When it comes to FX ‘s Fargo , the hit anthology series never shies away from star-studded casting, so it makes perfect sense that Stranger Things favorite Joe Keery made the Year 5 cut, but his character Gator Tillman was nothing like ’80s good guy Steve Harrington, and that’s part of the fun. Introduced as the try-hard son of Jon Hamm ‘s rogue North Dakota sheriff, Roy Tillman, Keery’s Gator embraced misogyny, racism, and crooked policing, but underneath it all, he’s really just a product of his abusive father’s upbringing, giving the actor plenty to delve into with a layered performance throughout the season’s 10 episodes. TV Insider caught up with Joe Keery to talk about the challenges of tackling a role so different from his Stranger Things roots, how he avoided the character becoming a caricature, that nail bat, and his biggest takeaways from the limited series, below.
You’ve built up a lot of goodwill with your fan-favorite performance as Steve on Stranger Things . Did you have any apprehension about playing Gator who is so different from Steve on the likeability scale or was the part of the fun? Joe Keery: It was really like a perk. Honestly, I would have done anything in Fargo , I would have been a guy 300 yards in the distance of the background of a scene.
I love that show. And so I was just really pumped to be a part of it, and that Noah [ Hawley ] wanted to work with me, and that the audition process worked out. The fact that the character was di.
