How Nomadland actors were so convincing: they played themselves
Lesson summary
Hi there, I’m Jeff, and welcome to another Plain English lesson, this time number 347. JR is behind the controls and he’s posted the full lesson at PlainEnglish.com/347.
On Monday’s lesson, we talked about the movie “Nomadland”. To recap: Frances McDormand plays a character, Fern, who lives in her van, traveling from place to place, working in temporary jobs and trying to enjoy a transient life on the road.
We didn’t talk much about the other characters in the movie: I was saving that for today. And that’s because the other characters in the movie, many of them, are nomads in real life, and they played themselves. So that’s today’s lesson. We’ll review an English expression, “make ends meet,” and we have a song of the week.
The real-life nomads who became movie stars
Nomadland is about real people, a part of American society that is rarely represented in media. In this lesson, we’ll talk about some of the real people who turned into unlikely movie stars by playing themselves in one of this year’s hottest films.
Let me start by describing the demographic of the characters in Nomadland. First of all, they are older. Most are in their late fifties to early seventies. They did not always lead the nomad lifestyle: most had steady jobs, homes, careers, and families before. Almost all are single; some were never married, but many are widowed. For many of them—not all, but many—the careers were either physically demanding or are more suited to a younger person. Their earlier careers did not afford them rich savings or investments. They may have lost a job or, as in the case of Fern, they were living in a dying town with few opportunities. With the skills and experiences they have, they struggle to get good-paying jobs at their age.
In the US, we have a public pension system called Social Security. The program was designed to save senior citizens from living in poverty at the end of their lives; it’s intended as a supplement to your savings. However, many people reach old age without additional savings or income and they find that their Social Security benefits are not enough. People who earned money in cash, under the table—from tips at a restaurant, for example—find that they haven’t accumulated many official benefits at all. Too old to work at jobs they’re qualified for, but too young to retire: this is the situation that many of the nomads in Nomadland find themselves in.
Fern, at the beginning of the film, is in a government employment office. The worker tells her that there aren’t any good jobs in town and that she should just give up searching for a job and begin to collect Social Security benefits. But that, for Fern, would not be enough to live on. Others in the nomad life told the same story: after a long life working for tips or in lower-wage jobs, Social Security would not be enough to pay rent in a traditional house.
With few job prospects and inadequate government benefits, they cut their expenses and live on the road. Their location independence allows them to move from job to job, but the jobs they get are low-paying, often seasonal, and don’t offer stability and benefits. There is sadness and loneliness, but this lifestyle suits some people.
If you’ve seen “Nomadland,” then you can tell the actors play their roles with depth and feeling. Only two, though, are professional actors. The others are nomads themselves.
The character Swankie is played by Charlene Swankie, who moved into her van at age 64 to help make ends meet . She is not a professional actor. In the movie, she gives Fern some tough love and helps her survive the harsh moments on the road. She’s generous with her advice and honest, even when it hurts. She gives Fern a can of white paint and tells her that her van is looking run-down. She scolds Fern for not being more prepared for mechanical problems.
Swankie loves nature and finds that life on the road suits her. She has good memories of beautiful places and longs to see Alaska again. In the movie, she confides that she’s been diagnosed with cancer and her one dream is to go back to Alaska. The real-life Charlene Swankie was skeptical about making a movie. She was more focused on her upcoming shoulder surgery than on movie-making; after living on the road so long, movies weren’t a big part of her life. She thought it would be a low-budget project; now, she’s a costar in one of the most celebrated movies of the year.
If Swankie is the character that gives tough love, then Linda May is the one who gives a warm hug. She, too, is played by a non-actor, a nomad. In real life, she started living in her trailer as a grandmother. In the film, she offers Fern her friendship and helps Fern get a job. She keeps everyone’s spirits up; at one point, we see Linda May and Fern on folding camping chairs after a long day of work, faces covered with cream, looking up toward the sun, cucumber slices on their eyes, and peaks of the Badlands National Park behind them.
Bob Wells is the other non-actor who plays a big part in the movie. He’s an older man who runs a conference of sorts, in the small town of Quartzite, Arizona. What started with just a few dozen nomads has grown to a convention of over 5,000 per year. He says, in real life and in the movie, that the modern economy is failing a lot of people and the nomad lifestyle is one way to cope with the changing world.
“How many 50- and 60-year-old people who were laid off are never going to work again, except at McDonald’s?” he asks.
The film was based on a book published in 2017 called “Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century” by Jessica Bruder. The author spent years documenting the life of nomads, driving the same roads, interviewing nomads, and living the life from her own van. Her book was adapted to film by Chloé Zhao.
Van names
Fun fact, nomads name their vehicles. They’re often clever plays on words. In the movie, Fern named her van “Vanguard,” which means to be a leader in action, movement, or society. In the book, the author names hers “Van Halen,” after a classic rock band. Linda May’s name is my favorite. She calls her 10-foot trailer the “Squeeze Inn.” I like that one!
Great stories make learning English fun
