"I found myself in one of the five-minute television things where I'd been asked the same question all day about another actor I was working with, and I realised that I could no longer say how much I loved working with this person," she recalls. "I had to say that I felt that my 9-year-old son was far more sophisticated and worthy of conversation than he was. I realised that I was jeopardising people's jobs by telling the truth so I had to pull back.
"What's great about being 57 and I think what I also love about the story of Olive is that you never gain the right to hurt people or to jeopardise people's positions by what you say. But you do gain the right to be true to yourself."
As the producer of what she considers a four-hour film, McDormand became immersed in every aspect of Olive Kitteridge - and, of course, cast herself in the title role. It all stemmed from Elizabeth Strout's novel.
"I read books. Remember those? I read them, on paper. I buy books, I have shelves of books. I love to read," the 57-year-old explains in her no-nonsense Marge manner.
"As an actor I've never had the patience to option them before because this took six years. I can't believe I lasted that long. I have a very short attention span."
McDormand had enjoyed Strout's novel so much that she gave it to her friends, including actress and Coen Brothers regular Katherine Borowitz, John Turturro's wife. Borowitz urged McDormand to find a way to play Olive and ultimately the novel, which spans 25 years and is written as a series of 13 short stories, was most suited to the miniseries format.
Frances McDormand in Olive Kitteridge.
"Ninety minutes wasn't long enough. I had just seen The Wire, David Simon's five-year gorgeous long format, and as I don't watch television it was really the first time I realised that there was a sea change."
Still, she wasn't interested in doing a series. "I don't want to be tied down for five years. Olive Kitteridge is a peripheral character in a lot of the stories and it just lent itself perfectly to four or six chapters. So that's what I wanted to do. That's how you tell a female story like Olive's."
She had her "representation" call Strout's "representation" the week before she was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. "Good timing," McDormand said. "After she was awarded the Pulitzer, I called her and said, 'Remember me?' She said, 'Absolutely, it's yours'. It was fated, I believe. I am a pagan at heart and I believe in the moon, the tides and fate."
McDormand hired Jane Anderson to pen the screenplay and her Laurel County director Lisa Cholodenko, with whom she'd enjoyed a strong collaboration. She was keen to have Richard Jenkins play Olive's husband Henry as the pair had worked together on four previous films.
Frances McDormand in Burn After Reading.
"We've done North Country and three movies with Joel and Ethan," said Jenkins. "In Burn After Reading I was in love with her the whole movie and she wouldn't talk to me."
Abrasive and tight-jawed Olive works as a maths teacher in a small New England town where Henry is the mild-mannered pharmacist.
Their son Christopher rejects his mother's strict form of parenting while Henry is submissive and henpecked. That's not to say the couple doesn't enjoy a certain sex life. Olive hasn't lost her mojo. Despite a strain of depression in the family that pervades their lives Olive manages to triumph over her adversities.
"I wanted to keep the pathos, the dark subject matter subtextual; it's funny," notes Cholodenko. "I call it a traumedy. It's dark, but it's light and ironic."
Anderson: "Olive is a very difficult woman. I think she might remind us all of our own mothers. Even though she's judgemental, bitchy, cranky and hard on her kid, she's infinitely decent. Olive will stand up for the bad kid in the class; Olive will not follow through with an affair. I believe in a long-term marriage and as parents we have a responsibility not only to stay alive but to take care of other people."
As for McDormand, she says; "Fran has no vanity. She doesn't need to look beautiful in her parts. She wants her characters to be what they are."
Though Cholodenko maintains that McDormand is part Olive and part Marge, McDormand demurs.
Frances McDormand in Fargo.
"No, Olive and Marge are part Frances. It was really fascinating for everyone involved in Fargo that Marge Gunderson became the iconic character she did. I think it was something about the cultural zeitgeist and what was happening with women in the workplace. When we were filming Joel and Ethan and I were really in love with Peter Stormare's and Buscemi's characters."
With Olive Kitteridge, did she feel gratified to be doing something away from the brothers?
"Completely. Here's the thing that happens, and it's just happened recently. I've known them since 1982, that's when we met and I am constantly approached by actors, crew members, everywhere I go, everyone wants to work with Joel and Ethan. Who doesn't? I do. That's what I say. 'You want a job with them? So do I. Get in line.' So what I've done is I have my representation call them every time they write a film, and say, 'Is there a part in this for Frances McDormand?' Because I'm not going to ask at home. I don't want that kind of disappointment. So we keep it on a professional level.
"In fact, I have learned I have a very small role in their upcoming film, which I'm very excited about."
That film will be the comedy Hail, Caesar!, about a Hollywood fixer in the 1950s working to keep the studio's stars in line. This time McDormand had to line up alongside Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, George Clooney, Ralph Fiennes, Josh Brolin and Tilda Swinton.
She does have one advantage, however. "If an actress of my age asks if there is a part for her, I say, 'Sweetheart, get in line! If there is a part for you, I get it first'."
Who: Frances McDormand
What: HBO series Olive Kitteridge
Screening: Starts screening on SoHo, Thursdays 8.30pm
- TimeOut
