Frances McDormand Has Everyone Talking At The 2021 Oscars
It is a fact that Frances McDormand is a great actress. Her lead actress win for "Nomadland" cemented her place in Hollywood history among the greats, as the only other performer after Katharine Hepburn to win three Oscars for Best Actress. While Meryl Streep has three Academy Award nods, too, one of those is for a best supporting role (via Twitter).
This year, McDormand made waves at the Academy Awards not just for winning a record Oscar, but for her off-the-wall speech when "Nomadland" also walked away with a win in the Best Picture category. The acclaimed actor chose to celebrate her movie's win by letting out what can only be described as a passionate howl. Even ABC tweeted: "Bet you didn't have Frances McDormand howling like a wolf in her Best Picture acceptance speech on your #Oscars bingo card."
In sum: "that entire show felt unreal....best director early in the night, final award recipient didn't even show up, glenn close shook her ass, frances mcdormand won an Oscar and barked...what the hell," a bemused Twitter user said.
There was a poignant reason behind McDormand's howl
While Hollywood might have been a bit nonplussed by the enthusiastic animal noise from a decorated actress, Twitter felt no such reserve, and they were appreciative of the actress' unique way of marking a win. "And thank you FRANCES MCDORMAND for the BEST ACCEPTANCE SPEECH of the night — and the FIRST Oscar acceptance speech ever given with a HOWL!!," one social media user said. "Ok but if you had asked me which Oscar winner was most likely to howl like a wolf while accepting an award, Frances McDormand would absolutely be in my number-one pick," another tweeted. A third said, "Frances McDormand also gets my vote for best howl and best dress and best sword."
One keyboard warrior had a likely explanation for McDormand's howl, which might well be one of the most poignant stories to come out of the awards. "She was honoring their departed sound tech, nicknamed Wolf, who died in 2020." Michel Wolf Snyder passed away last year, and at the time of his passing, McDormand issued a statement saying: "Wolf recorded our heart beats. Our every breath. For me, he is 'Nomadland'" (via Variety).