10 Reasons To Adore Frances McDormand

5 min readJan 24, 2018

Long a character actor, Frances McDormand at Sixty is an Award Winning Star and Filmmaker

Unabashedly herself, Frances McDormand may be the most genuine and real woman in Hollywood. The recent recipient of the Best Actress in a Drama award at the Golden Globes, McDormand, in her acceptance speech, elegantly celebrated and rallied the women in the room and all of us at home watching. Now, at age 60, she continues to own who she is and thrive in Hollywood.

1. Frances McDormand Loves a Good Story About an Interesting Woman

My first encounter with Frances McDormand was in her iconic role as the pregnant Deputy Marge Gunderson in her best-known movie role in Fargo. Of all the wonderful roles she has metamorphosed into, my all time favorite is Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. The film is a female-centric story told from the perspective of not one, but two female protagonists. According to Amy Adams, McDormand’s’ co-star, as quoted in Focus Features’ Production Notes, “The journey is about finding out what and who is right for you, what is truly best for you, and about being true to yourself even as you step outside of your comfort zone.”

2. Frances McDormand is Intelligent Yet Unassuming

According to Wikipedia, in 2015 she became the 23rd performer to have won the Triple Crown of Acting (an Oscar, an Emmy, and a Tony). She won the 1997 Best Actress Oscar for Fargo (1996), the 2011 Best Leading Actress in a Play Tony for “Good People,” the 2015 Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie Emmy for Olive Kitteridge (2014) and the 2018 Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama.

Despite her many successes, Frances McDormand eschews makeup, and fancy hairstyles. She won’t sign an autograph or pose for pictures with fans. “I’m not an actor because I want my picture taken. I’m an actor because I want to be part of the human exchange,” McDormand was quoted as saying in a New York Times article. She prefers to share a human interaction with a fan and will often ask a fan’s name and even allow herself to be hugged.

3. Frances McDormand is a Character Actor Turned Star

McDormand has made a career and become a star out of character roles. She has a talent for inhabiting an initially two-dimensional character and creating the most magnetic and complex character in the film. Of the value she believes she brings the Coen brothers’ film-making, she said in a New York Times article “The one thing that I’ve always been able to offer them is a complexity that fills out an idea they have of something.”

During the long-adaptation McDormand and screenwriter Jane Anderson collaborated on prior to the making of Olive Kitteridge, McDormand confessed doubts about her ability to carry a film, having only played supporting roles previously. McDormand kept asking to take her character Olive out of scenes, to make her a supporting part.

4. Frances McDormand Despises Plastic Surgery

Consistent with her own commitment to being real and genuine, McDormand has never had plastic surgery and fervently believes no one else should either. Quoted in a 2017 New York Times article, McDormand said “I have not mutated myself in any way. Joel and I have this conversation a lot. He literally has to stop me physically from saying something to people — to friends who’ve had work. I’m so full of fear and rage about what they’ve done.” She cherishes the fact that her life is written on her face.

5. Frances McDormand Cares for Others

Amy Adams, her co-star in Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, noted McDormand’s instrinsic caring nature for others onset. McDormand likes nothing better than being immersed in daily onset life of cast and crew, preferring to do her own makeup when possible.

In her acceptance speech at the 2018 Golden Globes, she invited all the other category nominees to join her in a shot of Tequila at the bar. She is proud to be a part of the movement that helps all women everywhere rise up. “I keep my politics private, but it was really great to be in this room tonight, and to be part of a tectonic shift in our industry’s power structure,” she said. “Trust me: the women in this room tonight are not here for the food. We are here for the work.”

6. Frances McDormand Appreciates Aging

McDormand views aging as the natural course of life and values her own and others’ experience, depth and breadth as evidenced in humans physically as well as spiritually and mentally. Wishing that society were not so youth-obsessed, McDormand said in a 2014 New York Times biopic “We are on red alert when it comes to how we are perceiving ourselves as a species,” she said. “There’s no desire to be an adult. Adulthood is not a goal. It’s not seen as a gift. Something happened culturally: No one is supposed to age past 45 — sartorially, cosmetically, attitudinally. Everybody dresses like a teenager. Everybody dyes their hair. Everybody is concerned about a smooth face.”

7. Frances McDormand Creates Opportunities for Herself

McDormand controls her own worklife. She purchases the rights to stories to develop into movie and TV projects in which she can star. According to a Paste Magazine article, she purchased the rights to the novel Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout which became the hit HBO miniseries. She’s also bought the rights to another book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma. The entrepreneurial spirit lives in her. Why wait around for another Hollywood producer to hire her for a role? She creates her own movie projects and roles and carves her own destiny.

8. Frances McDormand Values Family

Married since 1984 to Joel Coen, one-half of the renowned Coen brothers film-making duo, Frances McDormand is a devoted wife. She and husband Joel have been partners in film-making as well as life and parenting. Joel Coen acknowledges with pride having created roles for his wife in many of his films. Together they raised their son Pedro adopted from Paraguay.

9. Frances McDormand is a Devoted Marriage Partner

Asked the secret of their long, successful marriage, McDormand was quoted in a Yahoo News article “I think it’s having different stories to tell each other,” McDormand said. “Although we have often collaborated on films, we have both had really autonomous careers and so we have always had new things to tell each other.” In a 2015 Yahoo News article, he described the 21 years spent raising their son “the most exciting part” of the relationship. And just like so many of us have experienced, now that her son Pedro is grown, she and husband Coen are looking forward to a new phase of their relationship.

10. Frances McDormand is Coming Into Stardom at Sixty

A character actor for most of her career, McDormand has only recently risen to the challenge of carrying a mini-series in the lead roles in, Olive Kitteridge, and a movie Three Billboards Outside Edding, Missouri for which she won the Golden Globe award. Undoubtedly, there is much more to come for McDormand. And we’ll be watching.