Interview: Dave Foley Discusses His Role in Season 5 of ‘Fargo’

Dave Foley has been making waves in the world of comedy for over thirty years. Best known as a founding member of the influential Canadian comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall, as well as his starring role in the sitcom NewsRadio, Foley has appeared in films such as Disney/Pixar’s A Bug’s Life, The Wrong Guy, and Blast from the Past, as well as sitcoms like The Middle, Dr. Ken, and Hot in Cleveland. Recently, Foley took a turn to drama in the fifth season of FX’s hit series, Fargo, in which he portrays Danish Graves, the council and right-hand man to Lorraine Lyon, portrayed by Jennifer Jason Leigh. 

Foley was offered the role in Fargo thanks in part to both Kids in the Hall and NewsRadio. “I was at the Hollywood Critics Association Awards, and the Kids in the Hall won an award that night, which we were very surprised by,” said Foley. “Afterward, I ran into [“Fargo” producer and former NBC President of Entertainment] Warren Littlefield, who I knew from back in my NewsRadio days, who was always a big supporter of our show. We chatted for a while, because we hadn’t talked in about twenty years. Then a couple of months after that, I got a call saying that they wanted me to do a part in Fargo. Apparently, as I understand, it was Warren who suggested to [Fargo showrunner] Noah [Hawley] that I might be good as Danish. Noah wasn’t appalled by the idea, so they offered me the job.”

Foley approached the role of Danish as a man in search of a family. “I would say in many ways, he’s an orphan,” said Foley. “I think he’s a man without family or roots, and who has decided that this really ruthless woman is going to be his family. And he’ll do anything for that family, anything at all, no matter how evil. That’s kind of the only place he belongs. He absolutely admires Lorraine and her ruthlessness. He aspires to be Lorraine.”

There was very little need to deviate from what was on the written page for Foley. “My goal was just was to stick very close to the script and try to do what was on the page, because the writing was so good,” he said. “That was a wonderful feeling when when that’s all you’re worried about just, ‘How do I not ruin this?’ as opposed to, ‘How do I make this make sense?,’  which is sometimes what happens. It was all there. Even the eye patch was in there, although in the script, all it said was ‘From a childhood injury,’ There was no other explanation. I kept thinking, ‘Oh, this is going to make sense. Eventually we’re going to hear what happened,’ but no.”

That eye patch, as it turns out, was slightly more problematic to perform in than Foley anticipated. “It was very difficult to drive,” he said. “I had to drive a quarter million dollar Porsche through the snow without my glasses on and with an eye patch. And I very foolishly decided during the wardrobe fitting to put the eye patch over my good eye. So, the eye that actually has the better vision, I covered up. It was also a little difficult walking up and downstairs, as well as reaching for my coffee.”

The world in which Danish is accustomed to excelling is a very different world than Jon Hamm’s character, Roy Tillman, excels in, which Foley believes gives Danish false sense of confidence. “Danish is living in a world where everyone’s afraid of him because of what he can do to them financially or reputationally,” said Foley.  Whereas Jon’s character lives in a world of true ruthlessness and actual violence, as opposed to just emotional or intellectual violence. Danish thinks everyone’s afraid of him because he has the power of Lorraine behind him, and he starts to think that power actually emanates from him and that he’s untouchable. He’s used to intimidating people. I guess you could liken it to someone like Michael Cohen, who was once a kind of hit man for his terrible boss. And then suddenly when that superstructures is pulled out from under him, the realizes, ‘Oh, none of that was me.’”

Many of Foley’s scenes are with Leigh, and while Foley is a seasoned professional actor, he still found working with her to be a little intimidating. “I’ve been a fan of Jennifer’s ever since I was a movie usher working in the theater where “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” was running. I think I’ve seen everything Jennifer’s been in. I worked with her once before in a movie in Canada called “Childstar”a long time ago, so I knew she was a very nice person. But you definitely go into those scenes going, ‘Oh, I hope they don’t just have to cut around me.’ Danish will be all off-camera voice.” 

Most of Foley’s career has been in the world of comedy, though he approaches drama no differently as a performer. “With The Kids in the Hall, we always approached comedy as though it was drama in terms of performance,” said Foley. “We always believe that you have to play it straight. I think that was kind of true of NewsRadio too. The idea was we always kind of had an approach of burying the comedy. Never highlighting or pointing an arrow at the comedy.  Especially when I’m in other people’s scenes. In “Kids,” your thought is always just, ‘Okay, what do I need to do to make this scene work? What do I have to do to make this believable, and in the case of a comedy, make all the jokes work?’ Your’e just really understanding them, understanding the material and understanding what you’re supposed to do and what you’re supposed to accomplish. I think the only thing for me was, because I’m a comedian and there’s so much dark comedy in Fargo, I relied on Noah to tell me where he’d want to dial stuff up and down in terms of playing the comic moments of it. I probably leaned towards really dialing down the comedy in some places, and I think Noah probably brought it back up a little bit in places.”

Dave Foley has tackled nearly every form of entertainment medium, including television, film, sketch comedy, voice over and stand-up comedy, but he doesn’t necessarily prefer one over another.”There’s aspects of each thing that I really love,” he said. “I wish radio plays would come back. I’d like to do more of that. But the detail and control of doing a single camera film performance is really fun, and I love being on a film set. I don’t think there’s any place I’m more comfortable. But doing a multi-cam show in front of a live audience with a really good ensemble is kind of a thrilling thing on its own. It is an art form, and it’s when it’s done properly, like All in the Family or Mary Tyler Moore, or the old Dick Van Dyke Show, it’s a unique hybrid of theater and film.  And it’s also the only time, unless you’re in a really privileged position, that you get to rehearse. You don’t usually get to rehearse when you’re making films or doing a single camera TV show. But on a on a sitcom, you spend three, four days getting to rehearse and work the material, which is a nice aspect of it.”

You can watch our full interview with Dave Foley below, which includes conversations about the political climate found in Fargo, as well as his UFO-focused podcast, ‘REALLY?! with Tom and Dave.’

Season 5 of FX’s “Fargo” is currently streaming on Hulu.