The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
‘Fargo’ doubles down on Ewan McGregor
Third season of acclaimed FX series sees actor portraying brothers
In October, Noah Hawley met with Ewan McGregor to talk about the third season of FX’s “Fargo.”
As in the first two, Hawley created an entirely new storyline for the year. McGregor plays two parts, Ray and Emmit Stussy, brothers who really don’t like each other. The older of the two, Emmit, is wealthy and respected. He’s known as “The Parking Lot King of Minnesota.”
On the other hand, Ray is in debt, an overweight parole officer with an awful haircut.
Having just finished “T2 Trainspotting,” the actor says he was “probably in the best shape of my life” when he sat down with Hawley. “I had always been a runner but I became obsessively so,” he says, crediting old friend and co-star in the film Jonny Lee Miller, an ultra-marathoner.
During the meeting, Hawley and the actor began discussing how Ray needed to be heavier.
“I suggested that maybe we use a prosthetic piece under my chin and around my neck to give me some weight,” McGregor remembers. “And he just looked at me — took his time — and he says, ‘Ewan, you need to put on weight.’
“So at that point, I ordered a massive dessert. I started putting on weight from that second onwards. I would eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. I made sure I ate carbs with everything and french fries with everything. I didn’t have any technique besides eating a lot.”
The 46-year-old Scottish actor doesn’t know how much he gained, only that “I couldn’t get into any of my trousers anymore. I went and bought three pairs of Levis with waistbands three inches larger than I usually wear.”
One of the reasons he had to gain the weight was a scene in the first episode where Ray is naked in the bathtub with his girlfriend Nikki Swango (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who is also one of his parolees.
“So when I get out, I look pretty overweight for me,” he says, adding, “I wasn’t really comfortable with the extra weight.”
“Fargo” was inspired by the 1996 Coen brothers’ movie of the same name, but it has nothing to do with the original film except to inhabit the same Minnesota weirdness. (Conversely, the Coens have nothing to do with the series, though they are listed as executive producers.)
This season opens in 1988 in East Berlin — no, not some unusually named Midwest town, the actual one in Germany — before jumping into the real story in 2010.
It’s Emmit’s 25th wedding anniversary with his wife, Stella (Linda Kash), and Ray and Nikki are looking decidedly out of place at the lavish bash. It’s then when Emmit’s right-hand man, Sy (Michael Stuhlbarg), summons Ray to a meeting with his brother.
Turns out Ray had inherited some valuable stamps but traded them to Emmit for a Corvette. Ray is still driving the now brokendown sports car, but the stamps have appreciated in value. Emmit and Sy have used them as collateral in a shady deal involving an erudite but nasty Brit named V.M. Varga (David Thewlis). He has his own agenda.
Meanwhile, Nikki just wants Ray — who feels he was cheated by his brother in the deal — to get his due, and as in all “Fargo” seasons, the plots thicken. These shenanigans draw the attention of the local police chief, Gloria Burgle (Carrie Coon).
McGregor has played dual characters before — “The Island” and “Last Days in the Desert” — but the characters were somewhat the same.
“I was fascinated with Ray and Emmit because they are not twins,” say the actor, who admitted he wasn’t exactly sure how he was going to make the characters seem different — other than the looks — until he got to Calgary, where the series is shot. It’s filming until May 5.
“I trusted my instincts would kick in once I got into the makeup and costume,” says McGregor, whose days can get hectic when he has to be both Emmit and Ray.
Being on “Fargo” also meant mastering a Minnesota accent.
“It’s probably quite difficult for an American person, but for a British person it’s even more complicated because a lot of the sounds are quite Scottish, and that can lead me to think I’m getting it wrong,” says the actor.
Complicate that with the fact that McGregor has to sound like two Minnesotans.
“The voices are similar because they’re brothers,” he says, “but they, hopefully, do sound like two different people.”
So now that you know that McGregor actually had to put on pounds to play Ray, you may be wondering how he was able to look like the trim Emmit in the opening episodes.
“I wear a Spanx T-shirt when I play Emmit,” he admits. “It’s a really unbelievably effective T-shirt, but I needed help getting into it and help getting out of it.”