Frances McDormand: She's gotta have it

Frances McDormand pops up in a new documentary about the lack of roles for older women. But, she tells Fiona Morrow in Cannes, she's more than happy with her latest part - as a swinging hippie mum

Frances McDormand jumps up and announces that she has to pee. She's in Cannes to promote Laurel Canyon, Lisa Cholodenko's follow-up to her much admired directorial debut, High Art. With her long, streaked hair pulled back in a ponytail, and wearing a washed-out AC/DC T-shirt and jeans, McDormand's isn't the usual movie-star image. "Yeah, but that's because she's really sexy," laughs Cholodenko from across the room. "She knows she's hot."

And why wouldn't she? She works with some of the most interesting directors around – Robert Altman, Ken Loach, Curtis Hanson – including, of course, hubby Joel Coen; and she played the best female character to be seen on screen in years – Fargo's Marge Gunderson – winning an Oscar for her trouble.

In Laurel Canyon, McDormand plays Jane, a 45-year-old hippie record producer whose 29-year-old stuffed-shirt of a son, Sam (Christian Bale), brings his control-freak fiancée, Alex (Kate Beckinsale) to stay. To Sam's horror, Mom is shacked up with a twentysomething rock star (Alessandro Nivola). Needless to say, there's plenty of sexual tension stirred into the mix – every which way.

"Usually the whole older woman/ younger guy thing is played out as revolting," McDormand proffers, pulling a face. She leans back, stretches her arms out wide and grins: "I think we made a pretty good couple, don't you?"

Oh, yes. Nevertheless, the scenario wasn't the initial draw for her. "About a year-and-a-half ago, I decided that I wanted to try nudity. I knew that was a challenge I wanted to have," she explains with a smile. "And though it's not necessarily that full-on in the movie, I was nude a lot during the shooting of it, and it was about a certain physical liberation for myself as an actress."

There aren't many of us who would relish the prospect of disrobing in the vicinity of someone as lithe as Kate Beckinsale, but McDormand shrugs it off: "I didn't start working out more or anything – I actually feel more secure about my body now than I did when I was younger."

"I did go to a tanning shop," she admits. "Firstly, I wanted to get that California-skin thing happening and also, cellulite looks better when it's tanned, you know, and it just made me feel better." She pauses to light up a cigarette, takes a long drag, and then adds: "But there's only so much you can do after a while. That's what's so great about being 45 – you can't lift enough weights to get rid of this" – she pokes at her upper arm – "it's just not going to happen. So what are you gonna do? Wear long sleeves for the rest of your life?"

A worried look crosses her face when I mention her part in Rosanna Arquette's documentary, Searching For Debra Winger, which was screened in Cannes earlier in the week, and which questions the job opportunities available for the more mature Hollywood actress. "I haven't seen it – only the bit that I'm in," she says, stubbing out her fag. "I'll tell you a story about that. Last year, when Joel and I were here, we were having dinner, I went to the bathroom and there she was with a video camera in my face." McDormand raises her eyebrows: "And I was drunk – and she started asking me questions. So, when I got this call asking me to sign a release I was like 'Whoa – hold on a minute.'"

For McDormand, splitting the sisterhood into age groups is a mistake: "Female stories aren't well represented in cinema, period," she says emphatically. "We shouldn't be cutting up the crowd – we need to stick together on this one."

"I was talking to a woman who used the term 'self-sufficient'," she continues. "And yes, my feminist training taught me that that was the goal – to be a self-sufficient woman. But I'm not sure that it's a positive aspiration. I think it's a miscalculation – it's a male goal. I don't want to be self-sufficient. I don't want to do it by myself – I want to go 'Has this ever happened to you?' And that was the case from the moment that biologically I became a woman. I needed someone to say it had happened to them too – that scary, strange thing of blood – because you feel so alone. It's so huge.

"We need more young female writers," she suggests, lighter half way towards the cigarette dangling from the side of her mouth. "Lisa's characters are complex and layered – both the male and female parts – which is not always the case with male writers. I think it's because that's the way women tell stories – we're interested in all the angles."

Laurel Canyon's Jane is the flipside of the mother McDormand played in Cameron Crowe's rock movie Almost Famous, having pretty much left Sam to bring himself up. "I think it's great to see a mother on screen who isn't perfect. Mothers are not saints – they're not just abusive and they're not just good at it; it's a really hard job. My son, Pedro, is seven, and daily I am aware that I could be really messing something up that's irreparable." She pauses, gives her ponytail a tug and adds: "In the most well-meaning way, of course. But that's the horror of it.

"Yet I chose to become a parent – I couldn't wait – and every single one of the seven years has confirmed the complete fate of our family meeting. And it was about becoming a family, it wasn't just about becoming a mother."

Striking the balance between work and family didn't come easy at first. "I took a year off when Pedro was a toddler because I wanted to be around. I tried it and it wasn't any good for any of us. There's too much of my life that's involved with my work – I couldn't find anything to replicate it."

And she's planning on working for a while to come yet. "I've avoided anything other than acting so far, but I'm rightly advised to take a look at developing, as my plan is to put in another 40 years before I'm done." She tugs the ponytail again and gives a little grimace: "Though I'm worried that if I take something on that's going to take two years to get off the ground, by the time it gets started, I'll just be completely over it. I don't have that patience."

In Laurel Canyon, McDormand suggests, she wound up playing a character who has come the closest to her own personality. "Originally I don't think Lisa meant Jane to be such a hippie, but that's me, kind of crunchy," she explains. "I would have loved to look like Patti Smith, but that ain't gonna happen with me," she adds, laughing. "So in the end – literally, because I wore my own clothes, but also figuratively – there was less skin between my skin and hers than in anything I have ever played."

And what's next? "I don't know," she smiles. "But I'm thinking big skirt, wig, talking in paragraphs, not swearing once – that's the kind of idea."