New Delhi, Mar 25 (IANS): Actress Frances McDormand identifies and relates to many of her characters she has done throughout her career. The 63-year-old, who is up for an Oscar in the Best Actress category at the upcoming awards this year, related a lot with her character of Fern in the film, "Nomadland".

"I come from a working-class American background and those are the people who held and raised me," she told IANS, joking that she actually wanted to be like Fern, when she was in her "forties".

"I told my husband that when I turned 65 I was going to change my name to Fern, smoke Lucky Strikes, drink Wild Turkey and hit the road in an RV. So, I got to realise a bit of my fantasy, except that I rolled my own and drank tequila!" she added.

"(The film's story) dispelled all my romanticism about hitting the road in a van. It was a good slap in the face about the reality of the whole thing and explained exactly why so many people are drawn to that choice economically," she continued.

McDormand also credits the film's director, Chloe Zhao, and says that the Oscar-nominated director was instrumental in helping her play the character in the best possible way.

"She spent a lot of time with us in our homes, with us and our families. She watched us interact and interviewed us, in a way, about our lives. She crafted our characters and our film friendship from the truth of our lives. We all had to adjust and find a comfortable balance in our individual methods of working," said McDormand.

"Nomadland" releases in theatres on April 2.