Fargo's Juno Temple Was Deeply Frightened By This Scene In Season 5
This article contains spoilers for season 5, episode 8 of "Fargo." It also deals with domestic violence and reader discretion is advised.
No one expects stories told within the "Fargo" franchise to be light and fluffy, but season 5 of the anthology television series is absolutely brutal. There has been plenty of violence, familial dysfunction, and cruelty in previous seasons of the series, but almost nothing holds a candle to the viciousness of Jon Hamm's Sheriff Roy Tillman. Roy has no problem killing people in order to get his way, much like many of the series' other villains, but he also really has no problem abusing his wives. He even thinks the abuse is fully justified, at one point comparing his second wife Nadine (Juno Temple) to a wild horse that needs to be broken. Nadine managed to escape Roy and lived with a new husband, a new name (Dorothy, "Dot" to her friends), and even a daughter, but the season begins with her evil ex going out of his way to hunt her down.
Nadine/Dot and Roy have been careening toward one another for the whole season, and in episode 8, they finally reunite in a spectacular, violent way. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Temple explained that there were major precautions taken on set to ensure that everyone felt safe during one particular scene because even reading it felt absolutely terrifying.
An 'absolutely terrifying' confrontation
In the episode, Dot ends up chained to the floor in a small outbuilding on Roy's ranch. He comes back from a humiliating experience and takes it out on her, leading to a knock-down, drag-out fight between the two that at one point has Roy trying to beat her with the heavy chain itself. The first part of the confrontation, in which Roy actually beats poor Dot, is thankfully not shown onscreen, but we can still hear the brutality. Temple explained her feelings about it and why they decided to film the sequence on a closed set:
"I thought that was absolutely terrifying just when I read it, with the Bible, reading scripture, and with the shackles, and that. I was just like, 'Wow.' [...] Not everybody needs to watch it. And, because people who I was working closely with have talked about experiences that they'd been through, it ended up being unbelievably respectfully done."
Temple didn't do the stunts in the scene and even joked that she's dyslexic and might have "rolled the wrong way," but she did have a shocking revelation while watching her stunt double, Louise Hradsky, do a run-through with the proper protective gear. Temple had "this realization that, normally, women don't get a crash helmet." Roy is an unrepentant monster who screams Bible verses about Babylon while trying to kill his wife, but he's unfortunately all too recognizable a monster for many women.
Defiance in the face of wrath
The way "Fargo" has dealt with domestic violence this season has been fairly sensitive to the struggles many women face, even using marionettes to tell the most disturbing parts of Nadine's history with Roy. For so much of their relationship, she was a child and couldn't fight back, but she's now a grown woman and she has a life worth fighting for. It's a necessary, if painful, scene, but that doesn't mean the cast and crew took things frivolously. Temple even created a tent for people to come unwind in, with flowers and fairy lights and such to help with more stressful moments. She tried to cultivate a sense of safety for everyone, because "if you feel unsafe, you're not gonna go there. And if you're not going to go there, what's the point in even trying to tell a story like that?"
There have been some interesting connections between the original "Fargo" film and season 5, including a plucky police officer who's better at her job than anyone around her and a direct reference to the film's original crime, but Dot might be the most fierce femme in the whole franchise. Sorry, Marge!
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233. You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.