‘Fargo’: Joe Keery Previews His Father-Son Relationship With Jon Hamm in Year 5

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Fargo‘s fifth installment is mere days away and as the FX favorite’s return looms so do new characters yet-to-be-met, such as Joe Keery‘s Gator Tillman.

While fans may know him for his role as Steve Harrington in Stranger Things, the actor is branching out in a big way. Working closely with Jon Hamm who plays his Sheriff father, Roy Tillman in the 2019-set chapter, Keery dabbles with an interesting father-son dynamic. Visiting the Calgary-located set earlier this year, TV Insider got a peek behind the curtain in terms of what viewers can anticipate.

“The particular father-son dynamic is another one of those very delicate balances tonally because I think there is a real specific kind of love that Roy has for his son,” Hamm teased at the time. “And yet there’s a different hierarchy that Roy tends to pay attention to as it goes with God and country, things like that.”

(Credit: Frank W Ockenfels III/FX)

“I think that the push and pull of those particular allegiances is another big part of what the season is about and it’s fascinating and what Joe’s doing with the character is really quite moving,” Hamm commended.

But we also chatted with Keery about his character while on set. Below, the actor opens up about Gator, the draw to do something new, and reveals what it was like to collaborate with the show’s creator, writer, and director, Noah Hawley as well as costar Hamm.

Who is Gator Tillman in the world of Fargo?

Joe Keery: Gator is the son of Roy Tillman and he is — I don’t want to say pseudo but —a sheriff’s deputy of Stark County, and we are really introduced to him as a chess piece underneath Jon’s iron fist — underneath Roy. And he’s the sort of guy who is slightly disillusioned about his own power and maybe a little bit bloated about his self-worth.

(Credit: Michelle Faye/FX)

Gator is described as a modern cowboy with daddy issues. Could you elaborate on that?

Well, I think he likes to think of himself as a cowboy, but if you drop him in the middle of a field by himself, I don’t know if he would have the best chance of surviving. He also has daddy issues because he’s coming from a place of privilege, and I think that plays a huge part in the character is somebody who is kind of swinging from up top and doesn’t maybe realize that.

Did he come across as unlikeable when you read the initial scripts?

Yeah, definitely.

Was that a draw for you as he’s quite different from your fan-favorite character Steve on Stranger Things?

Yeah, I think for me personally, it’s all about playing characters that are really different. This was a different challenge that I hadn’t sort of been exposed to. But the main draw for me was working with Noah, truly. I was a huge fan of this show, and he’s just always been someone that I thought would be an amazing person to work with just because he is the type of director that you just can innately trust. And that’s the thing that you look for. Or the thing that I look for is someone who you have ultimate faith in that they know what they want and they know what they need and put something together that is powerful. And I think that this season is going to be very powerful for a lot of people.

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What was it like getting to collaborate with Jon Hamm behind the scenes?

Obviously, I’m a huge of his. I think for everybody in Mad Men is a very seminal television show, so I think it really played into maybe the reverence that Gator has for his father in a nice way, actually. And their relationship, at least for Gator, is all about trying to please his father and trying to show his father that he can be the man that he wants him to be. And he wants to be treated and considered an equal but throughout a series of events, it’s proven difficult to do that. So yeah, it’s been amazing. Everybody on the show has been amazing. I feel like I’ve been able to learn a lot about what it means to do this job well. So it’s been a big leap for me.

Fargo, Year 5 Premiere, Tuesday, November 21, 10pm ET/PT, FX (Next day on Hulu)