An interview with Charlene Swankie, co-star of the hit film ‘Nomadland’

Preston Barta of Fresh Fiction TV conducts a split screen interview with Charlene Swankie, one of the stars of the film Nomadland, and discusses the impact she had on the character of Fern played by Frances McDormand, who is based partly on her life. She recounts the story of the swallows scene in the movie “Nomadland,” and how that is her personal video footage that she took while on a solo kayaking adventure in Colorado.

Swankie discusses how her son was featured in director Chloé Zhao’s previous film about Burning Man, and the irony of being in Zhao’s subsequent film. Barta mentions how he also interviewed Jessica Bruder, who lived as a nomad off and on for 3 years while writing the documentary book that became the fictional movie, and Bob Wells, another star of the film, a full-time nomad himself, and founder of the website Cheap RV Living.

Barta discusses the “spiritual awakening” of being in nature and asks Swankie to explain what being a nomad has meant to her. She does her best to explain how fulfilling the peace and freedom of living in her van and trailer have been for her life, how she is not dead or dying, unlike her namesake character in the movie, and how much nomadism has influenced her since she was able to hit the road full time in 2009. Swankie also talks about her past experience with acting as a first-person interpreter at a history museum.

Swankie and Linda May, another nomad prominently featured in Bruder’s book, were melded into the character of Fern, and the result is a nuanced and emotionally endearing film that is well worth the Golden Globes it won for Best Drama and Best Director for Chloé Zhao.

Buy the book from Amazon through this affiliate link: Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century
The movie has a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack available here: Nomadland (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Watch the Fresh Fiction TV interview here: https://youtu.be/gEVL9SYI8EY

See you down the road!

jamiehart

Content creator and Chewbacca cosplayer.

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