(FX) "FARGO Season 5" panel - Jon Hamm, Juno Temple, Jennifer Jason Leigh

senior Hollywood correspondent for Vanity Fair please welcome Anthony [Applause] bresin oh it's so nice to see a full house thank you for joining us today for this screaming of Fargo season five the first episode it's here again for [Applause] that love the series from the beginning this season I think is especially strong and my wife could wait for the next episodes after watching one we got know mostly from SE really intense as you know and I just want I just want to watch the next one then I realized wait I'm the Press I have press streams finished the whole season in one night uh we stayed up till like 3: in the morning watching it but uh I I I couldn't wait then to uh to for the for the actual run to end so I can interview the Creator Noah Hall about it and talk to him the story share that with all the other fans we get to do that again here live with additional members of the cast so I'm going to begin by welcomeing executive producer warrenfield [Applause] lion Jennifer Jason Lee [Applause] Sheriff Roy till would love your vote John Ham Creator executive producer rer and director Noah [Applause] Hol and we have a a a final guest she is in I believe South Africa right shooting a film Judo Temple who played Dorothy DOL hi Jun hi what time is it there um it is currently 1:02 a.m. thank you for staying up and for joining us to to talk about Fargo season 5 no I want to start with you um the well we um we call it season five do you think of the seasons do they have sort of subtitles in your mind like what what would you call this one if it did well it's funny because FX always talks about installments um there's a different word every time we do it uh for what it is uh I don't think of them as Seasons CU obviously they're not necessarily connected or sequential in any way I just think of it as it's year five um and you know they it's what I like about the show is that you could watch it in in any order um and you could throw the movie in there as well and and you know there's a lot of people who haven't seen the film now they've seen the show and not the film to them I say watch the movie please um but uh yeah it's uh you know every time it's a different thing this season especially takes some cues from the movie um you have a variations on some of those thieves so you'll see a guy in a mask come up to a pave glass and uh the the story of the kidnapping of a wife is obviously the core of this season tell me about taking those familiar notes and adjusting them playing a different song with them yeah it's something that that we started doing early on which is to take a moment that's familiar to you from the movie Fargo or from another com Brothers movie uh say you know somebody walks somebody else out into the woods and they're begging for their life and you think oh it's Miller's Crossing um and then something else happens than what you've seen and so what's happening in your mind is you're both remembering something and discovering something at the same time and I always found that really interesting it's not an experience that I that I have much you know where where it's a way that you can set expectations and and I always try to make something that's unexpected so it's another tool that that we use Warren you've been with the show since its Inception what are some of the particular challenges of this season of Fargo to produce puppets um I had been in the sandbox with Noah for over 12 years and uh in April we hit the 10th anniversary of the premiere of the first Fargo so it's been kind of a wonderful Journey uh Noah had no gray whatsoever when we started um and and I I think this season you know we're dealing with a storyline that has at its core spousal abuse pretty heavy stuff and so what Noah was playing with was can that be a part of our world of Fargo can we expand who we are and where we live is in a world of intense drama and also wonderful humor and so can we be authentic can we tell that story and can we kind of expand our brand a little bit to play in this world Noah loves to test test us all and I think that that fuels all of us and the ultimate test was an episode with puppets can we deal with this story material um and all of it with these quite brilliant actors but then also get into the heart and soul of that through puppets and we were scared to death um uh and yet and yet it worked Noah why did you decide to do it that way the and do you guys all know the scet we're depicting some pretty horic violence the puppets help mute that in a way or make it a little more tolerable what was the reason for telling that part of the story in in that way well I'm always very sensitive to to the idea that I don't want to create fresh trauma right fresh trauma for actors uh or for or for viewers um you know so much of what we see in um you know a movie or a show that that shows racism has to engage in racism right in order to show it and I really didn't want to abuse the audience you know everyone loves Juno's character we know that what happened to her was horrific right there's a scene where where Roy goes and you know assaults her right and I'm with him for that the whole way for that walk up and then when he goes in and the door closes we hear the abuse but we don't see it because you don't need to see it right you know what's going on and then we go inside when it becomes a fight and then once she's fighting back and it's a fight then I feel like we we should watch it you know the thing with the puppets was I knew that I wanted to tell the story of what she'd been through but I didn't want to abuse poor Juno um for um just for the edification of the audience and also it's it's a Cohen brother's tone and what I've learned is that you can only go so far in each Direction you can't do farce otherwise the drama doesn't work and you can't go so far in the dramatic direction that it ifies the comedy because then then you just seem tonee and so you know it occurred to me that you know when children are abused they there's often a doll and they say show me on the doll where he hurt you right and