Emmys: Carrie Coon Talks ‘Fargo’ as a Tribute to Her DNA, Her Final Scenes on ‘The Leftovers’

Kimberly Potts
·Writer, Yahoo Entertainment
Carrie Coon as Gloria Burgle in FX's Fargo. (Photo Credit: Chris Large/FX)
Carrie Coon as Gloria Burgle in FX’s Fargo. (Photo: Chris Large/FX)

As we enter Emmy season — nomination voting runs June 12 to 26 — Yahoo TV will be spotlighting performances and other contributions that we feel deserve recognition.

Everyone who’s been near a TV this season knows that Fargo and The Leftovers star Carrie Coon is a serious double threat to nab a pair of Emmy nominations for her fine work on those cable dramas.

What you might not know, but which Yahoo TV certainly learned during Coon’s recent Facebook Live Emmy Talk (watch it below), is that the actress who so beautifully portrays the oft-dramatic lives of Gloria Burgle and Nora Durst is a friendly and delightful Midwesterner who’s really itching to tackle some comedy roles for her next gigs.

“Everybody expects me to be really serious. And of course, my family cannot understand this, because I’m actually quite lighthearted,” Coon said of fans and directors mistaking her personality for Nora’s.

“In the Fargo world, I think there’s a lot more physical comedy, so to be invited to do some of that stuff, you know, like, putting your hand underneath the hand dryer — the material itself is naturally funny, so it brings out very organic humor in all the actors,” she said of Burgle’s fight with motion-activated technology in Fargo’s third season. “It was great fun. And I hope to do something even funnier someday.”

The star, who grew up in the Akron, Ohio, suburb of Copley — yes, she used to see LeBron James at Best Buy all the time — said her background helped give her an immediate understanding of Fargo sheriff Gloria.

“People ask what I’ve learned from Gloria, but in fact, I feel that Gloria is a bit of a tribute to my DNA, because she embodies so many of the qualities that I admire about the place I’m from, what it is to be a Midwesterner,” Coon explained. “A particular kind of stoicism, the belief that people are good at heart, that we can make order out of chaos, and there’s a plan for us. And in the world we’re in, sometimes it’s difficult to hang onto that. To me, she’s a loving tribute to people I know, and my family.”

Coon — who is currently filming Steven Spielberg’s all-star drama The Papers with Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Bob Odenkirk, Sarah Paulson, Matthew Rhys, her Fargo co-star Michael Stuhlbarg, and her husband, Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning writer and actor Tracy Letts — also chatted about her talented Fargo co-star and friend Olivia Sandoval; meeting The Leftovers fans who share their own stories of grief with her; filming her final Leftovers scene with Justin Theroux (and the most recent text messages they exchanged); the power of hugs; filming that instant classic trampoline scene with Regina King on The Leftovers; and “$5 Friday” raffles on the Fargo set.

And she gave a cheeky, very nonspoilery preview of Wednesday night’s Fargo season finale.

“I can hint that it will be a finale,” she said. “And that the show will indeed be over.”

The Fargo Season 3 finale airs June 21 at 10 p.m. on FX.

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