FLASH MOBSTER
Jason Schwartzman enters the surreal world of ‘Fargo’ in Season 4
JASON Schwartzman says that he’s a fan of “Fargo” — so working with series creator Noah Hawley on Season 4 was a huge plus.
“‘Fargo’ is my favorite show,” Schwartzman, 40, tells The Post. “I remember that I was in the middle of Season 2 and I was thinking to myself, ‘It’s amazing that this exists, that it gets to be made. It feels like it’s doing what it wants but it also doesn’t feel reckless — there’s a real point to this. I was impressed on an eerie level.”
“Fargo” returns to FX on Sunday after a three-and-a-half year hiatus, with Schwartzman and Chris Rock starring as
Josto Fadda and Loy Cannon, whose Kansas City crime syndicates form an uneasy alliance in 1950 and inevitably butt heads in their ongoing battle to win control of the city’s underworld. Hawley has stamped his singular trademarks into the series: dark, quirky, offbeat humor; colorful characters including an onthe-take cop with OCD; brutal violence; florid dialogue and, of course, weird names (including Swanee Capps, Dick Wickware, Thurman Smutney and Doctor Senator).
“I was thinking, ‘What does this guy have, an anagram machine?,’ ” Schwartzman says. “I swear to God, one of the first
things I did was write down the names and try to unscramble them to see if they were anagrams. They weren’t, but it’s really cool.” When viewers first meet Josto, he’s assuming a leadership role in the family after the death of his father, Donatello — but it’s not smooth sailing, especially when his younger brother, Gaetano (Salvatore Esposito), arrives from Italy. Schwartzman, says he’s aware of the parallels to “The Godfather” which resonate with him; his mother, Talia Shire, acted in the “Godfather” movies — directed his uncle, Francis Ford Coppola. “‘The Godfather’ struck me, but honestly, it was less about the Mafia or crime and more to do with power and the siblings,” he says. “I’m half-Italian and half Polish-Jewish and I know a lot about my Italian side,” he says. “Before we started shooting, I reached out to someone in my family I know has been archiving our history and I said, ‘What do you have?’ It really was an amazing experience to learn about my family … I was reading letters back and forth between my grandparents and my greatgrandfather and there are very old home movies … seeing my grandfather and his brothers and my great-grandmother and great-grandfather on a trip to Italy.” Schwartzman says Hawley didn’t give him too much information about Josto. “To be honest, I feel that he’s spoiled, maybe petulant. He’s pullling rank, like a kid kicking leaves on someone or pulling their suspenders. He’s not fully cooked before they take him out of the oven.
He’s too raw to be out there.”