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WHITE TRASH TO RED CARPET

Frances McDormand hates Hollywood but is on her way to Oscar No2

SHE is the clear favourite to win Best Actress at the Oscars in March, but Frances McDormand makes no attempt to hide her dislike of Hollywood glamour.

The 60-year-old self-confessed “white trash” mum spurns cosmetic surgery, hates high heels and is a self-proclaimed feminist who rarely gives interviews — or even autographs.

Frances McDormand is the clear favourite to win Best Actress at the Oscars in March
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Frances McDormand is the clear favourite to win Best Actress at the Oscars in MarchCredit: Copyright (c) 2017 Rex Features. No use without permission.

But the truth is that Frances, star of darkly comic film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, is not opposed to ramping up her feminine charms when pitching for a part.

She has told of taking a pair of prosthetic BREASTS with her to auditions in case directors would prefer someone with a “well-rounded” figure.

And she has even worn them in three of her films, including the brilliant Fargo, for which she won her first Best Actress Oscar in 1997.

She said: “I first started using them like a prop, for Raising Arizona, because the character had five kids and I’m naturally flat-chested.

She is the star of star of darkly comic film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
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She is the star of star of darkly comic film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, MissouriCredit: Handout

“The costumier decided she should be pretty big.

“Because of that I started getting scripts that would say ‘full-breasted’ or ‘large-breasted’. I didn’t want to wear them to auditions, but I always thought the best way to show them what you could do is to go as yourself and transform in the room.

“The best vindication of that was in a movie I did called Chattahoochee, because there’s a very specific scene where Gary Oldman’s character is having a nightmare of his wife’s breasts smothering him when they’re having sex.

“So I said to the director, ‘I don’t have them, but I brought them. So you can get somebody else’s breasts, but I can wear these’.

She starred in the brilliant Fargo, for which she won her first Best Actress Oscar in 1997
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She starred in the brilliant Fargo, for which she won her first Best Actress Oscar in 1997Credit: Moviepix - Getty

“And I got the role. I couldn’t really smother him with mine.”

Frances was born Cynthia Ann Smith, to a poverty-stricken, single mum — who she herself has called “white trash” — and was put up for adoption at 18 months.

Presbyterian preacher Vernon McDormand and his wife Noreen took her in and renamed her Frances, the third of their three adopted children.

At a recent benefit event for her local radio station, she introduced herself this way: “Hello. My name is Frances Louise McDormand, formerly known as Cynthia Ann Smith.

Official Trailer for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

“I was born in Gibson City, Illinois, in 1957. I identify as gender- normative, heterosexual and white-trash American.”

She added: “My parents were not white trash. My birth mother was white trash.”

The McDormand family moved around before settling in Monessen, a small town in the rust-belt of Pennsylvania, so called because of the declining industry.

In school, Frances developed a passion for acting and she went on to study theatre at college.

Although she enjoyed a “great childhood”, once she had left home she started to rebel.

In 2003 she appeared on the front of the stoner magazine High Times holding a spliff
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In 2003 she appeared on the front of the stoner magazine High Times holding a spliff

She admits having dabbled with drugs including hallucinogens LSD and magic mushrooms.

She said: “I had a list — virginity? Check it off, and get rid of it as quickly as possible. Every drug that didn’t involve a needle, I wanted to try it.”

Her fascination with cannabis has endured, and in 2003 she appeared on the front of the stoner magazine High Times holding a spliff.

During her studies she became pals with Holly Hunter and they were later flatmates in New York.

When Holly turned down the lead role in the Coen brothers’ 1984 debut movie Blood Simple, she recommended Frances as her replacement.

It was a decision which would shape the rest of Frances’s life.

She fell for the film’s co-director Joel Coen when he lent her a series of books including the erotic crime thriller The Postman Always Rings Twice. Frances recalled: “A couple of nights later I said, ‘Would you like to come over and discuss the book?’ That did it. He seduced me with literature.”

Since then she has appeared in eight Coen brothers movies, including Fargo, Raising Arizona and Burn After Reading.

She has appeared in eight Coen brothers movies
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She has appeared in eight Coen brothers moviesCredit: Reuters

But she certainly doesn’t rely on her husband for work, having also starred in Wonder Boys, Transformers and Almost Famous.

The couple married in 1984, when Blood Simple was released, and ten years later, having had no children of their own, they adopted a six-month-old Paraguayan baby, Pedro.

Frances said: “We tried, but nature didn’t come through. I had always, always, from early adulthood, wanted to be a mother, and I really yearned for that. It was a physical ache in my groin.

“But then it shifted to the crook of my elbow, and that’s when I knew that it’s not about being pregnant or giving birth, it’s about holding them, either physically or metaphorically, for the rest of your life.”

These include Fargo, Raising Arizona and Burn After Reading
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 These include Fargo, Raising Arizona and Burn After ReadingCredit: Copyright (c) 2017 Rex Features. No use without permission.

Today, after more than three decades on the big screen, Frances still does not consider herself a celebrity.

She said: “When someone approaches me and says, ‘Can I have your autograph?’ I say, ‘No, I’ve retired from that part of the business. I just act now’.”

Instead, if you are lucky, she will ask your name and offer a smile. Unlike many Hollywood stars, she never brings her own make-up artists to a film set and is strongly opposed to plastic surgery — either for herself or others.

She said: “I have not mutated myself in any way. Joel and I have this conversation a lot.

Frances still does not consider herself a celebrity
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Frances still does not consider herself a celebrityCredit: AP:Associated Press

“He literally has to stop me physically from saying something to people, to friends who have had work. I’m so full of fear and rage about what they have done.

“I’ve been with a man for 35 years who looks at me and loves what he sees.”

Frances is so down to earth that she much prefers to be able to go shopping for groceries and ride on public transport without being hassled by passers-by — and she would prefer it if winning awards did not involve having to traipse down a red carpet in front of cameras and crowds.

She once said: “I don’t like award shows. At our house we call this time of year ‘the convention’. It’s too bad we haven’t figured out how to stop it.

She once said: ‘I don’t like award shows'
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She once said: ‘I don’t like award shows'Credit: PA:Press Association

“But I think it will come around, because of the internet. We’ll have other ways to gather.

“It’s not going to be this stuff. The shoes hurt too much.”

After she picked up a Golden Globe for Best Actress — and Three Billboards won Best Picture and Best Screenplay earlier this week — it looks like Frances will have to put up with sore feet.

  •  Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (15) is in cinemas now.

Man who makes his own dramas

PRICKING pomposity – whether among Hollywood or West End drama aristocracy – has become a trademark of maverick writer and director Martin McDonagh.

On Sunday he wished his mum a happy birthday as he collected his Best Screenplay Golden Globe for his film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

The 47-year-old British-Irish outsider has been upsetting the establishment ever since he became a playwright in 1996.

Born in South London to Irish parents – his dad a builder and his mum a cleaner – Martin stacked shelves and did admin for the Department of Trade, then wrote seven plays in nine months while jobless.

British and Irish theatres refused to stage one, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, because it was a bloody and critical satire of the IRA.

And he got so drunk at an awards ceremony in 1996 that he swore at Sean Connery for telling him to “shut up or leave” after he disrupted a toast to the Queen.

In 2008 his critically acclaimed film In Bruges, starring Colin Farrell as a hitman hiding out in the Belgian city, paid no heed to political correctness.

And there has been a furore at how racist police officer Jason Dixon, played by Sam Rockwell, is portrayed in Three Billboards.

But Martin said: “The film isn’t about good and bad, left and right. It’s just trying to find the spark of humanity in people – all people.

“And that’s what it should be, or why start a film?”

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