SMALL-TOWN ROOTS
Oscar-winner Frances McDormand says her small-town upbringing helped shape the character she plays in latest role.
TORONTO — Oscar-winner Frances McDormand says her small-town upbringing — which includes Ontario and Nova Scotia roots — helped shape the character she plays in a dark new dramedy.
McDormand stars in “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’’ as a mother who is frustrated by the police investigation into the rape and murder of her daughter.
She pressures police by criticizing the chief’s lack of progress on three billboards leading into the community.
McDormand says the characters in the film “felt really close,’’ noting she came from a working-class family and spent her entire childhood in small rural towns in the United States.
The Chicago-born McDormand adds that her parents were Canadian — her mother was originally from West Lorne, Ont., and her father was from Nova Scotia.
The film is making its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
McDormand says she researched what it’s like to lose a child and how devastating and
misunderstood the experience can be.
“When you lose a spouse you’re a widow or widower, when you lose your parents you’re an orphan,’’ McDormand said Monday at a TIFF press conference.
“When you lose a child there’s
no word in the English language for that position, that place that you’re left.’’
Writer-director Martin McDonagh won the best screenplay prize at the Venice Film Festival, where the movie began building awards buzz.
McDonagh said he wrote the
lead role specifically for McDormand, who won the best leading actress Oscar for “Fargo’’ in 1997.
“If she hadn’t said, `Yes,’ we would’ve been screwed,’’ joked McDonagh, whose other scripts include the Oscar-nominated “In Bruges.’’