that started that idea of well what if we did it as a puppet show and then the director syvan white we went through the design of of the puppets you know they he wanted I was interested in the marionettes I wanted to see their puppets and know their puppets he was like what if the mouths moved what if we puppet them from below I was like the more realistic it is it's even worse you know the whole point is you know puppets are how we tell stories to Children right and and that there's something about putting it into the into the puppet show format that I think allows the audience to actually watch it right and not to be doing this into a memory as well as opposed to some of the yeah and it's her story that she's telling and that's why you know Juno I was going to have the the actors voice their parts but Jun know had the idea to voice all of them which I thought was really brilliant so Juno Noah just said he didn't want to you know abuse you during the making of this show is that true cuz I watched this show feel like you go through quite a bit the um a lot of bisquit whipping actually that was um that was one that that one sequence early on where um yeah got to make Scotty her pancakes and my what off I was like wow wow yeah I'm almost whip but um no I mean I I think each day brought a challenge but also each day brought a absolute kind of magic Wonder too and I think um you know coming on to year five of Fargo you've seen all these incredible chapters before and um you know you can trust people you're working with and and I think Noah being at the helm of that is um somewhat NW wracking um but also truly kind of game changer if you've got you've got the Mind behind all the brilliant decisions and you just got to ask the questions and then trust in the leap right and I think also the cast that I I mean was in awe of and then figuring out moments and scenes all the people that that we got to you know create this chapter with was absolutely Monumental because I learned more about my character throughout scenes playing out when the camera was rolling in ways that I haven't experienced before actually on a job and and I think that was something that just felt exciting to come to work every day even when it was long days and hard hours and all of that it was like also you know I I've learned I can run and and I think um yeah it didn't feel like any of it was that it it felt like it was an incredible challenge that I just yeah wanted to not disappoint every day really I think the the one commonality between all the different installments of Fargo is that the whole show is like a kind of like an ice bath for the soul like it it brings Clarity looks like we just lost Juno she still she okay okay she can hear us um but it [Music] brings it's like polter guys like Juno go into the light that that would be T scary but the uh the show really brings the viewer a sense of clarity about what's right and what's wrong there are characters who walk a gra them but there are also many characters that are clearly in the wrong know they're in the wrong don't care and Juno's character your your character do is is such a warm heart of this series and you a viewer cares so much about her I cared so much about her I wanted to see her escape and do well and she's so tough and so resilient despite being petite and small and she's so Innovative Jun can you tell me about bringing that warmth to this character and and and making her so resilient and yet relatable and then yeah I mean I think F the Size Doesn't Matter right we're just going to stop the that that's but I think um a big part of of bringing do to life that Noah and I talked about a lot actually was The Duality that she had of this incredible ability to survive and to fight to get out of the situation to survive it but also she's a mother she's a nurturer and that's also very much part of her core and so in these moments where she's being more feral and more frightening and and and showing her ability to be able to fight and you know moments really hurt people um and that finding just a moment where you could throw in her nurture and her Instinct instinct to kind of take care of people was something that um was really exciting to discover actually and we found this moment early on in the in the gas station sequence with the torniquet with um this beat where she's been you know Scrappy and she's escaped this really horrific situation and she takes a moment to help wh with this tet and it was a moment that almost felt like it time slowed for a second um but then she doesn't have to have the validation from him afterwards it was something that she genuinely just wanted to pause and and then go and go back to her baby you know and I think at the core of the whole journey from when we meet her at the beginning of year five is that home and getting back to her daughter and to her husband are the most important part of her day and and because she's got to yeah she's got to make sure that Scotty gets her breakfast and and I think whenever you kind of felt lost in a kind of fight scene or a scrappy moment just always remembering and picturing Scotty and Wayne played by the extraordinary Sienna and David who they became like a safe word for me throughout the shoot and and I think they became like a real home and and I I I'm I'm so grateful for that because then as we go into the kind of second half of of this year suddenly I found myself not around them and to creating this real kind of close M family initially was something was really important for the rest of the the shoe for me and I really missed them you know and I did think about them a lot and that was something that um felt absolutely integral to Dot and and understanding who she is as a woman which is yeah she's a Survivor and she's a true natur um and what an amazing amazing woman she turned out to be you know I agree back screen is back I told wearing clothes I think I think sometimes as a a viewer the more a character cares about others the more you care about them um did you see that as a integral to her character though yeah I always want to create relationships and places that the