The story behind a key scene in the Coen brothers' classic that still perplexes many viewers.
Even Mike Yanagita himself wasn’t sure what was up withFargo’s Mike Yanagita scene at first.
I put everything I had into it."
Steve Park as Mike Yanagita in ‘Fargo.'.Gramercy Pictures
The result was one of the most memorable scenes in the Coens’ wintry classic for a few reasons.
But we’ll come back to that.
Did he have answers?
Ethan (left) and Joel Coen on the set of ‘Fargo.'.Everett Collection
Oh, you betcha.
“), bursts out, “I been so lonely,” and bursts into tears.
“I thought the character was too old for me to play and so far away from me.
Frances McDormand and Steve Park in ‘Fargo.'.Gramercy Pictures
On set, that physicality was heightened: “Hair and makeup had aged me a bit.
The loneliness he connected with in Yanagita became crucial to his portrayal as well.
“Fran [McDormand] is a very easy person to get along with.
Joel and Ethan, too.
Very down to earth and relaxed,” he says.
“We just played with the scene and found different things along the way.
It was all there.
“So, they didn’t give me a lot of direction.
I felt like we were all in sync.”
Acclaim for his performance began right away.
But it took time for the actor himself to be able to appreciate his own work.
The woman he said was his wife is still alive and well, and they were never married.
So, in fact, the Yanagita sceneisintegral to the plot, but in an indirect and unexpected way.
“I understood where the criticism was coming from,” he continues.
Loneliness and desperation, unfortunately, are universal.”
The true reason, perhaps, why the scene still resonates 25 years on.
