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 "Fargo," which debuts as a 10-episode limited-run series on
April 15 on Twenty-First Century Fox Inc's FX cable network,
re-imagines the film from directors Joel and Ethan Coen with new
characters and plot but the same doses of frigid Minnesota
winters and Midwestern folksiness.
In between puffs from his cigarette, the 58-year-old Oscar
winner (best adapted screenplay for 1996's "Sling Blade") spoke
to Reuters about his character and how television has begun to
trump film as the best storytelling format.
Q: Your character, Lorne Malvo, has no past, roots or issues,
murdering on a whim. How do you begin to tap into his thinking?
A: The psychology is like the same psychology an alligator would
have. ... So whatever I have to do in order to eat, that's what
I'll do. He really doesn't have a conscience. I don't think I've
ever played a character who hasn't had a conscience whatsoever,
and what's interesting about this conscience-less character —
and a guy whose psychology is like an eating machine — there's a
greed or a gluttony, but that's all that exists.
Q: The soft-spoken "Minnesota Nice" stereotype is crucial to the
repressed emotions of characters in both "Fargo" the series and
the film. What makes that ripe for character development?
A: It's a different kind of society. I think the reason we're
fascinated by that world is because Americans by nature are very
passionate, edgy, crazy kind of people. ... That northern
Midwest is its own animal. There's no place like that in
America. We look at them like, 'How do these people talk about
suicides like they're going to the grocery store?'
Q: Like the popularity of FX's "American Horror Story" and HBO's
"True Detective," limited-run series have earned critical
acclaim and also made TV an appeal venue for Hollywood actors.
Did you consider that when you signed up for "Fargo"?
A: I never thought about it much because when I was coming up,
the guys that I came up with — Bill Paxton, Bruce Willis and
Dennis Quaid — we all used to say about guys we knew, like in
the '80s, they were going to do a TV movie, and ... it's like
his career is over. Next stop is (TV celebrity gameshow)
'Hollywood Squares.'
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So we had a different viewpoint about television and a whole
different perception of it, and it was true. Now, it sort of crept
up on me. I sort of felt that way up until three or four years ago,
because I wasn't really clued in. I don't keep up. I live my life in
a very secluded way. ... All of a sudden, the higher-budget
independent films, or the mid-level budget studio movies — the
$20-25 million studio movies — and that's where I lived ... there
was no place for me.
Q: How do you believe television will help your career?
A: I'm influenced as a writer by Southern novelists. That's the kind
of movies I do as a writer-director. ... So my career as a
writer-director is probably over. And so I started thinking, 'What
do you do?' All that stuff's gone, and then when I started studying
television and getting into it, I realized, 'OK, that's where it
went.' All of a sudden the bottom fell out of that (film) world, so
somebody had the great idea, which is 'Let's do 10-hour independent
films on television.'
Q: Do you think Hollywood will take notice of that?
A: You know, you can't make a three-and-a-half hour movie. That
attention span is gone for theaters. So what about making 'Gone with
the Wind' kind of movies that have intermissions and put them on
television? That way, a guy like me, who always gets his ass handed
to him by the critics for having a movie that's too slow and too
long ... won't be too slow and too long for television. Pee anytime
you want. Make a cheeseburger, anything you want to do."
(Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy and Ken Wills)
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