s reputation as the “start” of the Oscar season (where so many Oscar-bait films premiere), we’ve been talking a lot about the potential Best Actress race this week. Will Jennifer Lawrence be nominated for ‘mother!’? Will Emma Stone be nominated for Battle of the Sexes? Will Margot Robbie get a nomination for I, Tonya? Jessica Chastain for Molly’s Game? I don’t know. But I feel like Frances will absolutely get a nomination for this movie.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
LOVE her.
always been a big fan of her she’s a legit actress. no ego, showbiz phony bs or narcissistic tendencies (at least from my perspective). she is a storyteller and a damn good one. love seeing “real” looking actors like her in good films. hope to see this when it comes out!
Huge fan of both McDormand and McDonagh and can’t wait to see this. And undoubtedly she will give an Oscar-worthy performance since she never gives anything less, as far as I’m concerned.
I love what she says about playing her age.
I can’t wait for this one! I’m looking forward to this movie more than any other. It looks fantastic and I LOVE Frances McDormand.
Me, too. She is one of my all time favorites!
But I thought Margot Robbie already had it in the bag!
One of the reason i hate award seasons so much is the hyperbolic PR and determination to hand out the awards months before the ceremony. Talent doesn’t win Oscars, hype does.
To paraphrase ELECTION, ‘the only person who cares about winning is the winner. It’s not going to change anyone’s lives or make anything better so who cares about this stupid election? ‘.
And I say all of this as someone who was obsessed with Oscars from childhood on. But I got sick of rooting for people based on performances instead of their campaigns, so I stopped watching.
Rachel McAdams in Disobedience really needs to be a part of this conversation. I have seen Jlaw, Stone, Chastain, McDormand and Robbie and Rachel McAdams’ performance is better than all of them.
Jlaw shouldn’t even be a part of this conversation this year. McDormand is good and a nom would be well deserved.
Sam Rockwell is also very good in this film.
JLaw won’t be part of the conversation to me. She’s only getting this much talk because she’s JLaw.
However Emma and Margo will be in the mix. Jessica Chastain has a great shot. But there’s a lot of movie watching to go.
you nailed it!
Yes. Yes she is. I can see Rockwell and Harrelson in categories as well.
Her and Sally Hawkins are already a shoo-in to me. I think Saoirse Ronan is also very strong.
Oh gosh, I saw this on Pajiba maybe two days ago, and was so thrilled- I adore Frances McDormand- thought she was utterly brilliant in Olive Kitteridge- I CANNOT wait to see this.
And YES to the award!!
Wow. Just wow.
For all the “laughter” and language she really, really brings the totality of the pain that mother is feeling and the frustration with the lack of …well, ANYTHING…being done to find out who took her child and in such a horrific way, to life. Heartbreaking.
I expect lots of reaction to it for her and damn but she’s good.
Given the plot of the film, I wasn’t expecting humor in the trailer, but wow, that looks good and darkly funny.
Frances is one of my favorite actresses, everything she does is fantastic, and this looks no different. I like Sam Rockwell a lot too.
Love mcdormand. She’s so talented!!