An ability to play kindness got Lamorne Morris a role on “Fargo,” then came the Emmy nomination

When Lamorne Morris got the call from “Fargo” showrunner Noah Hawley offering him a leading role in Season 5, he was confused at first. “You want Winston in this?” he recalls thinking, referring to the character he played for seven seasons on Fox’s eminently bingeable “New Girl,” sensitive prankster and cat lover Winston Bishop.

For the audience to connect with “Fargo” character deputy Witt Farr, Hawley knew he needed somebody with Morris’s rare skill for communicating simple human kindness. The role has now earned Morris his first Emmy Award nomination. During our “Salon Talks” conversation, Morris called the new recognition “a blessing” and explained how he naturally folded comedy into performing with his co-stars.

The actor once dubbed “sweetest man alive” by Edible Arrangements told me about the enduring impact of Winston, filling in for Jimmy Kimmel the night President Biden dropped out of the 2024 race, and the surprising truth about his real deal with cats.

Watch my “Salon Talks” with Lamorne Morris here on YouTube or read our conversation below.

This transcript has been edited for clarity and length.

Let’s start with “Fargo.” You were a fan, and you were watching it when you got the call about being on the show?

Yeah. In my phone, I had a list of shows to watch. “Fargo” was at the top of that list. I think I was on season three when I got the call. So I started watching everything, I was like, maybe I’ll get calls about all kinds of shows, maybe they’ll put me on “Game of Thrones.”

When I got the call, it was very surreal because it wasn’t an audition. It was an offer, and the director Noah Hawley wanted to meet with me. I’ve never been more grateful, because it’s such a departure from anything you’d seen me do prior to that. “New Girl” was a bit more comical and whimsical, and “Woke,” and some of the movies. But this one, the stakes are a lot higher, it’s a bit more grounded, it’s dramatic. So when I got that call, I was so confused. I kept asking him, “Do you want Winston in this? Do you want this to be a ‘New Girl’-y thing?”

He said, “No, it is your interpretation of the script and the character, and I want your kindness to show through.” He’s like, “That’s what we need from this character, and we need someone who’s just genuinely kind.” I was like, “Oh, thank you very much. I appreciate that.” So they gave me the job, and then here we are, Emmy-nominated, which is a blessing.

Well, the kindness is your thing. You’ve already won some accolades, you were Edible Arrangement’s “Sweetest Man Alive.”

Thank you for saying so, that means a lot.

As a guy who is known for his sweet roles, do you ever just want to play an absolute monster?

I do. I’m looking for the day that somebody hires me to play a villain in a horror movie. I want to do that so bad. I think it would work, I know it would work. I’m just waiting for that call.

Your character, he’s the heart of this season. Winston in “New Girl” became a policeman, and now you get to be an officer of the law again in “Fargo.” What did you bring from your life and your experience to this character?

Yeah, a lot. There were a lot of things in there to unpack. [For] the character itself, I had to look into my life and figure out folks that I know who may have behaved this way, or their personalities were centered the way Witt Farr’s was. I tapped in with some family members, some friends who I know who are very soft-spoken, very driven. I definitely tapped into that. I’m from the Midwest, so I’m used to hearing the Minnesota accent. The heart of Chicago accent has some similarities as well, so that was easy to pull from.

And just overall life experiences: This character is someone who owes a great debt to this woman who saved his life, and he sees that she clearly needs help but doesn’t want to say anything. Without saying too much, I grew up in an environment where I definitely understood when someone’s going through something and they don’t want to say anything. Maybe they’re too proud, or maybe they’re too scared, or too nervous to admit what they’re going through. I had to try to tap into that while on set.

It was easy because Juno Temple, I acted opposite her in a few episodes, and she is an intense actor in the greatest ways. She’s always connecting with you. She’s always making sure you’re both in the same mind frame, you’re in the same pocket, the objective is still happening. She definitely kept me thinking about some of the things that I had gone through, and family members had gone through, and friends had gone through in the past. She helped a lot with that process too.

You’re in a cast that has all got great comic chops. You call this show a comedy, yet I’ve seen comedies that didn’t freak me out or disturb me as much as this one. What was it like working with a cast that has a strong comedic background on a show that is both funny and dramatic?

