Ewan mcgregor on starring in channel 4’s fargo

Ewan McGregor, who stars in the third series of Channel 4’s Fargo, confesses that he landed the role quite by chance. He unexpectedly bumped into a senior producer from FX, the channel that

broadcasts Fargo in the US, one day at a ski resort in Utah. “I’d been contemplating this other TV idea, which would have been a different ball game – it would have been signing up for

several years. I was talking to this producer about that, just because I wanted to get some feedback about the idea, and he just said, ‘Look, have you seen Fargo?’  “I hadn’t, so he

suggested I watch it. He said that they were casting the third season, and they were looking for an actor to play two brothers who weren’t twins. So I watched the past two series, and I

thought they were amazing.” The black comedy crime drama, written by Noah Hawley, is a spin-off from the Coen brothers’ Oscar-winning 1996 movie of the same name and each season is set in a

different time and place, with a new cast and new crimes to solve.  “Noah has managed to catch the essence of Fargo, but without it being the same story,” reflects Ewan, of the award-winning

series. “It’s just brilliant, it feels like the movie. I met him, he let me read the first episode – and I was in!”  We should all be grateful that Ewan took that decision. He delivers not

one, but two terrific performances as the warring brothers at the heart of the third series, which goes out on Channel 4 this week. BAFTA-winning Ewan, 46, who has most recently starred in

Beauty And The Beast, American Pastoral, T2 Trainspotting and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, portrays both Emmit and Ray Stussy. Connecting it to the movie and to the previous two seasons,  

which starred such major names as Martin Freeman, Billy Bob Thornton, Kirsten Dunst and  Ted Danson, the story is set once again in the decidedly offbeat heartland of rural Minnesota. It is

2010, and Emmit is the “Parking Lot King of Minnesota.” A good-looking real estate tycoon and family man, Emmit is living the American Dream. However, things have not worked out so well for

his younger brother, Ray. FANS EXCITED AS TEASER FOR FARGO SEASON 3 RELEASED Overweight and balding, Ray is the sort of person who had the best years of his life in high school. Now a parole

officer, Ray harbours enormous resentment towards his brother about the way his life has panned out. He blames Emmit for cheating him out of his rightful inheritance as a teenager. Ray

feels he is owed more in life. Alongside his new fiancée, a bridge aficionado who goes by the glorious name of Nikki Swango (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), he tries to steal a valuable vintage

stamp from Emmit’s prized collection. This typically left-field series has all the hallmarks we have come to know and love from Fargo: brilliantly offbeat characters, a heightened sense of

reality and sudden eruptions of extreme violence. It also has a defiantly eccentric sense of black humour. Ewan has relished Noah’s scripts. “It’s the most amazing writing. And the

opportunity to get to play these two very different people has been really exciting.” The actor admits that playing both brothers was one of the greatest challenges of his career.  “It was

hard to develop the characters and make sure they felt unique. They have to feel different, to be different people. I just trusted my instincts in the end, and I went with it.” _FARGO,

WEDNESDAY, 10PM, CHANNEL 4 _