Shea Whigham tried reuniting with “Fargo” costar Carrie Coon for years before “Lake George” director did it

"Shea and I hadn’t worked together since 'Fargo,' which is quite criminal," Coon says.

Shea Whigham has been trying to reunite with his Fargo costar Carrie Coon for years. But all he needed was the right director who serendipitously made his dream come true.

The two actors first starred together in season 3 of Noah Hawley’s TV anthology adaptation of the Coen brothers' classic 1996 movie Fargo, in which Coon played Police Chief Gloria Burgle and Whigham played her boss Sheriff Moe Dammik. The experience was so positive that Whigham had been trying unsuccessfully for years to replicate it on another project, and it finally happened in the comedic noir film Lake George.

"I’m not embellishing or making this up, but every time I go to do something like this, I’m like, 'We’ve got to go to Carrie Coon and see if she’ll do it,'" Whigham told The Hollywood Reporter.

But it turns out that Lake George director-writer Jeffrey Reiner had Coon in mind before Whigham could even suggest her for a role.

"When Jeffrey and I were sitting together one day, he went, 'I want this actress that I’ve been thinking about while writing,'" Whigham said. "And I was like, 'Okay, who?' And he said, 'Carrie Coon.' And I said, 'Well, it’s going to be hard to go get her. She’s busy.' But she read it, and I think she said yes hours later."

Related: Watch The Gilded Age power couple Carrie Coon and Morgan Spector get trapped in a fake Red Lobster commercial

Coon revealed that she was indeed "sitting on another potential project" at the time.

"I had to answer that one very quickly," she told the outlet. "And then Shea was like, 'How do you feel about working during this [SAG] strike?' And I said, 'Well, if you have the interim agreement ... ' So he sent the script to me, I read it, and then we started talking about logistics. Of course, it’s always tricky when you have a family and all that other stuff going on. But I was so thrilled that it worked out, because Shea and I hadn’t worked together since Fargo, which is quite criminal. And Shea’s in everything!"

In Lake George, Whigham plays Don, a white-collar criminal fresh out of a 10-year prison sentence who tries to collect a past debt from Armen (Glenn Fleshler), the mobster responsible for his new status as a felon. Armen wants Don to kill Armen's girlfriend Phyllis (Coon) to collect the money, but Don is just a former insurance adjuster way in over his head. He can't kill a person, so Phyllis convinces him to team up with her instead to get revenge on Armen.

Related: Why Carrie Coon made a point of not laughing at Paul Rudd's jokes on Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire set

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

"I think it was designed to put Shea Whigham in a leading-man part," Coon said of the comedic drama.

"No, it wasn’t designed," Whigham said with a laugh. "Jeffrey passed me this script probably 10 months before I read it, and you think nothing is ever going to come together, but this came together really quick with the strike and the interim agreement."

Lake George is now playing at the Tribeca Festival through Thursday, June 13.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.