„Nomadland“ is streaming now on Hulu, meaning viewers can finally see the Oscar-tipped movie for themselves and learn the true stories of some of the urban nomads in the film.
Nomadland has spent the last few months racking up awards, with the central performance of Frances McDormand as a woman who goes out on the road after her husband died. Apart from McDormand, however, nearly everyone in the film (which is streaming now on Hulu) is a real person, playing a fictionalized version of themselves. This is one of the many layers of true stories that combine to make the fictional Nomadland. As well as featuring people playing themselves, the film is also based on a non-fiction book by author Jessica Bruder, which depicts a group of mostly older people who have taken to the road to take up seasonal jobs following the Great Recession of the late 2000s. Having real people play themselves has been central to Nomadland director Chloe Zhao’s previous movies too (though this will probably not be the case with her upcoming Marvel film Eternals). In her previous movie The Rider, which was the film that persuaded McDormand to hire Zhao, for example, real-life rodeo star Brady Jandreau recreated his own story, which saw his career come to an end after a bronco stomped on his skull after Brady was thrown. In Nomadland, however, her cast of real-life characters is deeper than ever before, with nearly all of the characters Fern (McDormand) meets along the way being played by real people. In one scene, for example, Fern stumbles upon videos by Bob Wells, the founder of the CheapRVliving YouTube account that details how people can embrace a van-dwelling nomadic lifestyle. Wells is very much a real figure—you can visit his YouTube page now and see the videos that Fern watches in the movie. Wells‘ Rubber Tramp Rendezvous that Fern visits to better understand nomadic life is a real event in Quartzsite, Arizona.
