McDormand’s defiant attitude

Frances McDormand has staked out her own place in Hollywood, said Jordan Kisner in The New York Times Magazine. With her striking face and self-possession, McDormand could have gotten many leading roles on Broadway. Instead, she moved to Los Angeles, where she was passed over for role after role until she finally found her niche, playing strong, quirky women in such films as Fargo and the HBO miniseries Olive Kitteridge. “I was too old, too young, too fat, too thin, too tall, too short, too blond, too dark—but at some point they’re going to need ‘the other,’” says McDormand, 60. “So I’d get really good at being ‘the other.’” She acts to connect with people, she says, but hates being photographed; she doesn’t wear makeup off-set, doesn’t own a full-length mirror, and won’t look at the monitor when filming. “I’d much rather not be aware of how fat my ass looks.” Most of all she hates taking selfies with fans—a ritual she finds empty and now refuses to indulge. “Now what I do— because this is how I live—when someone approaches me, I say, ‘What’s your name?’ I touch them. I look at them,” McDormand says. “I have a real exchange.”