Frances McDormand Was Ready to Pass on ‘Three Billboards’ Until Her Husband’s Words

Frances McDormand is one of those rare chameleon-like actors who always blend seamlessly into any role she plays. She’s also the only actress other than Katharine Hepburn (who won four) to win three Best Actress Oscars. Whether playing pregnant police chief Marge Gunderson in “Fargo” or a bored housewife in “The Man Who Wasn’t There,” she gives her all to the role.

But there’s one role, in which she won her second Best Actor Oscar, that she almost passed on. While she loved the story, she couldn’t picture herself in Martin McDonagh’s film, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.” Luckily, her husband provided the blunt advice she needed to accept the role.

Frances McDormand’s Husband Made Her Finally Accept ‘Three Billboards’ Role

McDormand has been married to director Joel Coen for 41 years. The couple has made nine films together. He also directed her in “Fargo,” the first film for which she won an Academy Award.

After McDonagh asked her to take the role of Mildred in “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” she discussed her reservations with Coen. It was thanks to him that she finally took the part. “So we went back and forth and we debated that quite for a while, and then finally my husband said, ‘Just shut up and do it.’”

At a press conference at the Toronto International Film Festival, McDormand explained her reasoning for almost turning down the role of Mildred. “When I first read it, I loved it, I thought Mildred was amazing,” McDormand said. “I was very flattered, but then I said, ‘No, I’m sorry, I’m too old, because at the time he gave it to me, I was 58… and I’m also from a working-class background. And I was concerned that women from this socioeconomic strata did not wait until they were 38 to have their first child.”

McDonagh Wrote ‘Billboards’ With McDormand’s Voice in His Head

“I wrote it for Frances about seven or eight years ago,” McDonagh said. “I guess with Frances’s voice in my head, and her past performances in my head. So we sent it to her a couple of years after that — maybe a little later than that. And if she hadn’t said yes, we would’ve been screwed. I don’t know what we would’ve done. But luckily, after she thought about it for a little bit, she said yes. And yeah, she’s perfect for it, and she hit it out of the park.”

McDonagh has frequently been blunt that no one else could’ve played Mildred. “Who is there?” he said in an interview with The Independent. “There’s no one. We didn’t want anyone Hollywood in their looks or their plasticity, and it had to be someone who can play working class without sentimentalising or patronising it,” he said in a low voice. “There’s no one else apart from her. I’m whispering in case Meryl Streep’s out in the corridor.”

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