The third season of Fargo premiered last week. It feels like there wasn’t a lot of fanfare about it, which is weird because the first two seasons of Fargo were easily some of the highest-quality programming I’ve ever seen. This season is set in 2010 (unlike last season’s ‘70s-flavor) and Ewan McGregor stars in dual roles, as two brothers on opposite sides of the success ladder. This season also stars Carrie Coon, Mary Elizabeth Winstead and David Thewlis. I watched the first episode and it was outstanding and perfectly “Coen Brothers,” even though Noah Hawley is the guy in charge of the TV show. Anyway, I just wanted to give everyone a chance to chat about Ewan and how great he already is in these roles (honk if you love Ewan and/or Fargo!). He chatted with the LA Times recently about doing the show and his physical transformation for both characters:

The Minnesota accent: “It’s the hardest accent I’ve ever had to do. It’s full of so many different things. It can sound like you’re just doing the worst accent in the world at times to your own ear.”

Playing these two characters: “Even though it’s set in 2010, there’s a lot of now in it. You have Ray, who can be a complete jerk at work, but he’s got heart and soul and he’s in love and just needs a financial boost. And there’s Emmit, who’s just devoted his life to making money. He’s got the heart and soul of a capitalist, of a businessman — in this Trumpian era, that was interesting to play. Emmit has very thin skin and he lashes out at people when it’s his fault. I’ve had all this Trump stuff to watch while playing him. I’ve got to try to find something positive about this … situation.”

He hadn’t even seen the first two seasons when he was approached for the job. He hadn’t seen the show because he thought “it was a terrible idea to make a TV series based on a movie.” But while on a ski trip he bumped into one of the show’s producers who mentioned they were casting for the role of the brothers. “I watched both seasons and thought, he’s done it, [Noah] managed to capture the essence of that movie without using the same characters, without using the same story line. And when I met with him, and he told me the story line for Season 3, I was intrigued. It’s like an ancient fable, an old tale.”

Gaining weight to play Ray: “Noah just looked at me and said, ‘Ewan, you’re going to have to put on some weight, mate. We’re talking about two guys who live in the Midwest,’” McGregor recalls of a pre-production dinner with Hawley last fall. It came as a bit of a blow to the actor, who was at his “peak physical fitness” after wrapping production on “Trainspotting 2” — with a regimen that included running for about two hours a day. “I just couldn’t believe the timing of it. It was like, I’ve been waiting my whole career for someone to say ‘get fat.’ But not now. Not while I’ve just become super fit.” Naturally, that night at dinner, he ordered dessert. “And then from October to January, I just ate and ate and ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. I had a lot of burgers. A lot of burgers. And fries. I had fries with everything.”

He wore Spanx to play the thinner brother: He had a “Spanx technician” — a role assumed by Devora Brown. “Spanx are no joke. I couldn’t do it without Devora. I couldn’t get that … thing over my head if she wasn’t standing there. It’s a two-person job. I will say, I rather like them. I had to fly to London or something to do press for ‘Trainspotting’ and I was walking through the airport and there was an actual Spanx store. I had no idea they had actual shops! So I stopped someone and asked them to take a photograph of me outside the store. I think I’m going to try to do their next campaign ad. Maybe I can capitalize on this somehow.”

[From The LA Times]

While I don’t think Ewan is completely nailing the Minnesota accent – especially compared to Martin Freeman, who must have an excellent ear for accent work – he is achieving something strangely brilliant with these dual roles. Like, he got me completely absorbed in the lives of these two brothers because he really has created two completely different characters with different mannerisms and everything. It’s amazing. As for the Spanx… I enjoyed that image, the idea of Ewan being put into a full-body girdle by a costume-assistant type.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Getty.