www.sbs.com.au Open in urlscan Pro
23.52.248.72  Public Scan

Form analysis
0 forms found in the DOM

Text Content

SBS
 * News
 * Audio
 * Languages
 * What's On
 * TV & Radio Guide
 * Food
 * Indigenous
 * Sport

 * More
   
   

Login

/

Sign up


Help Centre


Search


Navigate to SBS on demand


What’s OnSBS What's On
 * TV Shows
 * Movies
 * TV & Radio Guide



Advertisement


JON HAMM TALKS 'FARGO', AND THE CHALLENGE OF PLAYING A MALEVOLENT MARLBORO MAN
(INTERVIEW)


WE CHAT TO THE STAR OF THE NEW 'FARGO', AS THE BRAND NEW INSTALMENT PREMIERES AT
SBS ON DEMAND.

Jon Hamm as Roy Tillman. Credit: Michelle Faye / FX

Mad Men star Jon Hamm had the same gut feeling as most of us when the first
season of Fargo, the Noah Hawley-created darkly comic crime anthology show
inspired by the Coen Brothers’ movie, was announced.


“I thought, ‘Well, this is a terrible idea’. Why would you want to mess with
such a wonderful film? And then I watched the first season and, like most
people, was blown away.”


He was hooked in by Billy Bob Thornton’s malevolent hitman Lorne. “What Billy
did in that first season was so delicious and scary and specific and fun, and it
really set the tone for the whole show.”


Advertisement
Flash forward almost a decade, and Hamm, who co-starred alongside Natalie
Portman and Zazie Beetz in Hawley’s feature debut Lucy in the Sky, becomes the
big bad of Fargo’s fantastic fifth season. It might just be his best role since
Don Draper, dripping melodious menace, care of the classic Coen/Hawley
verbosity, as the murderously corrupt, self-proclaimed “constitutional sheriff”
Roy Tillman. A malevolent misogynist and selectively religious zealot, he’s
consumed with fury over what he perceives as a betrayal by his ex, the brilliant
Ted Lasso star Juno Temple’s deceptively sweet housewife Dot.


Jon Hamm as Roy Tillman in Fargo 5.

Following Hawley’s prompt to fashion Roy after the iconic image of the ‘Marlboro
Man’, there are complicated layers to this hard man, as there are to the
billionaire playboy he plays on The Morning Show. “The creators of these shows
wanted to tell something about men like that,” Hamm says. “A story about what’s
behind that impression of being strong and in control. In both cases, the facade
is slipping a little bit, and that’s quite the exciting, interesting place to
be.”


Monstrous logic informs Hamm’s depiction of Roy. “There’s a lot of villainous
things that Roy does, but Noah’s approach to it is that they make sense in his
mind, and it makes sense to the people who believe in him. And that’s where we
are in this very strange world. It used to just be just the United States that
had this weird perspective. But I think, with the advent of social media and the
internet, it’s gone global, where reality is what you want it to be at any
particular time."


With the current run set in pre-pandemic/insurrection 2019, this Trumpian
reality hovers unspoken over a series that features good cops and bad cops, both
literally and figuratively, with lots of grey areas in between. Temple’s Dot
isn’t exactly snow-white. While devoted to sweet-natured hubby Wayne (David
Rysdahl) and their non-binary kid Scotty (Sienna King), she unblinkingly tazers
a cop at a school board meeting and fends off a pair of kidnappers, led by Sam
Spruell’s Ole Munch, also giving Thornton a run for his money, during a Home
Alone-like fightback in the opening episode. You can get why Dot’s
ostentatiously wealthy, acid-spitting mother-in-law Lorraine (Jennifer Jason
Leigh, fabulous) doesn’t trust her.


Juno Temple as Dorothy 'Dot' Lyon. Credit: FX

Fargo’s deft folding of comedy into crime fiction occasionally tilting towards
horror is part of the show’s enduring appeal. “When it comes unexpectedly, it’s
even more fun,” Hamm insists. “Jennifer, Juno, David and even Sam have a lot of
moments that are only funny when you look at them from the side, and that’s what
Noah has done. If he took anything from the original film, it’s that really,
really dark sense of black humour.”


The tonal swings keep us on our toes. “It’s a morality tale, but it’s also very
resonant, because I think you’re not necessarily sure which side of it you’re
supposed to be on,” Hamm says. “One of the themes that the show really gets into
is that this guy does not play by any rules other than his own. And he’s been
getting along just fine with that worldview, until he doesn’t. It’s not
sustainable.”


READ MORE

Why do we love 'Fargo'? Let us count the ways

In a twisted mirror view of Dot’s wholesome (but possibly mirage-like)
homemaking, there’s a disturbing power dynamic between Roy and his try-hardman
son and deputy ‘sheriff’ Gator. As played by Stranger Things alum Joe Keery,
you’re never sure who Gator should be more afraid of: The former ally that flips
on them, stalking him and his henchmen in the dark, or his rumbling volcano of a
father?