audience feels safe from that um whether it's Patrick Wilson and Chris motti or you and and Mary you know or do and Wayne you know there's this this U you know Axiom that that conflict equals drama and and I think that's true but I don't think that means you have to have conflict everywhere right I think it's important to give people a place to be where people that they like and then of course if those people are in danger than than from people like John Ham uh then we were Roy right from Roy no you said that the character of Roy was really inspired by John's natural person yes the things that he says to me over dinner I can't repeat but John isn't isn't the opposite true for Roy here's this character who physically looks like the type of character that we're told is his father knows best he's like a combination of uh John Wayne and Optimus Prime like he he's big and strong and yet he doesn't I would say he doesn't care about anybody he uses even the people that you would think he loves the most uh until they're not of used to him and then discards them what's the key to creating that sense of Cruelty in this man unfortunately there's not not a single person I can think of in the current climate that would anybody so I had to go in all um no you you you're right and and it's a it's a cautionary tale obviously you know this is the person who you and I think it's it's it's made this way on purpose that looks and represents completely you know looks a certain way and then is unfortunately the opposite of that this is you're exactly right at identifying it it's it's the ogre under the bridge except it's in the it's in the clothes of somebody who's respectful respectable um and has way too much power and way too little checks on that power um here we are in a time where that seems to resonate even more um clearly um and you know it was it was important I think for the story for the audience for everybody that that these two parallel tracks are running from Juno's character and my character running very parallel for a long time which is just ratchets up the tension until those trains eventually the the tracks cross and they smash into each other with obviously as most of you probably seen very violent results um and big thing we talked about too and sort of resolving that conflict was that this guy cannot win if this guy wins that says something very bad and dark about us and um and he doesn't win and it's a good good thing that he doesn't with um because that is behavior that is deplorable and should not be rewarded uh it's it's unsustainable it's it's sustainable if you're if you're the master of your domain in a very small part of South Dakota for a little while but it's not sustainable for long I think that the to me the character he he gets away with these things just by force of will like he's willing to do things that people can't fathom and I I think that's uh that often the way we are as individuals it shapes how we assume other people are if you're a fundamentally good person you well you either sign on for the social contract or you don't right so exactly there's a moment in there's a couple moments where you go well he's not going to shoot oh [ __ ] he shot that guy dead not in the arm um and that's a huge break in the social contract most of us when we sit down and want to talk about something or argue about something think he probably's not going to shoot me dead uh and that's that's on the table for Roy um and that's crazy that's not how we should live in this society and I think that's why he was uh brought down but I think that's also what's so satisfying in in the scenes you have with Jennifer is is you know who puts who in their place yeah anticipated the next question which was I'd love to talk about your scenes together uh you have two really strong ones where he comes to your home and thinks he's going to bulldoze this little lady and another when he's Behind Bars and still thinks he's on top and she indicates that uh she's got plans for him tell me about that first scene well I have to say that they were so the scenes were so much fun to play with John the dialogue is so delicious and it was like for Lorraine it was almost like going into like a warm bath it was like this is her happy place does it take also really long scenes which you don't really see much anymore in television they were six and seven page scenes which were you know these little playlists that we got to do and I like most of you have been watching Jennifer work at the very top of the and it's a great pleasure to get to work at that for that length of time on something this well thought out and constructed and then to to play with it and so it was a it was it was a warm bath for Roy too as all I'm trying to say so Ro likes his warm I like a bath like a bath she she has a she has I mean she's not the uh she's not the Beating Heart of the series she has some cold aspects to her too and I think you could has a chilliness but she also has a wit and I do think at the beginning when I first when I read the first episode it was like o a villain how delicious how fun and then as it went on it's like no she's not at all like she actually does have a a very big heart and maybe her maybe how she parents isn't ideal but Wayne is a really good guy he's a sweet man she did something right she did something right and I think when she discovers when she really discovers who dot is at first she's horrified because she's dealing with an animal and not she she really thinks that God is beneath her son and is really just using her family um and then they have that scene together and she realized she ped her wrong and that doesn't happen for Lorraine a lot Lorraine can sum someone up in about 3 seconds and she's almost always right this might be one of the first times where she's not right and that scene was so so much fun and so um it really sets a fire under Lorraine because she she can't trust her at all um and she can't trust her own sense of summing someone up and figuring out who they are um but then when she sort of sees everything that doc went through she's she cares enormously and um I think we also