Ewan McGregor: 'Fargo' accent is hardest one I've ever tackled

"Fargo" has just started shooting its third season, but cast members took a break from filming in Calgary to mingle with TV critics Thursday in Los Angeles and share a few initial impressions.

Ewan McGregor, who plays the dual roles of warring brothers, saidthe 'Fargo' accent is the hardest he's ever done. "And I did Dutch once in something," said the Scottish actor who showed up on set a day early last week, just so he could track down his dialect coach. "I thought that was quite hard, but this is worse. And also, it's very familiar. It's an accent that everybody knows from the movie and from seasons one and two, so the audience's ear will be attuned to it."

Carrie Coon, who appears to be portraying a very Marge-like sheriff of "Eden Valley," had a much easier time mastering the dialect. She grew up in small-town Ohio, went to college in Madison and is married to Chicago playwright Tracy Letts. In other words, she knows the Midwest.

"Yeah, I think I recognize my people in it," said Coon who had wrapped only one day of shooting when I caught up with her in the hotel bar. "There's a kind of emotional restraint. My people are not very good at expressing their emotions or saying they love someone, but they are good at handling unexpected circumstances in their own way. There's a kind of practicality in that part of the country that I really respect, and there's a kind of hard work anda work ethic that I really respect."

Coon may be Midwest tough, but she joined the cast in complaining about the frigid temperatures in Calgary.

"We don't get to wear our Canadian goose onesies when we're out there," McGregor said. "We shot a scene Wednesday. Mary (Elizabeth Winstead) was wearing a skirt with bare legs and we're in minus 29 degrees weather. And the crew members are amazing because they really ensure that we don't die of exposure."

Earlier in the day, creator Noah Hawley had been complaining of catching the "Calgary cough." By mid-afternoon, he was tucked into bed, unavailable for interviews.

Hawley wasn't the only one MIA. The Coen brothers, whose film inspired the Emmy-winnning series, were also not around -- but that was expected. They have never had any creative input in the series, nor to do they have any plans to start.

Executive producer Warren Littlefield said there is an open invitation for the pair to direct an episode, but they haven't bit -- yet.

On Wednesday, word came out that the filmmakers were preparing their first TV project, a Western anthology series that does not yet have a home.

Any advice for the newbies?

"I don't think the Coen brothers need any advice from me," Littlefield said. " But I'm sure whatever it is they do, it will be wonderfully dark and wildly entertaining. It will be, for me, must see TV because it's the Coens."

Because production just started, there was no footage to show the press, but FX presented clips of screen tests accompanied by David Bowie's opening narration to the classic "Peter and the Wolf" recording in which each character is represented by a different instrument in the orchestra. The story is set in 2010, but the wardrobe suggests late '70s. Read into those nuggets at your own peril.

The series returns to FX in April.