17 behind-the-scenes facts about Nomadland you’ll find fascinating



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The woman who plays Fern’s sister is actually one of Frances McDormand’s oldest friends in real life.

1.

Almost the entire cast was made up of “real” people, meaning no professional actors.

2.

In fact, all of the characters in the film are named after the people who played them in real life – with the exception of Frances McDormand and the woman who plays Fern’s sister, Dolly.

3.

The woman who plays Fern’s sister, Dolly, is actually one of McDormand’s oldest friends in real life, Melissa Smith.

The American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco has announced that conservatory director Melissa Smith will be leaving the organization on December 31. Peter J. Kuo and Danyon Davis will be attending @ACTSanFrancisco. https://t.co/oVHiGj1Sjm


Twitter: @AmericanTheatre

Smith was conservatory director and theater director at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco for 25 years and has performed off Broadway in New York City, the United States and England.

4.

When she was younger, McDormand said her dream was to change her name to Fern and “hit the road” in a motorhome at 65.

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McDormand told Variety that at age 45 she told her husband that at age 65 she would “start smoking Lucky Strikes, drinking wild turkey, and taking the road in my motorhome ”.

6.

And the crew all lived in vans, including the one in the movie, “Vanguard” (Fern’s van), during filming.

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They traveled together for five months across more than seven states while filming.

7.

They were able to film inside an Amazon packaging facility simply by “asking”.

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“Fran wrote a nice letter to Amazon asking if we could do it and they said yes,” Richards told The Wrap.

8.

McDormand’s husband, writer / director Joel Coen, visited the set one day.

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Cinematographer Joshua James Richards laughed: “I look up and there’s Joel Coen watching me shoot Fran with a little LED on a C-mount and I’m like, ‘We’re really setting things up. here, Joel, I hope you enjoy this, this is my biggest setup. ‘”

9.

McDormand – who also produced the film – found director Chloe Zhao at the Toronto Film Festival.

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McDormand knew she wanted Zhao to lead Nomadland after watching the pilot movie The horseman at TIFF.

ten.

Because the production was physically demanding, McDormand said she was assigned a “babysitter” to make sure she went to bed and got up on time so she wouldn’t be exhausted.

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“I was the oldest member of society, I was 61 at the time of filming, so it was literally about keeping the pace,” McDormand said.

11.

The film is based on the non-fiction book Nomadland: surviving America in the 21st century, but the filmmakers see it more as an “accompanying piece”.

12.

In fact, a lot of real people in the movie were in the book as well, like Bob Wells, for example.

13.

Zhao and McDormand started filming scenes for Nomadland just three months after the actor’s second Oscar victory.

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They met at Zhao’s home in Ojai to understand how they would film scenes in such a small and confined space.

14.

And that night, while they were in the van, McDormand had an upset stomach from dinner and really took a dump in a five gallon bucket.

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“I literally went through something not very pleasant, but it was really great because we filmed stuff,” McDormand told The Hollywood Reporter.

15.

Wall Drug is a very real place. In fact, it is one of South Dakota’s most popular tourist attractions.

16.

One of the producers of the film, Peter Spears, has a small role in the movie like, well, Peter. He is one of the other people in the house of the son of David.

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Spears was also a producer on Call me by your name, in which he ALSO had an appearance.

17.

And finally, the Autumn Leaves plates that Fern said were given to her by her father in the movie were REALLY given to McDormand by her own father when she graduated from college.

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