discover that Lorraine probably had to go through a lot in her life and she can sort of see her miror image thought in a way that she never appreciated or understood before um and I think you want Lorraine in your corner um she would be a good person to have in your corner if you if you needed someone in your corner I think well unlike Roy she has honor I think and she believes in rules yeah that's would be where the one of the big differences between them yeah she's also a lot smarter than as written by no and Roar is but if you also think about I mean the show is is always very much an expiration of capitalism on some level and if you think about how capitalism works and who works for who in this situation it's never her the billionaire working for the Rancher it's always the Rancher working for the billionaire and he just can't see that you know Jo I'd love to hear your thoughts on working those early scenes with Jennifer where uh line is keeping Dot arms length and looking down at her versus when they finally have their sort of I don't know unification moment a Moment of clarity together it like playing the difference those two different moments I mean again just what a thing to get to play with J Jas andly at all I mean true uh from an actor standpoint one of the greatest six months of my life getting to do that but the starting scene I remember the first scene we shot with jifa was actually the dinner scene at in uh I think it's in the first episode and um remember feeling wow this is this is two jungle cats wild cats that are really sizing each other up she was extraordinarily freeline with her judgment that felt really intoxicating and really scary and then getting to kind of play with the idea of not being allowed to be a lion because obviously she wasn't interested in dot genuinely being a part of the lion pride um and so having to kind of play it out from a different cat perspective which ultimately turns out to be like a tiger um and we had a lot of fun with playing with those early scenes of being kind of really caty with each other and picking and choosing the moments to really kind of let it your claws and and hair stand up on end but that only really kind of is fun if you create a level of trust between two people right and and I think that was something that was really special uh too for me is getting to hang out and spend time with Jennifer in a way that we felt really safe going to go to work and play with each other like that and then you know the conversation did wow it would be really lovely if there was a moment by THS and has a nice moment with do and maybe they could be family and when that sequence came of having the phone call with lorine where she finally calls do her daughter um it that for me was one of those kind of magic moments of filming where you forget camera's rolling and it felt really really moving and really powerful and gave dot so much strength to get out of the situation that she's in because I think she so deeply has wanted a mother for her whole life that was able to be a mother to her and so it's funny how things like that the things that you want the most come to you at the strangest moments in your life and I thought this was such a great um exploration of that that side of Being Human J but so it's Gino is so um extra ordinarily giving and the day that she shot the images that I see later on of the abuse that she went through um she wouldn't see me I was kept very far away um I had no idea what it would look like anything she just wanted it to be very very real for me and I I that made the scene for me um because the pictures the makeup artist did a brilliant job but Juno it felt so real and I've seen photos like that um and there was no I didn't feel there was any acting there was no it was just very naked very brutal and it really brought it home to me and it was so was such a it was such a moving thing to me for for me that you know went to that extreme for me I mean we spent so much time together and I did love her so much so I was so excited just to have that that scene where I do get to hug her and when I do get to call her my child because all through it Noah wrote All These Times where it's like you're not my daughter you know it so so clear and we just had this incredible Bond I I I yeah so it's nice to be able to play that and Juno is just so Fierce so you can believe it I I kind of believe every single moment when you think she's just using my son I believe that and when it was just so easy as Lorraine to have all the assumptions and then have them all blown away another Hallmark of Fargo is the uh the dialect voices and the actors uh and I'd like to talk to you three about how you found the voice for your character and we start with you Jennifer Noah told me that he told you I think she comes from somewhere else she isn't a native where um what did you take from that or how did you find well we talked a lot about um William F Buckley um for attitude and politics and and um all the rest of it and um so I think she's self-created a little bit um with her certainly with her vocal patterns and it's a way to it's like if You' ever met someone who's I don't know some some Brits will not you know but there's a certain like British accent that's very intimidating you know and I think when I watched William F Buckley um um oh my God why is the name of that his show is something right now FY line yes oh my God I watched probably 80 episodes of f um it's intimidating you know and he it's it's his vocal patterns it's the register it's also how he he looks down at everyone even if he's sunk and sunk and low in the chair he still like raises looking down so there was that just like yeah so that's where we went with that which which is very very different than the sound of Fargo but um yeah it was sort of a crazy RIS do you know how about you the the voice of dot where did it come from what did you study to to get that musical Midwestern American accent Li Hamil the dialect coach of all dialect coaches she started working with me about 6 weeks before um I got to Calgary and um um it was one of those moments where the apartment