Frances McDormand
Being married to the director certainly didn’t hurt when it came to landing the plum role of Marge Gunderson, but McDorman actually had to be coaxed into taking it. Wanting to change her good girl image, she was on the lookout for a bad girl role when Marge came into her life. Contrary to what might think, McDormand was not herself actually pregnant during shooting. The role was written as a pregnant woman and McDormand wore a pregnancy prosthetic. The role of Marge eventually earned McDormand her first Best Actress Oscar.
William H. Macy
Hard as it is to imagine anyone other than eventual Best Supporting Actor nominee William H. Macy in the role of the deceitful husband, he actually almost lost out to Bill Pullman. Macy originally auditioned for the part of a state trooper, but when he saw the part of Lundegaard, he recognized a brilliant matching of actor to character and thereupon set out on a course of heavily campaigning for the part. When Pullman had to pull out, the part was his.
Steve Buscemi
Unlike Macy, Buscemi hardly had to campaign for the part of weaselly petty criminal Carl Showalter. The Coens actually wrote the part specifically for Buscemi to play. The three would team again in the Coens' very next movie The Big Lebowski.
Peter Stormare
Swedish actor Peter Stormare had first been approached by the Coens to play a part in their Irish gangster epic Miller’s Crossing. He corrected what he later admitted was a mistake in turning down that offer by taking on the role of the half of the kidnapping duo who talks very little and doesn’t wind up in the wind chipper. Stormare’ character has only about a tenth of the lines of dialogue that the loquacious character played by Buscemi delivers.
Harve Presnell
Although Presnell made his film debut in 1964, he had not been seen on the big screen for a quarter of a century when he appeared in Fargo. Following Fargo, he worked consistently in movies and television until his death in 2009.
Steve Park
The actor who appears in the most awkward scene in the film—which is saying something—made his film debut in Do the Right Thing. The character of Marge’s old school friend still carrying a torch often seems awkward in another way: as if the writers are trying to show how Marge has a life outside her duties as cop and wife. In fact, however, the scene which seems to not quite fit in with the rest of the film can be interpreted as essential to the plot if one views it from the perspective of Marge getting the idea that Jerry is being less than honest about the kidnapping of his wife from the way that Mike is less than honest about the state of his wife’s current mortality.
