How Fargo star Richa Moorjani found a new level of confidence—and that Minnesota accent

Anyone who’s seen Netflix’s Never Have I Ever knows Richa Moorjani is a breakout star, and she proves it again in the latest season of Fargo. Moorjani stars as police officer Indira Olmstead in the fifth installment of Noah Hawley’s FX anthology, and she holds her own alongside Juno Temple, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Jon Hamm.

In season five, the finale of which aired on January 16, Moorjani plays an Indian American cop who becomes the moral compass of a complex, evocative story. Indira is unlike any character we’ve seen in the Fargo universe, which is partly what attracted Moorjani to the part. Moorjani spoke to The A.V. Club about her initial hesitancy to audition, how tackling Never Have I Ever and Fargo back to back reinvigorated her confidence, and how she approached portraying Indira’s evolution in season five.

Richa Moorjani: Hmm, that’s a good question. Honestly? It was a lack of confidence. I think there are different reasons for that. Some of those relate to personal issues of not being confident enough. It’s also being in an industry where no one has ever occupied space in a show like Fargo with a character who’s looked like me before. It’s always felt like the type of thing other people do. It’s not something people like me do, you know? I wasn’t consciously thinking about that, of course, but that’s a part of it. I had never envisioned myself being a part of something like Fargo, to be honest. Not that I didn’t want to. It’s just you don’t think about the things that you don’t think you can do.

AVC: With the response to season five, how do you feel about all that now?

RM: It feels like a relief. [Laughs]. Thank God my performance has been perceived well, for the most part. I’m beyond grateful I got to be a part of it, work with great people, and embody a character I’ve never played before.

AVC: Once you knew Never Have I Ever was ending, what were you hoping to do next? And how did Fargo fit into that mold?

RM: Coming off of NHIE, I knew that South Asian representation was important to me. But I also didn’t want to limit myself to brown stories and South Asian stories. I’ve always, even as an audience member, wanted to see characters who just exist as brown people in a story with other people. That’s America. That’s real life. And that’s what Fargo is, so it couldn’t have been more perfect. After my audition, I met with Noah Hawley before booking the role. I had only read the first script, so I asked him if Indira’s Indian background plays into her arc over season one. He said no and that he just wanted Indira to be Indian because why can’t she be? I thought it was such a brilliant answer, and it’s part of why I wanted to do it.

AVC: What was your process for getting into Indira’s mindset? When did you feel like you were living in her shoes?

RM: It was the moment I literally got into her shoes and put on the cop outfit. We had done fittings before we even got to Calgary to film. Our wonderful costume designer had come to Los Angeles to do fittings. I put on a few different outfits and from that moment onwards, I started to see myself as Indira. That was a big part of it; getting the accent down and getting comfortable in her uniform. I did a lot of research. I did a ride-along with a female cop in Calgary. I watched every movie with a female cop. [Laughs] I wanted to immerse myself in that kind of world to understand because it was so different than anything else I had been part of before or witnessed before. All that preparation helped me feel like I could do this.

AVC: When I spoke to Noah Hawley at the beginning of season five, he said you joked to him about how a group of Indian American actors were practicing the accent together during auditions. Is that true? And how did you learn the accent?

RM: At least two or three of my very close friends auditioned for Indira. We had a support group like “What is a Minessota accent and how do we do it.” I don’t know if we practiced together but we all talked a lot about it. I had never seen Fargo, the show, or the movie, so I wasn’t sure of what it was. Before my self-tape, I saw the movie and the first season. I fell in love with the world immediately. I started copying the accent; hearing and copying it constantly. That’s how I do accents for the most part. I worked with a dialect coach I had worked with before for the audition. And then once I booked the role, I worked with Liz Himelstein who worked with the actors from the previous seasons, so she was helpful for all six months.

AVC: Over the 10 episodes, you get to depict Indira slowly gaining power in her career and personal life. What conversations did you have with Noah about portraying that shift?

