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Thanks to an ongoing pandemic, the RTR has gone digital.
(We cant put 10,000 people from all across the country in one spot, Wells explains.
Its all outdoors, but its still that would be unreasonable.)
It was probably in 18 or maybe late 2017.
The book had come out and was very, very popular.
And the word got around that it had been optioned.
In fact, my friend Sue Ann was at Linda Mays when Chloe was there.
That was the first introduction that Id heard about it.
I believe it was late 2017.
I could be wrong.
I dont know dates very well.
Chloe contacted me directly at some point.
What was it like when they approached you?
Hey, do you want to be in a movie?Surreal, of course.
How can you describe it?
Very surreal, very bizarre.
I always took the attitude, Well, lets just see.
This is the attitude I took right until I actually saw the screening a few months ago.
Youre very much in the movie.
I mean, youre essential to the ending.
So how was the role described to you?
I knew her style.
So based on her first two ventures, I knew basically what was coming.
I knew it would be a fictionalized story, which it was.
It really doesnt follow much at all withNomadland.
But its still very true to the spirit.
I thought there was a good chance I was just going to play myself.
How did you prepare for your scenes?
When you are addressing the crowd at the RTR, is that your normal spiel?Absolutely.
That was just me talking.
I was teaching seven or eight, nine classes, every RTR for ten years.
So standing up you wind me up, and Im a doll.
You just wind me up, and I start talking and do my thing.
What you saw at the RTR was just one of those things.
If she gave me a topic, I could just go on and start talking.
We shot a lot that day and a few seconds of it made it into the movie.
But I talked a lot of my standard spiel.
She just picked the parts that were useful to her.
Were you ever given a script?
And it was very, very hard for me.
Ive never had a particularly good memory, and now that Im older, its poor.
I mean, my memory is well into the poor range.
So I was never really able to fully memorize it exactly how she wanted it, I dont think.
But I guess it was close enough, because she got what she needed.
Working with Frances was a life-changing experience.
I almost have to say we time traveled.
She created a story, and I entered it.
She created a world that I entered into and felt and lived.
And I could be me and respond in that world, because it was real.
It wasnt words I was saying on a script.
It was a world I was living.
And the story I told about my son was true.
I mean, those were my experiences.
And so, it was easy to find [the words], because theyre me.
Was that something you had known you were going to talk about?
It pulls up some really personal pain thats clear onscreen.No.
It is something I have never talked about.
Before the movie, there were 20 people in the world Ive ever talked to about it.
Chloe knew nothing about it.
About two, three days before the scene, she came in and I told her.
That was the first time she knew anything about my son.
And of course, she asked if I would be willing to share that.
It was a gift to my sons life and of my life to the movie.
Do you remember what it was like to shoot that scene?It was kind of odd at first.
But then after that time, I couldnt do it again.
I couldnt find that deep connection again.
But she had that.
I dont think that makes it on the screen.
She didnt get a lot of what we shot on the screen.
It was probably just too much.
Once that initial release was over, then it became work.
What you say is so beautiful.
Its really the story of Ferns grief and many other peoples.
Swankie talks about her grief, her losing her life.
And at one point, Linda May talks about being prepared to take her own life.
I mean, thats kind of the ultimate in grief.
I was ready to take my own life at one point.
I think thats why a lot of us are out here.
Were recovering through a life of grief and loss.
Sometimes its economic necessity.
Sometimes its emotional needs.
Do you feel like this is an accurate portrayal of the nomadic community?Yeah.
You have the young people, and thats becoming more and more common.
The van-life people?Theyre not chasing healing from grief.
Thats not yet part of their journey.
That is really how I would describe it an inoculation.
Its coming to all of our lives.
But for most young people, they havent experienced it yet.
So, yeah, I think theres just healing.
I think that is really the true story, even if we dont know the story.
When did you first see the finished film?At the screening in Pasadena, in L.A.
The Telluride Film Festival put on a screening there, and they brought in most all of us.
Swankie was there, Linda May was there, I was there.
All the unique little details the scene where Frances goes to the bathroom in the van.
I couldnt believe they put that in there, but thats real life.
I have gone to the bathroom a million times in my van.
So, that wasnt anything to me.
But it was also kind of shocking, Im sure, to the whole world.
Yeah, I thought it was very, very true to nomadic living.
They caught it completely.
Its dark, because grief is dark.
And [Nomadlandauthor] Jessica Bruder kind of left the book in the darkness.
But I think the movie shows she comes through to the light on the other end.
She wouldnt give up being a nomad for anything.
How did I slip into this alternate universe?
Theres no one more average than me or less deserving than me.
I dont know what that force is, but it seems to be pretty successful.
And this is where its led.
I had nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with it.
And who knows whats next?
