‘Life’s a journey’: Mary Elizabeth Winstead talks about her killer role on ‘Fargo’

Mary Elizabeth Winstead had come close to signing on for “Fargo� before, but scheduling conflicts prevented her from taking part in either of the first two seasons of FX’s celebrated anthology series.

“I was always pulling my hair out,� Winstead says while stopping by The Times’ video studio.

So when “Fargo� creator Noah Hawley called and asked if she’d be interested in a part for the show’s new season, Winstead accepted, sight unseen.

“I learned from watching the first two seasons that there’s no such thing as a bad part on this show,� Winstead says, adding that it’s the first time she has ever taken a part without first reading the script.

The role Hawley ended up giving her — Nikki Swango, a bubbly femme fatale and aspiring bridge champion — surprised Winstead, who was expecting something more along the lines of Allison Tolman’s sweet, smart police officer from Season 1. Instead, she was playing a woman with the know-how to use an air conditioning unit as a murder weapon and then brush it off by saying, “Life’s a journey.�

“What she does in the first episode is, like, ‘Whoa! This is a very interesting person with a complicated moral compass,’� Winstead says, laughing. “But she has this whole other side to her that’s very optimistic and beautiful and romantic.�

Elsewhere in the interview, Winstead talks about other ways the role has surprised her (she never expected “Fargo� to require trips to the gym … but then she didn’t know she’d be sharing a bathtub with costar Ewan McGregor, either), the bridge tournament research trip she took and why “bad-ass� women characters just seem to keep coming her way.

You can watch the full interview here:

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The actress instantly said yes to “Fargo� because “there’s no such thing as a bad part on this show.� But the “in-your-face� role surprised her.

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