‘Fargo’ season 3’s episode 1, titled “The Law of Vacant Places,” is set to introduce the feuding Stussy brothers of Minnesota, portrayed by Ewan McGregor. The actor also talked about his transformation into Emmit and Ray Stussy during a recent interview.
The short synopsis for posted on TV Guide reads, “In the Season 3 premiere, a petty sibling rivalry between two brothers escalates and brings chaos to a small Minnesotan community.”
The upcoming season premiere of FX’s critically-acclaimed black comedy-crime and drama anthology television series is set to introduce Ewan McGregor’s double performance as the feuding Stussy brothers. McGregor is set to play both Emmit and Ray in a season set in 2010 in Minnesota.
Emmit Stussy is a well-off businessman while Ray is a struggling parole officer. They are at odds with each other mainly because of inheritance from their deceased father. Emmit was given a valuable postage stamp while Ray was bestowed a run-down Corvette.
According to USA Today, creator Noah Hawley teased, “There’s definitely a sense of the haves and have-nots that are at the center of this… at its core I always feel like Fargo is about what people will do for money. There’s a brother who feels like he got gypped, and he’s had a poorer life because of it, and a brother who feels he’s a self-made man, and became a millionaire, but he’s really not as self-made as he might think.”
McGregor also revealed that each brother had people in their lives that pushed them towards this sibling rivalry. He said, “They’ve both got this outside force pushing them into their problem, into their grievance with each other. But in actual fact, both of them very often defend the other brother to those people.”
The 46-year old Scottish actor underwent a physical transformation to take on the back-to-back roles – gaining weight for Ray while wearing spanx and shaving his head for Emmit. He said, “You’ve got double the work in terms of being on set, double the time in makeup, and two parts to learn. And television can be quite wordy. I’d say for the first six, seven episodes, I was on set or home learning lines, nothing else, in Calgary.”
McGregor’s co-star Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who plays Ray’s girlfriend and parolee Nikki Swango, expressed her admiration for McGregor’s performance as the Stussy brothers saying, “It was incredible to me to watch him embody both of these characters so fluidly… When I was around him as Emmit, it was really strange to me. It was like a totally different person I don’t know. To me, Ewan is Ray.”
‘Fargo’ season 3’s episode 1, titled “The Law of Vacant Places,” is scheduled to air on FX on April 19, 2017. It was written and directed by Noah Hawley. It will be followed by episode 2, titled "The Principle of Restricted Choice," scheduled to be released on April 26. It was directed by Michael Uppendahl and written by Noah Hawley.
