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Fargo Season 4: Chris Rock Explains How The Break In Production Helped His Performance

The actor explains dealing with the production stoppage, being cast in a serious role, and picking roles.

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Like most movie and TV productions during the COVID-19 pandemic, FX's Fargo came to a halt back in March while shooting Season 4. However, a new premiere date of September 27 was announced by the network last month, and this long break was actually good for the star of the new season, Chris Rock.

During an FX event for the press, Rock discussed just what it was like working on a TV show in the midst of a pandemic. "I got in the car. I kissed my wife. She went over the bridge. No that's that Will Smith movie. I'm sorry," Rock said during the press event, referring to Smith's I Am Legend. "It was definitely frustrating to stop when we stopped because you feel like you're on a roll. But you know, you're eight shows in, and you're also exhausted.

"It allowed me--I don't know about everybody else--to like recharge my battery. And, you know, and I saw a couple of the episodes, I was like, 'Okay, let me work on my game.' I don't know if anybody's following basketball right now but the Miami Heat is like, 'Oh they had a break, and now they're better than everybody,' even though they weren't before--like the break helped them more than everybody else. So the break helped me. Honestly, I think my last two shows are my best."

The transition for comedians to actors isn't foreign, as Eddie Murphy, Whoopi Goldberg, Jim Carrey, Robin Williams, Jamie Foxx, Richard Pryor, and many others have done this with varying levels of success. When it comes to Rock, he doesn't look at these roles as comedic or serious. "I believe everything that's good is good because it's taken seriously. So I don't really like the term 'serious acting.' I think Jim Carrey when he's being in Dumb and Dumber is acting funny, very seriously. I'm attracted to the storytelling and the filmmaking."

This is, however, a different role for Rock, who plays Loy Cannon in Season 4 of FX's Fargo. Cannon is the head of an African American crime family in 1950s Kansas City. "I was just happy to be offered a decent part that was well-rounded. I gotta say [Fargo producer] Warren Littlefield has offered me decent parts for years. And it just hasn't worked out. And this is the first time it really worked out but aside from Warren Littlefield, no one ever offers me decent parts. It was actually great to play somebody like my age, too. It's like I kind of got really famous at 35 or whatever 37, and everything that's offered to me it's like I'm kind of like a man boy. So, it was great to actually play a grown ass man."

You can see Rock as Loy Cannon in Season 4 of Fargo when it airs on FX on Sunday, September 27 at 9 PM. The first two episodes will air that night, and subsequent Sundays will air new episodes at 10 PM, with them landing on Hulu the following day.

Mat Elfring on Google+

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