‘Fargo’ Season 2 Hollywood Premiere: 7 Things Scene and Heard (Photos)

Billy Bob Thornton’s advice to Kirsten Dunst, FX President John Landgraf on listening to the critics, and the top moments from inside Wednesday night’s event

Kirsten Dunst, Patrick Wilson, and the cast of "Fargo" celebrated the new season in Hollywood on Wednesday night, October 7. (Getty Images)

As FX’s highly-anticipated “American Horror Story: Hotel” premiere episode was thrilling audiences on Wednesday night, another bloody anthology series from the “fearless” network was unspooling in Hollywood — the Season 2 premiere of “Fargo.”

Kirsten Dunst, Patrick Wilson, Jesse Plemons, Jean Smart, Cristin Milioti, Nick Offerman, and fresh from Carnegie Mellon University, Rachel Keller walked the largest carpet the Arclight in Hollywood can hold before retreating for an after party across the street.

Read TheWrap’s seven standout moments from the celebration of the chilling return of the 18-time Emmy nominated show that has been off the air for 16 months.

1. Billy Bob Thornton Gives Kirsten Dunst a Secret Tip

“I ran in to Billy Bob in Nashville just before I was about to go away and work and he told me to have production get me a Canada Goose,” Dunst told TheWrap. “They did. I didn’t have to pay for that.”

For warm weather Angelenos, a “Canada Goose” is a “really good expensive warm jacket,” Dunst explained. However, the actress’ interaction with Season 1 star Thornton is the exception to the rule, as of the several cast members TheWrap talked to, nearly all said they had no contact or insights from their predecessors in the anthology series.

HOLLYWOOD, CA - OCTOBER 07: Executive Producer Warren Littlefield (R) and his family arrive at the Premiere Of FX's 'Fargo' Season 2 at ArcLight Cinemas on October 7, 2015 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Barry King/Getty Images)
Executive Producer Warren Littlefield and his “+3” – his family. (Barry King/Getty Images)

2. Hey Critics, They’re Reading You

FX President John Landgraf reads his reviews … out loud.

Before screening the premiere episode, and after extolling creator/showrunner/writer Noah Hawley for “staring down the woodchipper of fate” a second time and delivering a great season, Landgraf read very long sections from five different glowing reviews out loud to the crowd.

Hawley would follow the boss by deadpanning, “It’s not that good really.”

3. Live Reviews Too

The glowing reviews were not limited to the printed word. As lead Patrick Wilson made his way out of the theater, one guest was giving him a verbal bath: “It’s what you do so well,” he told Wilson of his performance as Lou Solverson, the cop/father to Season 1’s female lead Molly (Allison Tolman).

The scene inside summer hotspot Le Jardin, where Samantha Ronson and Zen Freeman were the hit DJ's this summer. (Mikey Glazer)
The scene inside summer hotspot Le Jardin, where Samantha Ronson and Zen Freeman were the hit DJ’s this summer. (Mikey Glazer)

4. A Secret Tunnel

The Arclight has long been plagued by having no obvious after party location without an awkward car ride of two minutes or a just-too-long sidewalk hike in heels … until now. Producers smartly opened a hidden tunnel from the Arclight plaza that guests walked through to enter summer hotspot Le Jardin from the back.

5. A Waffle-Free Feed

A “Waffle Hut” figures prominently in the opening episode (production shot at the mocked up location “in the middle of nowhere” for six nights before another three nights of reshoots) but the fare at the after party was classic California — butternut squash ravioli, salads and mini avocado toasts.

Inside the after party, heat lamps jumping the gun on winter (it was 72 degrees) kept the roped off VIP section in the northwest corner as hot as the reviews Landgraf read earlier. Dunst shared a toast with Cristin Milioti (billed as a “guest star” in the opening episode — we’re not sure what that means for her future), Jean Smart, and Bokeem Woodbine.

6. Speaking of “Cheers”

While Executive Producer Warren Littlefield, who was so involved in the rise and fall of NBC’s “Must See TV” that he wrote a book about it, was front and center in all aspects of Thursday night’s premiere, the one star MIA at the premiere was his colleague from the “Cheers” days, Ted Danson. Danson plays Molly Solverson’s grandfather in the 1979 version of the show.

7. Next on the Docket: “American Crime Story”

Smartly priming the pump, cast from the forthcoming “O. J. Simpson Trial” series “American Crime Story” were on hand with their FX brethren on Wednesday night.

Sterling Brown, who plays District Attorney Chris Darden, told TheWrap that he could not watch what was then known as “The Trial of the Century” — his Stanford courseload didn’t leave him time in 1994 and 1995.

“Fargo” Season 2 premieres on Monday, Oct. 12 at 10 p.m. on FX.


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