Why did Martin Freeman choose Fargo as his American television debut? He talked about this and more on a conference call interview with members of the press including Hypable.
Martin Freeman will star as Lester Nygaard, one of the leads of Fargo, a limited TV series adaptation of the film of the same name from Joel and Ethan Coen. The series won’t follow the same exact plot as the modern classic film, but it will have the same feel. It’s currently only set for a one season limited series run, but it has been rumored that FX will continue the series with a new cast and story each year, much like HBO’s True Detective.
Fargo will be Freeman’s first appearance on American television, and that’s not by accident.
“I think my general outlook on life is that things should be finite and things are finite,” Freeman told us. “You know, we all die. Everything ends. And so for me the idea of things going on and on and on, I don’t always find very attractive. But, you know, if it’s a show that I love and it keeps going on and it retains its quality then I’m delighted to be a viewer of it.
“But I’ve never done things that have gone on and on. Sherlock is a finite job. We spend a limited time of the year doing that. It’s not even every year. The Office was 14 episodes totally by design because precisely of what I’m talking about, the attitude of retaining quality and leaving people wanting more rather than leaving people wanting less.
“This 10 episodes was kind of a clincher for me. When my agent sent it to me it was with the understanding that she said, ‘you know, you don’t go out for American TV because you don’t want to sign on for something for six or seven years, but this is 10 episodes. See what you think.’
“So, that was a big attraction. And then I read it, of course, and thought, well, man, this is going to take up four or five months of my life rather than seven years and I’m in. I like moving on, I like going on to the next thing. I like having something else to look forward to as well. And I do have a low boiling pressure. I just want to do other things. I want to do other stuff. I think that’s basically why it is and I want to leave something, hopefully, leave something behind that people go, ‘oh, that was great,’ as opposed to,’ oh, why did they carry on with this? It was good for the first three seasons and then it all went wrong.’
“I’m well aware that some things don’t go wrong after three seasons. Some of my favorite things are fantastic for a long time. But, yeah, for me personally, I like the hit and run approach. I love doing this for a bit and then doing something else for a bit and then doing something else for a bit. That’s the way I’m hardwired I think.”
Freeman also discussed what made him decide on Fargo specifically.
“Well, just the fact that it’s well written. The script itself is well written, the whole thing, the whole first episode, which is what I based my decision on. It was a lovely episode. And with ‘Lester’ I just got the feeling that this was going to be a role where you could give rein to a lot of stuff, to play a lot of stuff.
“And even within that first episode the range that he goes between is really interesting and so I knew that was only going to grow and expand in the next nine episodes, and so it proved to be. In all the 10 episodes I get to play as “Lester” pretty much the whole gamut of human existence and human feeling, you know, he does the whole lot.
Freeman also discussed why people should watch Fargo, including those who have seen the original film and those who haven’t.
“I think if people like well-written, well-directed, hopefully, well-acted drama, then they will like Fargo. I don’t really know what makes it unique. There aren’t many things set in Minnesota. Maybe it’s that. There are not many things that use a classic modern movie as a jumping off point and maybe it’s that.
“I guess people who loved the film Fargo may love us or they may hate us. I think it’ll split people one way or the other. But I do hope and I sort of believe that if people come to it with an open mind, within 10 minutes you’re no longer thinking about the 1996 film. I think you are, sort of my experience of how people have reacted, they’re pretty engrossed in the world that we’ve created.
“So, I don’t know what makes it unique, but I do know what makes it good and that starts, as all good things do, with a script and it’s beautifully shot. And, if I say so myself, not including myself, but it’s fantastically cast. I think the cast across the board is phenomenal. So, yeah, I don’t know whether that’s unique, but I do know it’s good.”
By this point in his career, Freeman has done a lot of adaptations. Along with Fargo he’s jumped into existing worlds like Sherlock and The Hobbit, among others. He talked about whether or not there’s something specifically that attracts him to preestablished worlds.
“I have done a lot of adaptations of sort of stuff that is already literature, you know, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which is a series of beloved books on television and radio and with Sherlock and The Hobbit and now this, it’s not a plan I can assure you.
“I never kind of wake up and think, what next can I be part of, an adaptation of? It’s just purely, and I hope it doesn’t get boring to hear it because I kind of almost bore myself saying it, it’s just the writing. If something is well written, I’m interested. And if something is not to my taste, then I’m not.
“Yeah, it’s just an accident really, the fact that I seem to have been cast in a few of those things that you’re talking about. But that’s not a plan. It’s not a particular attraction. It could be based on everything or nothing. I love doing completely new stuff. I love doing completely new theater, for instance, he said [referring to himself] as he’s about to play Richard III.
“I’ve spent a long time doing brand new plays and that’s something that I dearly love. So, it is just really what floats my boat at the time and it always comes down to the script and your initial interest is always in that.”