Emmys 2017: 15 movie stars who stole the small screen this year

Ewan McGregor as Emmit Stussy in Fargo. Photo credit: FX Networks.

6. Ewan McGregor

The project: FX’s Fargo

The characters: Brothers Emmit and Ray Stussy. In case you get them mixed up, Emmit is the older, more successful Stussy. He sports a mop top. Ray is younger, works a thankless job, and has a haircut reminiscent of Argus Filch.

How he stole the small screen: McGregor went full Orphan Black in the scene that saw the Stussy brothers’ estranged relationship come to a head. Emmit shows up to Ray’s apartment wanting to settle things once and for all. This being Fargo, the confrontation doesn’t go as planned. Emmit tries to force Ray to take a valuable framed stamp, the very object at the center of their decades-long feud. But Ray doesn’t want it. So the two struggle and Emmit ends up accidentally killing his brother.

Like I said, very few people who aren’t Tatiana Maslany know what it’s like to act opposite themselves (not to mention fight themselves). But McGregor passes the Maslany Test with flying colors; it’s extremely easy to forget that Emmit and Ray are played by the same person. The Moulin Rouge! actor is also the reason that this final fight between the brothers feels so inevitable. Tragic, but inevitable.

His past TV experience: McGregor played himself in a couple of episodes of HBO’s Doll & Em. But, as far as I can tell, he hasn’t appeared onscreen on a series since an Emmy-nominated guest spot on ER (!) in 1997.

Awards recognition: McGregor is actually competing for two Emmys this year: One for playing Emmit and Ray on Fargo, another for narrating the doc series Highlands: Scotland’s Wild Heart.