page_title: Lester Nygaard
section_title: Production
hierarchical_section_title: Lester Nygaard / Production
caption_attribution_description: English: William H. Macy at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival.
context_page_description: Lester Nygaard is a fictional character in the first season of the FX television series Fargo and is portrayed by Martin Freeman, who received positive reviews for his performance, and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Critics' Choice Television Award for his performance.
context_section_description: Freeman was initially hesitant to accept the role, because he was not interested in doing more television and didn't want to leave London to film another project due to him just getting off filming The Hobbit, a project that caused him to be away from his family for a long period of time. But was very impressed by the idea that it would only be ten episodes, stating, "The reason I've never gone for pilot season even as a younger actor, and wouldn't entertain that sort of thing now, is the idea of signing a piece of paper that binds me for six or seven years. So [Fargo] was already interesting. I read the script and that was enough for me. A very good script that only lasts 10 episodes was like, 'Great! That's right up my street'."
  Freeman kept his Minnesota accent at all times during filming, due to the fear that he would lose it.
  Due to the obvious similarities of the characters of Lester and Jerry Lundegaard of the original film, Freeman has stated that he purposely decided not to watch the original film to prevent his role to seem like an imitation of William H. Macy's portrayal of Lundegaard. Freeman was quoted as saying "[Macy's] a brilliant actor and the world doesn't need another actor doing a Bill Macy impression and I don't need to be doing that and he doesn't need it and all of that. So, I purely treated it as my performance of a different character, albeit with some comparison. There are some parallels, but I was too busy concentrating on what I was doing with 'Lester' really. At the risk of protesting too much, I know I'm not playing that."
caption: Freeman purposely avoided watching the original film to avoid comparisons to William H. Macy's performance
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