As the Oscar-winning Coen brothers classic reaches its three decade anniversary, stars of the film discuss the stories behind its production

William H Macy was originally slated for the modest role of a detective in Fargo. Then the film’s directors, Joel and Ethan Coen, asked if he would like to read for the lead part of Jerry Lundegaard. “I said: ‘Boy, do I!’,” recalls Macy. He memorised the script that night and impressed the Coens but needed to seal the deal.

Macy heard the pair were in New York, got his “jolly ass” on a plane and deployed some Coen-esque dark humour. “I said, I’m worried you’re gonna screw up your movie by casting someone else. I knew Ethan had just gotten a little puppy and I said: ‘Man, you don’t give me this role, I’m gonna shoot your dog.’”

Critics say brash, bombastic Fox News host out of his depth to guide US military through murky new Middle East conflict

Brash and bellicose, he sounded more like a cartoon bully than a sombre statesman. “Death and destruction from the sky all day long,” Pete Hegseth, wearing a red, white and and blue tie and pocket square, bragged to reporters at the Pentagon near Washington. “This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be.”

Hegseth, 45, a former Fox News TV host who now commands the world’s most powerful military, has this week become the face of Donald Trump’s war in Iran. That has set off alarm bells for critics who warn that the Secretary of Defense – pointedly rebranded “Secretary of War” – has rapidly transformed the Pentagon into the staging ground for an ideological and religious crusade.

Deploying the world’s most powerful military seems to exert an almost erotic fascination for Donald Trump

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It was a claim uttered repeatedly on the 2024 campaign trail: “I’m the only president in 72 years that didn’t start a war,” Donald Trump said in Sioux City, Iowa.

Fact checkers cried foul and pointed out that Jimmy Carter, president from 1977 to 1981, did not start any wars either. But Trump won the election anyway.