It was a fine line to walk because it is a comedy, but it does have those absurd moments of violence. When you watch “Fargo,” a lot of the actors that they cast are straight-up comedic performers, but put in these heightened scenarios.

There is a truth in comedy. When you play something honestly, in real life it’s going to be funny. With comics, especially in the improv scene, you play the straight person and you play the punchline person. There’s always the quirky character, and there’s always the straight person, so you’re used to bouncing back and forth.

On “Fargo,” there is this throughline of truth that you have to play. If the audience laughs, then they laugh, but you’re just playing it honestly, you’re staying true to your character. There are a couple of moments in “Fargo” where I definitely was super dramatic, in certain ways. But every once in a while, something would come out and someone would laugh off-camera, and I’d go, “What are they laughing at?” It’s like, “Oh, I guess it was funny. I don’t know.”

You talk about your background in improv. You studied at Second City, you got a Chris Farley scholarship. Now you’re in the movie “Saturday Night.” Did you draw on your time in improv for this role? What did you know about “Saturday Night Live” before making the film?

When I started in comedy, I knew of “SNL,” obviously, like everybody else did. I grew up on “Saturday Night Live,” “In Living Color,” “MADtv.” Those are my favorite shows. “Chappelle’s Show.” I knew about Garrett Morris, who I’m playing in the film, “Saturday Night,” but I knew of him from “Martin,” or from “The Jamie Foxx Show.” I didn’t realize that he was on the original cast of “SNL,” no idea.

That was fascinating because I started obviously researching the character and speaking with Garrett, who’s still with us, and who’s still as funny and as sharp as ever. I remember speaking with him and learning all these things about his life. You can only do so much research online and try to figure out who this person is, but when you speak to them, you can really tap into what they were feeling during those days. So I learned a lot.

I started thinking about my Second City days, and in Second City, on the walls, you see all of the historical figures that come through those grounds. You see the faces up there and you go, well, half those folks are on “Saturday Night Live.” More than half of them. I’ve never been on “Saturday Night Live,” I’ve been there to watch. Now being a part of the cast of the film, it feels to me just as great. I just have one hope that they at least allow me to host the show for an episode. I don’t know who we got to talk to.

From your lips to Lorne Michaels’ ears, right?

Yep. I just want to host.

“Fargo” is a very different role for you. It seems like the last few years you have, very consciously, sought out a variety of things. Now that you are an Emmy-nominated thespian —

I didn’t hear that, what’d you say?

I said, “Emmy-nominated.”

Oh, sorry. Thank you.

The Emmy-nominated “Sweetest Man Alive.” How does this change things for you? How does it change the mess around for you?

Oh, my gosh. I don’t know. Life is very interesting right now. But here’s the thing, I don’t want it to change anything. Obviously, I want more opportunities to have fun and play, and work with different folks that I like, and get to meet cool people. But I’m very happy with the way my life is, and my group of friends, my family.

Being on set is a treat. I look at it as a bit of a vacation because you get to go and play. The stakes are very low, that’s what we do for a living. We get to have fun, we get to do things, we get to talk to people. This is supposed to be stress relieving, and so sometimes when you’re on set, that’s what it is. So hopefully, I just get more opportunities to do that.

And diving into other things. The podcasting space is my love letter to fans where you get a genuine look at what my personality actually is. I get to speak freely and be silly. Whether the jokes are funny or not, I’m saying them. I have a good rapport back and forth with fans because of it now, where they write me very honest critiques, “Hey, Lamorne, stop swearing so much.” And I go, “Maybe I should.” I’ll read the comments all the time. It’s just fun for me because it’s not so controlled by producers, and there [isn’t] a casting process, none of that. It’s just, I’m at my house, and I record, and I’m having fun.

So is one of those people who says you shouldn’t curse so much your mom?

My mom, yeah. My mom writes in, she just uses different names as people commenting. “Hi, this is Steve. Stop cursing so much.”

Because your mom doesn’t like you to curse.

No, she doesn’t. Oh no, she hates it. that’s her least favorite thing. In fact, my mom shamed me the other day. She said, “When you’re hosting Kimmel, try not to swear so much.” She started singing a song, by the way. She’s singing a song to me going, “You don’t have to curse, it doesn’t make you look cool.” She’s like, “You only look like a fool.” She just keeps going on, and on, and on, and on.

