Summary
- Fargo season 5 introduces a new cast of characters, including Dot Lyon, played by Juno Temple, a housewife with secrets who is mysteriously kidnapped.
- Sam Spruell plays Ole Munch, a drifter hired to track down Dot, who possesses supernatural qualities and defies the laws of physics.
- Sam Spruell praises Noah Hawley, the show's creator, for his creativity and ability to push actors to reach new heights, and reflects on his character's role as a reflection of truth for the other characters.
Fargo season 5 premiered with two episodes that introduced the newest cast of characters in the FX anthology series. Based on the Coen brothers' iconic movie, the show was created by Noah Hawley and has a habit of drawing some of the biggest names in the business with every new year. Season 5 stars Ted Lasso's Juno Temple as Dot Lyon, a Midwestern housewife hiding a host of secrets that threaten to spill over when she is mysteriously "kidnapped."
Fargo may be a crime dramedy by definition, but it often has elements of the absurd or even the supernatural. One such case appears in season 5 in the form of Ole Munch, played by actor Sam Spruell. Of unknown age and birth, he is a drifter hired by Sheriff Roy Tillman (Jon Hamm) to track down Dot, but his enigmatic presence raises plenty of questions. He doesn't respond to the laws of physics and seems beyond the grasp of time — and most importantly, he is not cowed by Roy or his hapless son Gator (Joe Keery).
Fargo Season 6: Will It Happen? Everything We Know
The FX crime anthology series Fargo has already impressed in its first five seasons on the air, and there is a chance for season 6 very soon.Screen Rant interviewed Sam Spruell about joining the cast of Fargo season 5, embodying the strange spirit of Ole Munch, and the chances of returning to Doctor Who in its next era.
Sam Spruell Talks Fargo Season 5
Screen Rant: I feel like anyone who is anyone would want to be in Fargo, but what was your personal journey to Minnesota?
Sam Spruell: That's a really good question. I totally agree. I was thrilled when Fargo came into my orbit, if you like, and it was just, I think Noah had seen me in something I did for Steve McQueen, which was part of his small act series. It was called the Mangrove Nine, and I played a horrible racist policeman from the 1960s in that.
Anyway, Noah had seen it and then he saw my tape that I did for the part and we met, and then I ended up playing it. So that was my kind of root in, but also I think he kind of cast interesting actors. He cast a lot of character actors and people with access to strangeness, I guess. And certainly, the character I was playing was pretty strange.
Ole' Munch is pretty strange as well. How would you describe this character or entity to someone who is coming this season?
Sam Spruell: He's kind of like a spirit, isn't he? He's a spirit. He's a timeless spirit of a reflection of the American underclass, but also he's kind of Old Testament as well, and he's the spirit of truth. Fargo, each season has its truth sayer who's also involved with the action and someone who is kind of the check and balance of people's misdemeanors. I guess Billy Bob and David Thewlis were those characters. I think I joined that line of weirdos.
What is the experience like of getting to work with Noah Hawley? Because from where I'm sitting, he's a genius.
Sam Spruell: He's a very, very clever, creative, imaginative person. He's kind of everything you'd want in a showrunner and creator and director. He directed the first two and other bits of other episodes where we had to do separate stuff. I think he's fantastic.
I just think he's an amazing thinker and someone who has a kind of terrific intellectual overview, but is kind of wildly creative and anarchic as well. All those things for an actor is heaven. He's the kind of person I want to work with continually. It doesn't have to be him, thankfully, but you are looking for someone who's going to push you into places that you didn't think you could reach, and I think he certainly helped me do that with Old Munch.
You also have some great moments with both John Hamm as Roy and his son Gator, Joe Keery. Can you talk about your approach to the story versus their characters and kind of these forces butting heads?
Sam Spruell: He reflects the true nature of their crimes and they can't quite get rid of this reflection and they can smash the mirror as many times as they want, but I'm still there in some form, in some kind of twisted form, and I think that there's a media and a kind of living in the presence to those two characters that my character reminds them of the truth of their lives in a way, the truth of their crimes.
Like I said about the checks and balances, he really reminds them of the true nature of their crime.
I really enjoyed your arc in Doctor Who a couple of years ago. Now we're kind of resetting with RTD coming back. Any chance you'll swarm in there again?
Sam Spruell: I don't know. I haven't been contacted, so I think the great thing about Doctor Who characters is that they never die, and so there's always a chance for some kind of resurrection in some kind of form or other.
About Fargo Season 5
The latest installment of Fargo is set in Minnesota and North Dakota, 2019. After an unexpected series of events lands “Dorothy ‘Dot’ Lyon” (Juno Temple) in hot water with the authorities, this seemingly typical Midwestern housewife is suddenly plunged back into a life she thought she had left behind. North Dakota Sheriff “Roy Tillman” (Jon Hamm) has been searching for Dot for a long time. A rancher, preacher and a constitutional lawman, Roy believes that he is the law and therefore is above the law. At his side is his loyal but feckless son, “Gator” (Joe Keery), who is desperate to prove himself to his larger-than-life father. Too bad he’s hopeless. So, when it comes to hunting Dot, Roy enlists “Ole Munch” (Sam Spruell), a shadowy drifter of mysterious origin.
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The first two episodes of Fargo season 5 premiere November 21 on FX at 10pm ET, with new episodes airing every Tuesday. Each will be available to stream the next day on Hulu.
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Fargo
- Release Date:
- 2014-04-15
- Cast:
- Billy Bob Thornton, Allison Tolman, Martin Freeman, Kirsten Dunst, Patrick Wilson, Jesse Plemons, Ewan McGregor, Carrie Coon, Chris Rock, Jessie Buckley, Jason Schwartzman, Juno Temple, Jon Hamm
- Genres:
- Anthology, Crime, Drama, Comedy, Thriller
- Rating:
- TV-MA
- Seasons:
- 5
- Story By:
- Joel and Ethan Coen
- Writers:
- Noah Hawley
- Network:
- FX
- Streaming Service(s):
- Hulu
- Franchise(s):
- Fargo
- Showrunner:
- Noah Hawley
- Season List:
- Fargo - Season 1, Fargo - Season 2, Fargo - Season 3, Fargo - Season 4, Fargo - Season 5
