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The anthology series Fargo has been a gem on the television landscape since it premiered 10 years ago. With showrunner Noah Hawley’s ever-evolving creative flair and unique characters, it has continually surprised audiences and garnered plenty of praise. This year, Season 5 received 15 Emmy nominations.
The most recent storyline followed the seemingly shy Dot (Juno Temple) as she tried to escape her dark past and her violent ex-husband (though he would claim otherwise), Sheriff Tillman. Of course, there’s also murder, intrigue and comedy.
Costume designer Carol Case worked on 40 episodes of the series and received one of the nominations for Outstanding Contemporary Costumes for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. The recognized episode is “Insolubilia” – when Tillman’s henchmen break into Dot’s house and create distinctive, Nightmare before Christmas-Themed Halloween masks.
We spoke with Case about her work this season and her advice for aspiring costume designers. Put on your warm coats and venture out into the Minnesota cold with us.
– YouTubeyoutube.com
Editor’s note: The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
No film school: Where did your inspiration come from for working on the costumes this season?
Carol Fall: Well, it always starts with the script, of course, and I think especially with Fargoit’s always a deep dive into the characters. It’s always like, who are these people and what drives them?
And the things that happen are so outlandish. How does that work in real life? So we always start there and then I have a lot of conversations with Noah because he’s kind of the guru of the show. And we usually have an idea of how he feels about these characters and then we go from there.
We discussed color a lot this year with the DP and the production designer, and so I basically built it in like Lego. Little pieces, little pieces, little pieces, and at the end we had a sketch or mood boards to determine what we wanted to do.
NFS: How do you try to get into the director’s head?
Case: Well, some people like to just give it to you, “This is what I want,” and then you can work from there. Other people are more visually oriented.
I think I’m also quite a visual person and so it almost feels better to communicate with images. I can say that a black turtleneck means one thing to you. It might mean something else to someone else.
I usually find that when we can talk about images, even if it’s just inspirational images or photographers that we both think fit what we do – it can be anything, any iconic image that people notice. Then you think, “Okay, yeah, I get it. I understand what that person is thinking.”
And usually it helps with the color too, because color is so important, you’re trying to create a palette that tells you who these people are and what they’re doing. I see my job as supporting the telling of the story. It’s about supporting the characters and helping the audience understand the characters better on another level.
Roy Tillman Costume DesignCarol Case/Provided
NFS: You mentioned that you were inspired by inspiration, and I read that you were inspired by classical paintings.
Case: When we started talking about the colors for this show, it was a pretty dark thing. It’s a dark subject matter. And we knew we were going to be shooting in southern Alberta, so the brightness of the white snow and the blue sky.
So we turned to the colors of the Old Masters, these super rich dark colors with lots of layers in them. If you look at an Old Master, it’s red with brown on top and a bit of yellow – it’s more layered than just mixed.
I felt like that was a good starting point for us to look at those colors and give ourselves depth and little onions to peel. Because we knew we wanted to achieve the depth of color and the color intensity of the old masters with quite a lot of texture, it just reads a lot better. It helps tell the story of that time – even though we know it’s happening now, but it’s been happening for thousands of years. And that’s the whole Ole Munch thing.
NFS: Ole Munch is my favorite character. Can we talk about how you came up with his look?
Case: He was probably the craziest character, of course, but to place him in the millennium, it’s hard to find the average person. And we had this little sequence where he played the medieval peasant. To take him from that guy to someone who can actually function in the real world is a huge leap.
That’s how the conversations started. We also talked a lot about how he’s not interested in fashion, but in comfort. It’s about what he can do with what he wears. And when it no longer serves him, he gets rid of it and starts something new.
The kilt idea – it puts him in another world, out of time, out of place, which I think is a good thing, because we know from the beginning that there’s something wrong with this guy. He’s not a run-of-the-mill mass murderer. There’s a reason for that.
It’s a lot about culture. It’s about depth and texture and how much some of the coats he wore were made from scratch. The first coat he wore, we made ourselves, but then he takes the coat from Irma, the landlady. He decides her coat is better than his and just leaves his coat and goes and gets another coat. And he does this several times or changes little things.
I love the idea of him wearing a kilt, but of course it’s not very practical. So he has to wear the long johns underneath to keep him warm in the Minnesota cold. So it was just a matter of adding those pieces for practical reasons. The actor who plays him, Sam Spruell, was very involved. He wanted to be involved in the development of the costume.
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NFS: In contrast to this outfit combination is the extreme wealth of Jennifer Jason Leigh’s character, so I imagine conveying that wealth through her appearance is also a big challenge.
Case: Absolutely, absolutely. And it’s a TV show, so we don’t necessarily have the money to run out and buy everything on Fifth Avenue. Jennifer wears it a lot. She sells every one of these looks. There’s nothing like a fur coat to sell wealth. And she did it fabulously.
We always wanted her to look like the richest woman in Minnesota and we modeled her a little bit after the first ladies, past first ladies, because in reality she is the first lady of Minnesota.
NFS: You also mentioned the practical aspect of heat. You work in sub-zero temperatures. What was that like?
Case: I lived there, so it is something I do often, but Fargo has always been the biggest challenge. And this year it was a big challenge again.
The weather wasn’t necessarily in our favor, and we were outside in minus 30 degrees Celsius. But I think a lot of the costumes I designed intentionally because I knew we were going to incorporate winter boots into the costume, and also just the ability to layer things up.
You don’t want a super tight jacket if you have to wear three layers underneath. And then in the next scene you go into the house and the actor is going to die of heat. Then they have to take off all those clothes and now the jacket is too big. That’s a fun line to run through there.
Noah and I have a running joke about Fargo that the only thing that matters with the costume is the coat. If the coat fits, we’ve made it.
NFS: It’s so funny that you mention that because Season 1 is one of my favorite TV shows ever and I’m just obsessed with the orange coat that Lester Nygaard wears.
Case: I think that’s the way it is with a winter show. You have to be able to identify with the people like you would with people who go outside in the winter. Not just: “It’s snowing outside. Now I’m going to put on a little trench coat and walk across the street.” Because that’s not how it is.
NFS: Do you think there are skills a costume designer must possess?
Case: I think it comes down to having a vision, the ability to imagine what things could look like or what they should look like.
And I think flexibility is really important, honestly. So many people are getting involved in something. It’s a TV show, an evolving live thing in itself, and you have to go with the flow, so to speak.
I think sometimes people’s downfall is getting too fixated on something. But I think the vision is the worst part.
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NFS: Do you have any advice for someone who wants to become a costume designer?
Case: Do all the other tasks. The worst costume designer is when he wants to be the designer right away. Because you don’t have the background. And then it’s hard to understand other people’s position. And it’s a team. The costume shop will always be a team, and without that team, it doesn’t matter how beautiful your drawings are or whatever, the reality is that we all work together.
NFS: Is there anything else you’d like to add about your Emmy-nominated episode “Insolubilia”?
Case: Many people want to know The Christmas nightmare Costumes. Thank you, Tim Burton. That was beautiful.
The only other thing I would say about this episode is the stunt work. There are a lot of stunts and a lot of stunts in really difficult costumes. So it requires a bit of finesse. It’s a lot of trial and error and you work very closely with the props department.
NFS: And I assume that there are multiple births.
Case: Oh yes, yes. The story of my life. “How many do you need?”
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