Fargo: Season 1 Cast __link__ <iPhone>

When Noah Hawley began casting Fargo 's first season, nobody expected it to work. A TV adaptation of the Coen brothers' beloved film? Starring Martin Freeman —the gentle, hapless Bilbo Baggins—as a cold-blooded killer? And Billy Bob Thornton as a philosophical, devilish drifter with a bowl cut?

Freeman looked at Tolman. Tolman looked at Odenkirk. Odenkirk laughed. fargo: season 1 cast

"Simple," Thornton said from the back of the room, wearing sunglasses indoors. "We all knew someone like Lester. Someone like Malvo. Someone like Molly. We just never saw them in a snowbank before." When Noah Hawley began casting Fargo 's first

Then there was Allison Tolman , a virtually unknown Chicago stage actress who auditioned for a tiny role as Deputy Molly Solverson. Hawley was so stunned by her honest, warm intensity that he rewrote the entire season to make her the hero. She filmed her first scene having never been on a major set before—and stole the show from two Oscar nominees. And Billy Bob Thornton as a philosophical, devilish

Then he walked out, leaving a single peanut on the table.

Thornton, meanwhile, arrived each day in character as Lorne Malvo—refusing to speak to anyone except in low, rumbling riddles. He once whispered to a prop master, "The squirrel knows. Burn the acorns." No one was sure if he was joking.