Editing Fargo (1996 film) (section)

===Casting===
The Coens initially considered [[William H. Macy]] for a smaller role, but they were so impressed by his reading that they asked him to come back in and read for the role of Jerry. According to Macy, he was very persistent in getting the role, saying: "I found out that they [the Coen brothers] were auditioning in [[New York City|New York]] still, so I got my jolly, jolly [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] ass on an airplane and walked in and said, 'I want to read again because I'm scared you're going to screw this up and hire someone else.' I actually said that. You know, you can't play that card too often as an actor. Sometimes it just blows up in your face, but I said, 'Guys, this is my role. I want this.{{'"}}<ref>{{cite magazine |author=Sullivan |first=Kevin P. |date=March 8, 2016 |title=Fargo at 20: William H. Macy recalls his wonderful wintry freakout |url=https://www.ew.com/article/2016/03/08/fargo-20th-anniversary-william-h-macy |url-status=live |magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805185304/https://ew.com/article/2016/03/08/fargo-20th-anniversary-william-h-macy/ |archive-date=August 5, 2020}}</ref> Ethan Coen later remarked, "I don't think either of us [Coen brothers] realised what a tough acting challenge we were handing Bill Macy with this part. Jerry's a fascinating mix of the completely ingenuous and the utterly deceitful. Yet he's also guileless; even though he set these horrible events in motion, he's surprised when they go wrong."<ref>{{cite web |author=Floyd |first=Nigel |date=May 31, 1996 |title=Snow blind |url=https://archive.list.co.uk/the-list/1996-05-31/21/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201014123543/https://archive.list.co.uk/the-list/1996-05-31/21/ |archive-date=October 14, 2020 |access-date=July 7, 2019 |website=The List}}</ref>

[[Frances McDormand]] learned how to use and fire a gun, spent days talking with a pregnant police officer and developed a backstory for her character along with [[John Carroll Lynch]]. She said she may have modeled Marge's personality on that of her sister, a chaplain at a women's maximum-security prison.<ref>{{cite web |author=Fuller |first=Graham |date=March 17, 1996 |title=How Frances McDormand Got Into 'Minnesota Nice' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/17/movies/how-frances-mcdormand-got-into-minnesota-nice.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922233820/https://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/17/movies/how-frances-mcdormand-got-into-minnesota-nice.html |archive-date=September 22, 2020 |website=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>