"He really is a kind of manifestation of America's underclass," Sam Spruell tells us of his head-spinning "Fargo" Season 5 character, Ole Munch. "Someone trapped in a cycle of criminality and poverty that they can't escape."
Munch is the latest elemental oddity to haunt the snowy wastelands of Noah Hawley's "Fargo" universe on FX. Like Billy Bob Thornton's Lorne Malvo in Season 1 (or, indeed, like Javier Bardem's Anton Chigurh in the Coens' "No Country For Old Men"), Ole Munch is more a force of nature than a man. "Some say he has always been here, blowing through the American landscape," reads his official character description.
So when it was revealed in Episode 3 that Munch is a centuries-old sin-eater, this season of "Fargo" and its preoccupation with debt and payback kicked into high gear. Wide Open Country sat down with Sam Spruell to talk all things "Fargo," from Munch's central role as this season's "truthsayer" to Noah Hawley's fitting catchphrase on set.
The British actor, who recently appeared in the Paramount+ series "The Gold," is perhaps best known for his deliciously hulking, snarling, villainous portrayals in "Doctor Who," "Taken 3" and "Snow White and the Huntsman." But while Jon Hamm's Sheriff Roy Tillman might want to watch his back, Ole Munch isn't exactly a Big Bad, says Spruell.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Wide Open Country: I think we can say Ole Munch is the unstoppable force of this season. Tell me about stepping into that "Fargo" type, the Lorne Malvo type. Sometimes it's hard to say what these characters want.
Sam Spruell: Each "Fargo" season has its kind of truthsayer, where people's crimes are shown for what they really are. There might be some kind of moral justification, say, from Roy Tillman, Jon Hamm's character, for the stuff he's doing. But I reflect his crimes back to him and say, "These are the repercussions."
He's an Old Testament kind of spirit that really has a handle, in the way that quite a lot of the others don't, on the consequences of characters' actions. Also, he really is a kind of manifestation of America's underclass. Someone trapped in a cycle of criminality and poverty that they can't escape. Those are the pillars or the hooks that I rested my character on, or saw his actions in the show through that lens.
WOC: I'm wondering if he's a flip side of Lorraine (Jennifer Jason Leigh) in a way. She's a debt collector. He's kind of a debt collector, too. Was that built into the script?
Spruell: Absolutely. There's a kind of financial and moral debt discussion going on in the show, I think. The financial thing is narrative, and then the moral debt is a kind of thematic aspect of the show.
Frank W Ockenfels III/FX
WOC: What was it like working with Noah Hawley as a director?
Spruell: Noah's just got a brilliant mind. He's blessed with intellect and creativity combined, plus an insane, twisted imagination, which is everything you want in someone you're working with. I don't want to work on bland stuff. I want to work on stuff that pushes me into areas of humanity I've never been before.
He had a catchphrase: "Well we've never seen that before, right?" I really liked that. Of course you're gonna repeat stuff. [The series] is an homage to the original film, always. But he really does think about stuff that could be surprising as well. I have to say I enjoyed, intensely, working with him. That doesn't mean that it's always straightforward or you're always going to be on the same page — that's not good, creative relationships. The discussions, I thought, with him were always great.
WOC: Munch is the perfect example of just how chilling and hilarious the "Fargo" world can be. He's terrifying, but there's also something so misbegotten and funny about his silhouette. Tell me about that balancing act.
Spruell: Any good actor—I hope I occasionally fall into that category—kind of recognizes what they're playing with it. You come with your own truth, your own creations. But then you have, in "Fargo," especially by the time it gets to the fifth season, quite strong context in which to place your performance. It's like any show, though. It's a push-and-pull of what you're making and how that fits in with the rest of it.
You just understand that more and more as actor the more you work with Noah, within the show's confines and with regards to what everyone else is doing, which is also funny and big, but truthful. There are some actors—and I think Noah is quite good at casting them—that have that capacity for truthful work, but also kind of big creative characters as well.
WOC: Executive producer Warren Littlefield said that filming "Fargo" in Calgary in the dead of winter was a bonding experience that brought something special to the series.
Spruell: Yeah, you can't film in that level of cold and not achieve some kind of camaraderie, you know? [Laughs] Some kind of shared painful experience of filming at minus 25. There is a kind of desolation to that geography that imbues everyone's characters in the same way and creates some cohesion which is very effective.
WOC: Yeah, those vast winter roads. It's all flat, no streetlights.
Spruell: Totally. Dark, f****** freezing. [Laughs] That's it. That's all you need.
New episodes of "Fargo" premiere Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on FX and stream the following day on Hulu.
