‘Fargo:’ Star Jennifer Jason Leigh Stuns As Lorraine Lyon in Noah Hawley’s Masterpiece

When I virtually sat down with Academy Award-nominated actress Jennifer Jason Leigh, I had to share what an impact her films made on me at an early age. I remember, when my parents first purchased a VHS player (yes, I’m that old), one of the first films I rented for “Family Movie Night” was 1989’s Last Exit To Brooklyn.

“Ohhh, that’s a pretty heavy movie,” Leigh said with a slight note of surprise.

Yes, yes it was. In it, Leigh plays Tralala, a sex worker who lures sailors to a vacant lot where they’re robbed by an accomplice. After that, it seemed most of my rentals involved Leigh in some way from Miami Blues to Single White Female. Then, she starred in two of my favorite films: 1994’s massively underrated The Hudsucker Proxy and 1995’s Dolores Claiborne (which I recently rewatched in honor of the solar eclipse).

Now, Leigh returns to the awards scene with another acclaimed performance in season (or “Year”) five of FX’s Fargo. This season, which also stars Juno Temple and Jon Hamm, is likely to emerge as writer / director Noah Hawley’s masterpiece. Both honoring the original Coen Brothers film and exploring all new territory on its own, Fargo season five blends brilliantly paced action sequences, thoughtful commentary on modern America, and fantastic ensemble acting.

As Lorraine “Queen of Debt” Lyon, Leigh delivers some of her best work to date, making her one of the few obvious front runners for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series in this year’s Emmy race. When approached with the role, Leigh found herself attracted not only to Hawley’s exquisite dialogue but also the character’s unique story arc.

“Her dialogue is so extreme and brilliant, and it tells you so much about her. She just has a way with words. I loved, when I read the first three episodes, she’s kind of a villain, ad the arc that she has across the series is just so beautiful and so much fun to play,” Leigh explained. “She’s also someone very unlike me. It was a challenge in a way that was very daunting, but also exciting. I loved her scenes with Dot [Temple], the discoveries there, and the scenes with men where it’s just like a cat playing with an insect, not even a mouse.”

It’s that combative and domineering relationship with men that really honed Leigh into Lorraine’s character. One subtle bit of costume design — aside from the regal fur she wears like a lion’s mane — she employed was the selection of a man’s Rolex, designed to appear to be an inheritance from her father. Yet, Leigh believed Lorraine did not grow up with a lot of money or power and found a way into a world of privilege not through birthright but through hard work. The illusion rendered by the watch is one of inherited wealth and station, an identity Lorraine completely fashioned from the ground up.

The image of a cat playing with insects fits most of Lorraine’s conversations with oppositional men across the series. In two of her major scenes with foil Sheriff Roy Tillman (Hamm), Leigh employs cat-like reflexes in her physicality. She’s frequently pawing at herself or rubbing the fur of her mane-like coat as a subconscious allusion to her feline predatory tendencies.

“For this character, that was just sort of what naturally was coming into the scene. It comes because she’s someone that is so composed and gives very little away, but she’s still human. There’s still these things that she can’t totally control. There are moments where I’m sure it’s a way of trying to hide her nerves or her discomfort or trying to get the upper hand again,” Leigh remarked. “Knowing that [Tillman’s] a force as well, even if she isn’t intimidated by him. Even if she gets his number, even if she looks down on him, which she does. She doesn’t always know where it’s going to go.”

Lorraine’s character arc across the series takes her from potential evil and enemy of daughter-in-law Dot to one of champion of women’s rights. Check out that early sequence where Dot sits down with Lorraine and starts the conversation with, “Listen, bitch…” Look at the surprise on Lorraine’s face as Dot / Nadine reveals her true self. As Leigh says, Lorraine finds a worthy opponent in her daughter-in-law, someone she had pegged incorrectly who now appears to be a worthy adversary.

But Lorraine eventually champions Dot / Nadine as she fully understands the character’s history. She understands not only the challenges Dot / Nadine has overcome, but she also understands what truly lives at her daughter-in-law’s core.

“By the end, she’s really grown to love Dot. I think she sees Dot as a fighter. I think she sees a lot of herself in Dot because she was a real fighter too. Also, Dot’s a mother who clearly loves her family and will to do anything for them,” Leigh said. “She will also fight her way out of anything and won’t let a man define her. For so much of her life, Lorraine has been alone. She has her family, but her love is her work. But through this arc, I think she finds a connection or begins to identify with Dot in a way she hasn’t with anyone else before. I love the arc because you don’t see it coming, and it really feels earned.”

Fargo streams exclusively on Hulu.