And you’re 40, right?

Yes, 40. I’m soon to be 41. I’ll be 41 tomorrow. If anyone’s going to keep you grounded, it’s going to be your mother.

It was your second time guest hosting “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” last month, one of the biggest late-night shows in the world. What happens the Sunday before you start your week there?

This is when the president stepped down. I was like, “You’ve got to be kidding me. Jimmy, we need you. Jimmy, we need you.” Nobody wants to hear from me, nobody wants to hear from Winston about what’s going on in politics. It was strange. The writers there are very funny, so they at least made my experience there very even, because I don’t like talking about politics. It’s a tough job, I’m assuming, so it’s easy to critique. It’s easy to poke fun at some of the funny things that may happen, or Biden’s age, or whatever, this person’s record, or Trump’s orange [tan].

It’s easy to poke fun at those things. But I don’t do that job for a reason because I’m sure it’s very difficult. The writers definitely made sure we kept jokes even, down the middle. So if I’m talking about the left, I’m talking about the right. It’s not my field of expertise, I just like to have fun. And I don’t want it to truly be at the expense of someone, especially when I know I couldn’t do that job to save my life.

When you got the news on that Sunday, did you think, “Oh boy, my Monday just got a lot more interesting?

Yes. The nerves. The nerves, that was the thing. It was mainly because of backlash. Politics are so heightened these days, probably now more than ever. Doing a show like “Kimmel” where he loves speaking about politics, I just didn’t want the sky to fall down on me, so I was a little nervous. But the writers, the producers there, I think they took pretty good care of me.

You’re also in the second season of “Unstable.” You come into this show, you’ve got an established cast, everybody’s got their own rhythm, their rapport. You’re jumping in. What’s that like?

It was good, it was fun. When you have a well-oiled machine, a bunch of funny people, it’s easy. It takes kind people to allow someone to come in and be in their space. Everyone was so nice, the nicest, too nice. I was expecting Rob Lowe to be some maniac. I don’t know why. I just kept thinking to myself, “Well, he’s Rob Lowe, he’s larger than life.” I don’t know. I don’t know. Then he texted me, called me, and I was just like, this man is amazing. When I tell you, the nicest guy, the funniest dude.

His relationship with his son Johnny is so funny to me. I envy it, the way they bounce back and forth, they work together. The rest of the cast, the crew, they welcomed me with open arms. The writers, the showrunner, the director. This was such an easy thing to slide into. They allowed me to play, and do what I wanted to do, and we were very collaborative. I think it’s a great season. If anyone hasn’t seen it, you should go check it out.

“New Girl” means so much to so many of us. It’s a very special show. You don’t actually like cats?

Well, it’s not that I don’t like cats.

No, let’s talk about this. What have you got against cats?

It’s not that I have anything against cats. They’re so sneaky. It’s not that I have anything against cats, those little devils. But here’s what I have against cats. I’m allergic to cats, that’s part of the problem. When something’s so small and cute, you want to cuddle it. Sometimes cats don’t want to be bothered, and they don’t tell you, they scratch you instead. They’ll just give you a quick little [scratch] to let you know that they’re not in the mood.

If cats spoke, I’d be OK with cats. If cats were able to have a dialogue back and forth, then I’d be like, “Love cats.” Let’s say you’re out there on a safari, and you see a cool little lion that’s walking around. Sometimes when that happens, you go, “Oh look, that’s a lion.” But we all know, don’t approach the lion. If a lion could speak and say, “It’s cool, I’m in a good mood today. I’m not very hungry, you all can pet my back.” Then I’d be like, “Man, love lions. They’re very communicative.” Felines, they’re not. They don’t speak, so I don’t trust them. Cats be funny though.

You’ll also be in the upcoming “Spider-Noir” series for Marvel. Were you a comic book guy before this?

I was. Back in the day when I was a kid, I had the trading cards, the comic books. It’s a huge deal for me. This is a huge deal. I’ve always wanted to be a part of the comic book universe. And Spider-Man obviously is one of the more iconic figures in our history. It’s a blessing. It’s really fun. Working with Nic Cage is going to be insane.