RM: It was something we talked a lot about. The women in this season are dealing with different circumstances and problems. At the same time, they’re dealing with a similar issue of having the burden of some of the men in their lives who are abusive and toxic. Dot (Temple) coming into Indira’s life and vice versa is important for them. They empower each other. I would say that for the three of them, Dot, Lorraine (Leigh), and Indira. They’re different but they also need each other. When they come together to help each other, that’s when they eventually reach the power they’re striving for.

AVC: Speaking of that, in the last two episodes, Indira and Lorraine make a surprisingly effective team despite being total opposites. What was it like to portray the shift in their dynamic in the finale? You’ve become her new Danish Graves (Dave Foley).

RM: It was something I had to contend with. Yes, they are very different because Lorraine represents everything opposite to Indira. She’s the debt queen and the reason why people like Indira are in debt. Before we shot those scenes, I had to ask Noah if this was good for Indira and if she was doing the right thing, or has this made her lose power. The way he explained it to me, and it’s how I then tried to portray it in my performance, was that what so much of Fargo is about is decent, hardworking people trying their best and sometimes it’s not enough. What happens when you take a moral person in a situation where they have to make a decision that might not be the most moral but it’s also not the most immoral? You have to do what you have to do sometimes.

Lorraine gives Indira a way out of a bad situation. There are parts of her, and Indira even points it out I think, that maybe they’re both more alike than they think. She goes to work for Lorraine but it doesn’t mean Indira will do it forever. It’s just the next thing for her after she leaves her husband and gets a new job where she can finally pay her bills. It’s what she’s been needing. For her, the reason she became a cop was because she believes in “protect and serve.” It wasn’t happening, though. She felt she wasn’t doing good in her job. If she can’t help herself, how can she help other people? So I think Lorraine giving her a way out was a way for her to do that.

AVC: Was it refreshing to wear something besides a cop uniform in the last two episodes?

RM: It was fun to wear something else when I went to shoot the last two episodes but I kind of felt, as Richa, bittersweet about it. It was nice to step into this new life and role for Indira, but also, it was bittersweet for her as well. What she always wanted to do didn’t work out for her, but it’s okay, you have to embrace life.

AVC: It would’ve been interesting to see what she’s been up to in her personal life after the one-year time jump in the finale, especially after she told her husband, Lars (Lukas Gage), to pack up and leave. Did you and Noah talk about showing that, or did you think about what her life looks like now?

RM: I did think about it. It’s been exactly a year since everything went down when we see her at the graveyard with Dot and Scottie [in the finale]. She’s not in debt anymore and doing well financially. For the first time, she’s living life on her terms and is not burdened by someone she has to take care of or by finances. A year is a long time, but it’s not too long. She’s settled into her new job working for Lorraine, and it may not be a forever thing, but for her, it’s the stepping stone to the next thing.

AVC: We need to talk about the “I want a wife” scene in episode six between Indira and Lars. It’s so poignant and intense. What was it like to film that?

RM: It was intense. What made it easier to do it was the fact that Lukas Gage is a wonderful co-star. He’s nothing like Lars. He’s so giving and compassionate, he went out of his way to make me feel comfortable. It was a difficult scene. What I love and what most people don’t know because we don’t talk about it is it is based on an essay by feminist author Judy Brady, who wrote in the ’70s. Noah had been inspired by it not just for the scene but for the whole season. It’s about exploring what is a wife and what a wife owes her husband. The author is saying in her piece [something like] “I want a wife who cooks and cleans.” She basically lays out all the things that are always expected of women, and it’s crazy that things haven’t changed as much since she wrote it. That’s why Indira tells him in the end while leaving him, “I would also like a wife.”

AVC: What has the collective experience of doing NHIE and Fargo back-to-back taught you? And what do you want to work on next?

RM: If anything, it’s expanded my sense of what I can do and what I’m interested in doing as an actor. It’s given me more confidence in myself and taught me the lesson of not pigeonholing or typecasting myself. Other people are going to do it anyway, so why should I do it too? I’ve noticed that maybe subconsciously when auditions have come to me in the past, I may have said “Oh, that’s not for me.” But now I can see myself doing so many things I’ve never thought about before. It’s given me that gift. And now I’m picky because I’ve come out of two amazingly written, high-caliber projects. Anything that’s not at the same level is not going to fly with me.