Outside of McDormand, who also produced Nomadland, and David Strathairn, the majority of actors featured in the film are self-described “nomads” portraying slightly fictionalized versions of themselves.
The story of Frances McDormand’s Nomadland character, Fern, who travels the country in search of work after falling on hard times, is inspired by Jessica Bruder’s book, Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century.
Among these many unlikely movie stars are the 64-year-old Charlene Swankie, who revealed in an LA Times interview that she had never heard of her Oscar-winning co-star before she was cast, and Bob Wells, who runs a non-profit organization which helps newcomers to the nomadic lifestyle survive on the road.
The non-fiction book chronicles the journalist’s own experience among a group of middle-aged, unemployed “nomads” who emerged after the 2008 recession and still exists to this day. When Chloé Zhao stepped in to adapt the book into a film, she realized that including the people who define this culture were necessary to making it real.