“Gator’s position in the family is very tenuous at best, and his personality
suggests that he’s dancing as fast as he can to keep his place in there,” Hamm
says. “He thinks he has the world on a string, but doesn’t really have the
confidence or the ability that his father has, and that plays out in tragic
ways.”

Joe Keery as Gator Tillman. Credit: Michelle Faye / FX
The anthology nature of Fargo is hugely appealing to an actor like Hamm,
creating a bridge between being a series regular and the shorter-form
storytelling of a film. “We were very fortunate, with Mad Men, to be able to
tell that story over the course of almost a decade, but those kinds of things
are few and far between in the current television landscape. And I think we’ll
probably start seeing stories that are much more in the Fargo mould, with the
new way we all consume television,” Hamm says.


Will he step back into the directorial shoes he tried on during Mad Men’s run?
“I don’t have any plans, but I do like it,” Hamm says. “What’s most fun about
directing television is that you’re coming into a machine that is already
constructed. When you’re directing a feature, which I’ve never done, but I’ve
certainly produced my fair share, you’re trying to build a train while you’re on
the tracks. It’s a very difficult thing to do, and it takes a lot of energy,
skill, trust and communication. We’ve all seen what Ben Affleck and Bradley
Cooper have been able to do, but I know both those guys and how much it takes
out of them. It’s a three-year process.”


You can expect more complex characters from Hamm, who relishes subverting the
‘leading man’ concept. “I’m getting into silver fox, with a little more salt and
pepper. I’m very happy with where I am in my career. I’ve been able to work with
some incredibly talented people, and I hope I get to do it for a lot longer.”


Fargo premieres from Wednesday 22 November exclusively on SBS On Demand and at
9:20pm on SBS. New episodes are fast-tracked weekly from the US.


Premiere episodes are now streaming. Start here:



STREAM FREE ON DEMAND




The Tragedy of the Commons

EPISODE • FARGO • 
CRIME DRAMA • 
53M

M





MORE TO EXPLORE

It’s mission critical on land and underwater in season four of 'Das Boot'

Five things you better know about Better Things’ Pamela Adlon

It's the best time of the year at SBS On Demand: Noirvember

Lies, murder, family mysteries: it's gripping viewing in the Prime Time Crime
Time collection

Hunting criminals is serious business for 'Hidden Assets’ detective Christian De
Jong

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Share

6 min read
Published 22 November 2023 12:08pm
Updated 22 November 2023 4:16pm
By Stephen A. Russell
Source: SBS


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Share this with family and friends

Copy link
Share

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Health Insight JournalAdvert - 广告 - الإعلانات

Revolutionary Device Baffles Neuropathy Experts EverywhereHealth Insight Journal
|
SponsoredSponsored
Learn More
McAfeeAdvert - 广告 - الإعلانات

Click Here To Activate McAfee Antivirus:McAfee |
SponsoredSponsored
Click Here
CortexiAdvert - 广告 - الإعلانات

Why over 8,734,967 Americans Rushed To Do This (Watch Now)Cortexi |
SponsoredSponsored
Learn More
ClassmatesAdvert - 广告 - الإعلانات

Look For Any High School Yearbook, It's FreeClassmates |
SponsoredSponsored
Click Here



Follow SBS
facebook
twitter
instagram

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Download our apps
SBS On Demand
iOSAndroid
SBS News
iOSAndroid
SBS Audio
iOSAndroid

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Listen to our podcasts
Eyes on Gilead
SBS's award winning companion podcast.
Seen
Join host Yumi Stynes for Seen, a new SBS podcast about cultural creatives who
have risen to excellence despite a role-model vacuum.
Get the latest with our SBS podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Watch SBS On Demand


Over 11,000 hours

News, drama, documentaries, SBS Originals and more - for free.
Watch now


EXPLORE SBS

 * SBS Home
 * SBS On Demand
 * News
 * Audio
 * Languages
 * What's On
 * TV & Radio Guide
 * Food
 * Indigenous
 * Sport
 * Voices
 * Teaching Resources


LANGUAGES

 * العربية/
   Arabic
 * 普通话/
   Mandarin
 * 廣東話/
   Cantonese
 * Tiếng Việt/
   Vietnamese
 * 한국어/
   Korean
 * See all languages


CONTACT SBS

 * 1800 500 727 (toll free)
 * Help Centre
 * Locked Bag 028, Crows Nest NSW 1585


FOLLOW SBS

 * Facebook
 * YouTube
 * Instagram
 * Twitter
 * LinkedIn

 * Copyright
 * Terms & Conditions
 * Privacy
 * Your online preferences
 * Sales & Advertising
 * Complaints
 * SBS Code of Practice
 * Careers
 * About us

 * SBS acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country and their connections
   and continuous care for the skies, lands and waterways throughout Australia.