Frances McDormand took several shots at Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, comparing her to Marge Gunderson, the farcical small-town police chief the actress played in the movie "Fargo."
"Marge Gunderson is a fictional character," McDormand said to cheers and applause at the sold-out Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor, "and so is Sarah Palin."
In an hourlong conversation with film critic Elvis Mitchell -- one of the hottest tickets of this week's 16th annual Hamptons International Film Festival -- McDormand zinged the Republican party and laughed about a recent YouTube clip in which a goofily grinning Gunderson appears to interview a nervously babbling Palin. She also noted that the original script of "Fargo" had called for McDormand's character to attend an anti-abortion rally.
"We always found her scary," McDormand said. "Her world is so, so small. There's wonderful things about Marge, but they don't stand apart from her insular idea of the world."
But McDormand, a Yale-trained stage actress who's become best-known for daffy roles in comedies like "Raising Arizona" and "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day," also spoke about her career and offered a few surprising revelations. Dressed casually in jeans and a rumpled blouse, McDormand frankly admitted that she disliked her latest role as the ditsy Linda Litzke in the Coen Brothers' latest, "Burn After Reading."
"I didn't enjoy it, I didn't enjoy playing the character, I didn't enjoy seeing the character," she said, partly because she's been trying for years to play more flamboyant, action-oriented, even villainous characters like the one she played in the poorly received sci-fi flick "AEon Flux."
"I want to do big, theatrical action movies," the actress said, drawing chuckles from the audience. "Why are you laughing?"
The event marked a day that served as the height of the festival. Amy Redford (daughter of Robert) spoke to reporters at the Hunting Inn in East Hampton about her directorial debut "The Guitar"; director Rian Johnson, in town to support his upcoming release "The Brothers Bloom," starring Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel Weisz, visited the popular restaurant Nichol's; and a screening of the documentary "Dominick Dunne: After The Party" included an appearance by the author.
The festival ends Sunday night with an awards ceremony, a reception at the Bamboo Restaurant in East Hampton and an after-party at the Amagansett nightclub Stephen Talkhouse. -- Rafer Guzman
Photo: J. Conrad Williams Jr.
Comments (1)
Many women are laughing at France's little rant stating that Governor Palin is very similiar to Marge in Fargo.
Women's view of Marge in Fargo was that of a very intelligent woman, independent, as her husband was the wife. The fact that this woman who was very pregnant still got up and went to work everyday, focused clearly on her responsibilities, trooped through snow and was a determined woman to solve the crime. She was clever and we admired and respected her character.