Noah Hawley (Fargo Week)

[0] Welcome, welcome, welcome to armchair expert, experts on expert.

[1] I'm Dan Rather, and I'm joined by Modis Mouse.

[2] Hi there.

[3] Jacques Marie Maje.

[4] Yomani's in her Jauchmarie Marge.

[5] New sunglasses looking very cool.

[6] Yeah, and if you want to hear more, which I know you do, listen to the fact check.

[7] How could you resist?

[8] Try not to skip forward all the way to the fact check right now because you're so hot to hear about these Jacques Marie Marge.

[9] Today, to finish out Fargo Week, to close strong.

[10] And you heard the reverence that both of the actors we spoke to this week have for this man. Noah Hawley.

[11] Wow.

[12] He is the creator and the showrunner and the screenwriter and the director of Fargo.

[13] He's so outrageously talented.

[14] He's also a novelist.

[15] We'll get into this.

[16] Maybe it was prolific writer.

[17] No, we had, we had R. L. Stein.

[18] I guess he sets the bar pretty high for prolificness.

[19] I'm just saying quantity.

[20] I see.

[21] The fact that Noah wrote six novels while he was writing several different TV shows is seems impossible.

[22] That is a lot.

[23] But you probably love him from Fargo.

[24] He also created and ran Legion, Lucy in the Sky, My Generation, The Usuals.

[25] His books, just to name a few, the anthem, before the fall, and the Good Father.

[26] And of course, Season 5 of FX's Fargo is out now, which you probably have already consumed.

[27] And if not, I'm so jealous.

[28] Noah is so smart.

[29] This is such an interesting episode.

[30] Yeah, he definitely felt more like when we interview a professor from Harvard.

[31] Yes, it doesn't feel esoteric, which sometimes is the fear when we have showrunners or directors on.

[32] It doesn't feel like that at all.

[33] He's just an all -around polymath, hardcore.

[34] Please enjoy Noah Hawley.

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[38] Welcome.

[39] Thanks for being here.

[40] Hi Monica.

[41] Nice to meet you.

[42] I would ask if you're always up this early, but with the noise, I would imagine it's hard to ever sleep.

[43] Well, I am up this early.

[44] We don't ever record this early.

[45] This is unique.

[46] I appreciate you.

[47] Changing it up.

[48] We did this one other time.

[49] Do you remember I guess we had Monica when I crashed my visors in the way of it?

[50] Yeah.

[51] It's like a shirt.

[52] I don't remember, but yes, you cry.

[53] I was an expert when we were willing to do it at like seven in the morning and I used to live a thousand feet that way through this gated neighborhood and I have this electric bike and I'm coming over this hill, it's pitch black, it's like six in the morning and I'm flying on this electric bike and right as I crest of the hill there's a car coming.

[54] So I swerved to the right and then immediately there's a parked, it's like a set piece happening in a real life.

[55] So this one went much easier.

[56] I'm so glad.

[57] I don't want anyone injured No injuries yet I'm not a big believer in suffering for art I think it's misguided and macho thing Yeah that's actually a really great first topic Because I look around me and I hear these horror stories I'm not going to name name Well I'm going to name some names And then we're going to cut them out I hear these experiences of these different directors I have to acknowledge that the work is fucking great Yeah it's so disheartening I'm like is that the only way But I mean, clearly it's not, but do you ever succumb to that fear like, God, can you do it as a nice guy?

[58] Yeah, you can do it as a nice guy.

[59] There's no reason you can't do it as a nice guy.

[60] And there's no reason you can't just do your best work and go home to your family.

[61] Yeah.

[62] And I've certainly been exposed to the other side of it of people who believe that the drama has to exist off the screen as well as on the screen.

[63] And I think that's completely inefficient.

[64] I don't think it buys you anything really other than trauma.

[65] Right, right.

[66] And I read the 800 -page book on the making of 2001 of Space Odyssey.

[67] I don't know if you read that at all.

[68] I haven't.

[69] Please save me the 800 pages.

[70] Well, I read it.

[71] Two people almost died.

[72] You know, when they put the ape makeup on, you've got about three minutes of air.

[73] No way.

[74] Oh, my God.

[75] Oh, wow.

[76] And the same with the space helmets.

[77] So they almost killed a couple of actors because Kubrick was like, keep rolling.

[78] And so I read this 800 -page book while I was making Lucy in the sky.

[79] And I thought, well, if anyone wrote a book about this movie, they'd say they made the movie and that would be the book because it was just, we just showed up every day.

[80] We made the movie and I think all the energy is on the screen.

[81] But then again, you know, 2001 space honesty, it's a masterpiece.

[82] Of course.

[83] Yeah.

[84] I feel like it's an excuse to just be horrible.

[85] Like, I need this.

[86] I've earned it.

[87] I'm not sure.

[88] Well, let's put it this way.

[89] There's like a level of dedication and perfectionism that exists probably for.

[90] for Fincher, who's willing to do 78 takes.

[91] I admire what he's doing, and then in that process, people are likely going to suffer.

[92] And then that's when I start going like, fuck, do I have it in me?

[93] But there's a difference, I think, between what you're calling suffering and what David does.

[94] I mean, yes, it's a lot of takes within the energy of the day, but it's not...

[95] Almost dying in a girl.