Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Cast
Additionally, Amanda Warren portrays Mildred's friend Denise. Malaya Drew plays Gabriella, a local reporter, and Christopher Berry plays bar patron Tony. Jerry Winsett appears as Geoffrey, the dentist who has his thumb drilled by Mildred. Momma Dixon, Jason Dixon's mother, is portrayed by Sandy Martin). Nick Searcy makes an uncredited appearance as Father Montgomery.
Development
While traveling through the Southern United States c. 1998, Martin McDonagh came across a couple of accusatory billboards that alleged a woman named Kathy Page had been murdered by her husband Steve Page in Vidor, Texas, and highlighted the incompetence of the police in solving the case. McDonagh described the billboards, which he presumed had been put up by the victim's mother, as "raging and painful and tragic" and was deeply affected by them, saying the image "stayed in my mind [...] kept gnawing at me". This incident, combined with his desire to create strong female characters, inspired McDonagh to write the story for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. He said it took him about ten years to decide "it was a mother who had taken these things out. It all became fiction [...] based on a couple of actual billboards".
Casting
The character of Mildred was written with Frances McDormand in mind, and the character of Dixon was written specially for Sam Rockwell. McDormand initially felt she was older than the character as it was written and suggested Mildred be Angela's grandmother, rather than her mother, but McDonagh disagreed, feeling it would change the story too much, and eventually McDormand's husband Joel Coen persuaded her to take the part regardless.
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