By Mike McCarthy
If you are one of the few, including us that haven’t seen the hit FX show, Fargo you need to get on it. Among the stars like Kirsten Dunst and Patrick Wilson, you will find Emily Haine who is making her stand as a great supporting actress and has a lot of skills that will keep her around for a long time. Haine has had some bit parts on hit show, Supernatural and The 100, but Fargo will definitely make her a household name. When we prodded her for her favorite film that starred her co-star Kirsten Dunst she jumped right to “Interview with the Vampire and Virgin Suicides. Our favorites are Jumani, Spiderman and Wimbledon, which was a very underrated film. Make sure to check out Emily Haine on Fargo, on Monday nights on FX.
Wingman Magazine: You finished school and bought a one way ticket to Germany. Sounds like quite the story.
Emily Haine: Yeah, that’s true. It feels like a lifetime ago now but it was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I just felt that I really needed change and to get out into the world and get in touch with what it was that I wanted from life and what I needed and what I was drawn to. I spent a year backpacking and living off the bit of money that I saved up. When the money ran out, I got a job working in a bar in France and it all came into perspective that I could really make my life whatever I wanted it to be. There is this quiet freedom and just being able to survive out in the world without anything other than the clothes on your back and a backpack. That’s when I was like, “okay well I have always wanted to be an actress so why not.” That was a pivotal year for me and I decided then to go back home and get my UK Visa back and start the training. I think travelling on your own is something that every person should try and do because It’s freeing. There’s no deadline, there’s no expectations, it’s just you out there every day and it’s truly one of the best things I have ever done to myself.
Wingman Magazine: Have all of your pets had such colorful names?
Emily Haine: Oh my baby. Yeah. She is my very first pet of my own. It took a long time to name her. The Cuddlebutt part is because she’s just freaking cuddly all day long. In the morning she’s spooning me and she’s too much and gives me this face sometimes, I never want to get out of bed. It took me a long time to come up with Clementine, I was eating an orange one day and it came to me.
Wingman Magazine: You sing, play an instrument and act. Are you secretly a superhero? What is one secret talent you have that most people don’t know about?
Emily Haine: I would love to be a superhero don’t you even get started on that train. On Friday, it will be my first Karate class. I really want to be able to like kick some street thugs butt like in real life too. I was thinking of Krav Maga too, but I am here stuck with my Karate but you will have to wait and see.
Wingman Magazine: You have a pretty serious part on Fargo this season, tell us about it.
Emily Haine: Wow! She is a peculiar bird, Noreen. I think what we have common is that she marches to the beat of her own drum. I think she is a little bit stubborn and has strong beliefs in what she knows. I don’t want to give too much away. But yeah Noreen, she works in a butcher-shop, is an emancipated 17 year old and just witnesses some of the quirky things that go on in that town of Luverne and she definitely gets tested in existential ways and real way. She’s going to be confronted with these issues before the season’s over, that’s for sure. I think people in general have always learned from some direct hands on experience, and it wasn’t enough for me to be just told. I always had to learn it first hand and I think maybe she would be the same way.
Wingman Magazine: Had you seen season 1 or the film that inspired the show before being cast as Noreen? I know they made sure you were extremely prepared overall though.
Emily Haine: Yeah, definitely. I was a big fan of the movie from since I can remember It’s such a huge cult classic, that one and the Coen brothers, I am such a huge fan of their work. So before I got the show, when I was auditioning for it I just had to go and watch as many episodes from the first season as possible. I remember only getting to like episode eight or something of the first season and then being like “Oh my! Does this mean I could potentially work with Billy Bob Thornton and Martin Freeman and all these other huge stars.” I freaked out and was like, “Oh my! I can’t believe it” and then if you watch through to the end of the first season you realize “No that’s actually not possible, they must have an entire new cast.” That’s when I realized who got cast, and I was equally excited. It’s amazing. But yeah, I think just for dialect and thematic and plot and tone, I have watched the first season three times. I wanted to make sure I fit in that bizarro world that they have created, and that Noah has created.
Noah (Hawley), the creator and show-runner for the show was so great for that. I think that one of the privileges of being able to work on the show was that I got an email pretty much right after I booked it, and it was like “Listen to Devo, read these books.” He gave me so many different reference, that I just dove right in and I was just so grateful for and latched onto it and was fully immersed. I always kept a bit of a drawing journal ever since I was a kid and I was like what would a 17 year old in 1979 want the most out of anything. I pulled out a picture of a Sony Walkman from like ‘79 or something and just an hour or two reviewing that out and imagining, listening to records and being that girl. It was a different time.
Wingman Magazine: I am sure you have been watching Kirsten Dunst since you were young. How did working with her go for you?
Emily Haine: That went better than I could have ever expected. From day one, she just fully welcomed me and there was no ego or anything and she was so gracious to everyone on the cast and crew. I definitely felt like inside my inner me was just so intimidated because of the strong standing body work that she has done. And I remember when going into the trailer and seeing her there, she was just open arms, ready to talk to me about my character and knew all about my character. She is a real spearhead for the show. I think the people that are the stars of the production they really set the tone in a lot of ways for how things are run. It was just like a big family and I remember questioning, “What am I going to say?” And my inner dialogue, “What am I gonna say to her? I can’t ignore the fact that she has done all this great work, what am I going to say I don’t want to sound like a total rude” so I just kind of, shook her hand and I was like, “I really respect the work that you have done.”
Wingman Magazine: What one movie did you watch as a child that really made you want to be an actor?
Emily Haine: I can recall maybe like right before I started my training in London I saw the film with Nicole Kidman called “Dogville”. I think that’s also with Lars von Trier. Basically seeing her performance in that and the whole concept in that it just that Nicole comes into the town and it’s all just taped off like different rooms would be picked up all will look like a stage. Like a blank stage.
So there’s really no other stimulation in that maybe other than the interaction between the people. There’s no furniture, there’s no props there’s nothing. It’s like a black room and then, this storyline. It was one of the most disturbing and terrifying movies about human nature. I just remember watching that and thinking about how much they brought to that and how much she brought to that and how much it affected me without all the good stuff, like production in that other way. It was purely about their performance in that interaction and even though it was this twisted alternate reality, it still felt so true and disturbing. It was a really dark movie it was really hard to watch, but I knew when I saw the amount of talent and rawness, I knew that acting was for me.