Peter Stormare gives dangerous men an awkwardness that makes them funny without making them harmless. We value him most when a film gives that discomfort room to develop, rather than treating another sinister foreigner as sufficient entertainment.
Fi1m perspective
In Fargo (1996), Peter Stormare’s Gaear Grimsrud has enough human awkwardness to make his appalling behaviour disturbing rather than safely absurd. Alongside Steve Buscemi’s Carl Showalter, he pushes towards grotesquerie without turning the pair of kidnappers into cartoons. We were unsettled by how recognisable these men remained even when their behaviour became frightening. Stormare helps the Coen brothers keep the comedy uncomfortable: laughing at these men does nothing to make them seem less capable of harm.
The Big Lebowski (1998), his second film with the Coens, shifts the emphasis towards comedy. Stormare’s Nihilist supplies humour as well as antagonism, a useful contribution to a film whose crime story matters less than spending time with its characters. We like him here, but Jeff Bridges and John Goodman are the main reason the evening works. Some diversions outstay their welcome, and a memorable supporting player is not a cure for loose storytelling.
After the American breakthrough of Fargo, the studio work included Dieter Stark for Steven Spielberg in The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) and Lev Andropov in Armageddon (1998). Later came Lucifer in Constantine (2005), while Prison Break (2005–2007) gave him the recurring television role of John Abruzzi. These parts took his supporting work through action films, supernatural villainy and television. Yet the frequent casting as eccentric, villainous or sleazy foreigners is a real limitation, and one worth acknowledging when recommending his work.
We do not need him to stop playing villains; we need the parts to give him something particular to play. The Coens understand the usefulness of his awkwardness, allowing an antagonist to be faintly ridiculous without making the threat disappear. In Fargo, especially, that helps the whole cast: Stormare and Buscemi can push further towards the grotesque without breaking the film’s sense of recognisable people behaving badly. Start with the Coen films before choosing an evening solely on the strength of another Stormare villain.
Biography
Peter Stormare is a Swedish actor. Born Rolf Peter Ingvar Storm on 27 August 1953, he began his career at the Royal National Theatre of Sweden, where he performed for eleven years and worked with Ingmar Bergman on productions including Hamlet.
He moved to New York in 1993 and gained prominence with his role as Gaear Grimsrud in the Coen brothers' Fargo (1996). Stormare has since appeared in films including The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), The Big Lebowski (1998), Armageddon (1998), Minority Report (2002), Constantine (2005), 22 Jump Street (2014) and John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017). On television he portrayed John Abruzzi in Prison Break.