I was living in in London with my partner it was uh key Jones Juno and the birth of do all happening at once there's a lot of different noices in the apartment um but I think that accent is so so intimidating when you start because it feels so alien and it feels kind of like a joke but it's really not actually you know and and I think I I remember Liz telling me that the two prostitutes in the movie Fargo are the actual two women in the whole movie that are actually from Minnesota I believe they're from Big Lake actually and so when you listen to them and and you think oh if I'm trying to be over the top you're not but when you figure out the accent and it clicks Suddenly It's This Magic Moment and I wanted to do it everywhere so I remember when we got to the airport I was actually Jing out in the airport and I tried to stay in the accent to when we were filming because that if you don't start getting self-conscious then even if you slip up during a tape you don't ruin the whole tape for everybody and it was such an important part of do because that musical rhythm is what is is a huge part of the humor with the show and the Minnesota nice and that kind of attitude is really brings the likeness in the hum otherwise it's really Fu up story you know and and I think especially because it's there was a a past with do and to In This Moment which we talked about quite early on Noah right with are we going to shift the accent and I thought that was a really interesting thing to play with too how different you feel when you suddenly lose an accent like the Minnesota one and you do feel different it feels um immediately A Little Less warm from my from my perspective with doll and um yeah it was one that uh I really enjoyed and I actually found it at night I would find it quite difficult to let go of the accent that would it would kind of trickle out as I got into a bar and English and Minnesota still be happening um but it also helps with the dialogue you know it's written for that kind of an accent and when you start really figuring it out and you start learning your lines it becomes this incredible dance that your tongue has to figure out it's pretty awesome the John the uh the voice of of Roy uh do you it doesn't seem like you're doing such a different accent from your own is there a change to the Cadence or uh something you're doing that's a little more it was it was definitely a decision to not do you know the sort traditional minota kind of vibe um and I many conversations as well with with the dial Coach we thought you know the the South Dakota part of and the person who lives outside it's it's much less expressive in in the L and the chipper of it and so you know when he would just sit there and talk to he's got everything's very you don't want to move too much in your mouth doesn't really have to move a lot because you don't have to do it because it's [ __ ] cold sa all the energy I can and it's going and there's there's examples of this of these these guys who just they're No Nonsense they they're right to the point and it represents in how they speak the same way that Jennifer say what Judo say there's something there that and and it sets up a nice dichotomy to to to what we've were were expecting and what we're used to seeing um and and it was fun you know it was very fun to find that to find that sound I also got the sense that there was a lot more to him than just a provincial local guy even when we see you with your shirt off and you've got the piercings like oh this guy something else is going on here he has Hobbies we all have hobbies and we we only have them all here today but I wanted to talk about um one of the actors who so stands out from this season that's Sam spru was old L I was not familiar with before this but I thought he was amazing and you all have some pretty intense scenes with him tell me about shaping that character with you though well Sam I had seen um he was in one of the installments of small acts um and he was just so captivating and and he was playing such an awful person and yet there's something vulnerable about him always and and I felt like that was really important and you know God bless Sam for being willing to cut his hair like that and you know to really the great joke that John as Roy gets to say is that what do you say like a dress just like haircut yeah yeah but you know he took the project so seriously of this man who is hundreds of years old who who probably doesn't own anything if he needs a gun he'll find a gun and you know that process with Sam of like like even lighting a cigarette when he when when when Joe K's walking him outside he's like well I wouldn't own any cigarettes so we should find one on the ground right and and and when he comes up on the porch he's like I don't know that I would have a ski mask it would be more like he found a sack and he cut eye holes in it and so that's what we did and that was that was sort of coming all came out of this dialogue that that that we ran and I think you know it's even creepier that he's wearing this burlap sack over his head than than just a SK [ __ ] but but you know it's I mean I've I've rarely seen um I mean the the the pivotal Junction for him at the very end you know of that that smile and the biscuit and and and the act of forgiveness that that's in in process you know it's it's truly one of the profoundly moving um actor moments that that I that I've encountered and and you know it's it's a journey to take a guy from being that scary you know to being that um heartbreaking really and and uh yeah he's he's tremendous Talent you know the other thing I would say is Sam was so invested in in getting that role he auditioned he went on tape his mom was the other side of the reading um and um and it was an actor who put themselves out there and we just sat there and we looked at the tape along with Rachel tener who's done all the casting for all the seasons of floro and put himself out there and we were smart enough to say that's our guy thank you guys so much for being here thanks for joining thank you Jun for staying up late let me get some rest you know Temple [Applause]