She then won her first Oscar in 1997 at 39, for her unglamorous role in Fargo.
McDormand worked steadily into her 40s, then her 50s and 60s, and unlike most female actors in Hollywood, she refused (and still refuses) any and all cosmetic surgery. No Botox, no fillers or facelifts, no covering up her grays, no liposuction or butt lifts.
Her decision to age naturally didn’t negatively impact her career at all. She was nominated again for acting Oscars for Almost Famous in 2001, aged 43, and North Country in 2006, aged 49, then won her second Oscar for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri in 2018, at age 60, and her third for Nomadland in 2021 at 63. (The latter film also garnered her the Best Picture Oscar as the film’s producer, an award she was again nominated for this year, for Women Talking.)
In Three Billboards:
In Nomadland:
Frances McDormand has embraced the aging process, rather than fighting it. Maybe she’s not as beautiful as she was at 31 — most of us aren’t once we reach our 60s. But she’s among the greatest and most acclaimed American actors of all time, and she got where she is not by being beautiful or glamorous, but based entirely on her own talent. Where so many female actors find their careers languishing after 40, McDormand has bucked the trend even while embracing her age.
One thing I find infuriating is the tendency of many — usually men — to give McDormand’s husband, Joel Coen, credit for her success. “Oh, well, she’s married to Joel Coen, that helped her career. She’d never have gotten this far without him”. McDormand and Coen married in 1984, and she received her first Oscar nomination before anyone knew who the hell the Coen Brothers were, for a film they had nothing to do with. It’s really sad that some people feel the need to attribute an incredibly talented and accomplished woman’s success to a man.