Joel Coen Lied To Steve Buscemi's Face About His Character In Fargo

There are plenty of unique scenes and different characters that fans of the 1996 movie "Fargo" can choose as their favorites. One has to be Steve Buscemi's Carl, a squirrelly wannabe tough guy whose self-centered pettiness ends up leading to his demise. On the Tribeca Film Festival stage, Buscemi recalled that he didn't truly comprehend his character until he got to wardrobe. "When [costume designer Mary Zophres] put me in those clothes and I looked in the mirror, I suddenly understood who this guy is," Buscemi recalled. "It's the polyester sweaters." His clothes, combined with how other characters ended up describing the criminal (as "just kind of funny looking"), ended up being the foundation under what ended up becoming Carl.

Throughout "Fargo," it's Carl's continuing greed and cheapness that leads him down a path to meet his fate. Requesting more money for payment to kidnap and ransom Jerry Lundegaard's (Macy) wife, killing a parking attendant for making him pay to leave the lot, and demanding half his cut from the psychopath Gaear Grimsrud (Peter Stormare), all resulted in Carl being torn up in a buzzing wood chipper. Luckily, Buscemi didn't pursue that sort of revenge on Joel Coen for not completely being honest with him in pre-production. Although, any sort of retaliation may not be necessary, as Coen seems to punish himself enough. He admitted to having "a hard time watching his movies without seeing the flaws." That is surely in stark contrast to how many "Fargo" fans see the film.