Peering behind the (shower) curtain of the chillingly captivating TV series “Fargo,” here we offer a glimpse into the lives of its illustrious cast, weaving through the snowy backdrop of the show’s various seasons. From Kirsten Dunst’s resilient Peggy Blumquist to Jesse Plemons’s steadfast Ed Blumquist, Jean Smart’s dietary wisdom, Jon Hamm’s pursuit of unprocessed sustenance, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s beauty regimen, here’s how they do it.
Kirsten Dunst played Peggy Blumquist in season two. In an interview with Variety, she recalled times where she was asked to lose weight for roles, and when a teacher told her that she had to accept fat girl roles. Dunst said that these moments helped her to accept herself. “So what I always feel in these moments is that any young woman who has ever been put down by a teacher, by a friend, by even a parent, just don’t listen to any of it, because that’s what I did — I kept on going and I overcame my fears and got over my insecurities.”
Jesse Plemons played Ed Blumquist in season two. He talked about his weight loss in an interview with Interview Magazine. “Something clicked in my head and I got tired of carrying all that extra weight around. I got asked to do a scene in this movie and I was playing a soldier, and I was like, ‘I don’t know many soldiers that are my size.’ So like everyone else, I started doing intermittent fasting, cut carbs, all that stuff. It’s easy if you just actually do it.”
Jean Smart played Floyd Gerhardt on season two. She tells EatingWell that she believes in eating a balanced diet. “My mantra at my house with my kids always is, ‘Did you eat anything green today,” Smart said. “I don’t really care what you ate for lunch at school, but did you eat anything green? And if you didn’t, please have something green with your dinner. That’s basically my only requirement, not to go nuts with the sugar and try to eat something green.”
Jon Hamm played Sheriff Roy Tillman on season five. He talked about the importance of eating healthy to Bon Appetit. “Most of the food that we are presented with has been processed to within an inch of its life, so it’s not exactly the most healthy thing you can eat. So I try to eat as fresh as I can, and try to stay away from as much of the cheap stuff as I can, too. I’m not above eating a packet of potato chips or something every now and again, but I do try to make those occasions more of a stand-alone rather than habitual.”
Mary Elizabeth Winstead played Nikki Swango in season three. She shared her skincare secrets with Into The Gloss. “I’ve been mixing it up lately and I try not to always wash my face in the morning. I have these Bioderma Crealine and Koh Gen Do Cleansing Spa Water that I use in the morning because my skin gets more dry in the winter. All my stuff is from my facialist, Renée Rouleau, so she has a system that’s specific to my skin. Most of my stuff is from her and I’ve been working with her for years. She has these great Toning Cloths that she makes, that work really well to get makeup off. And I have really bad allergies and so in the morning, it’s really nice to use to wipe my eyes because they can be really red and itchy when I wake up.”
Jennifer Jason Leigh played Lorraine Lyon in season five. She talked about what she enjoys about doing TV to AARP.org. “There’s something very immersive about watching something scary from your own living room that’s different than watching it in a theater with a lot of other people,” she says. “It feels more personal in a way. It feels like it’s in your house.”
Lamorne Morris played Witt Farr in season five. To prepare for his role in Bloodshot, he worked with trainer, Eddie Baruta. Morris shared what Baruta made him cut out of his diet to Men’s Journal. “I knew that the hamburgers and the fried chicken were going to go. But I had no idea how much fat were in cashews! I had been eating like a bag a day thinking I was being healthy.”
Juno Temple played Dot Lyon/Nadine Tillman in season five. In an interview with Gotham Magazine, she talked about what roles she wants to take on. “I just love playing different women—I love learning about as many aspects of us as possible,” she says. “It’s an honor, the different shoes I’ve already gotten to walk in, and it’s taught me a lot. My dream is to keep playing women that teach me things.”
Carrie Coon played Gloria Burgle in season three. She opened up about why she prefers theater to TV to Backstage.com. “In TV and film I’m just a woman who’s going to age out of my job. That’s a terribly toxic place to be psychologically, and I don’t want to spend my time constantly in that world. The theater is more forgiving of age. It’s a place where I will always be welcome even if I get old—which I will! And the theater community in the Midwest, in particular, doesn’t put that kind of emphasis on my looks.”
Ewan McGregor played Emmit and Ray Stussy in season three. He works with trainer, Tony Horton, to help him stay fit. Horton shared this photo of himself and McGregor on Instagram. He captioned it, “It seems that this Scottish fellow is starting to lean up and slim down. He hasn’t missed a day, and his diet has been spot on. This was day 16.”
Colin Hanks played Gus Grimly in season one. He also appeared in the Godfather inspired miniseries, The Offer. Hanks talked about making that show to Men’s Journal. “Making anything creative, especially films, requires a large number of miracles to happen. If you’ve got a good idea, it’s a miracle. If you’re able to write the script, it’s a miracle. If anyone else wants to make it, if it doesn’t rain on Day 38 of shooting, and so on, it’s a miracle. This series really does highlight that and shows that even on a film we all now know as one of the greatest, there were numerous hurdles—and it almost didn’t get made. Everybody looks at it now and just thinks: ‘Oh, well, it’s genius. So that was a given.’ And the truth is it wasn’t. Making The Godfather wasn’t a given at all, and was significantly harder than any of us knew.“