From a designing woman to a ‘Fargo’ mob boss, Emmy nominee Jean Smart has done it all

For viewers who fondly recall Jean Smart as sweet-but-ditzy Charlene Frazier in the ’80s sitcom “Designing Women,” it must have been startling to see her portray Floyd Gerhardt, the cold-blooded matriarch of a 1970s-era Midwestern crime family in the acclaimed second season of the FX anthology series “Fargo.”

But the actress has been shape-shifting for decades in roles as wide-ranging as serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the TV movie “Overkill” and a whistle-blowing first lady on “24.”

Along the way, she’s racked up Emmy nominations and three wins. On Sunday night, Smart will vie for a potential fourth Emmy Award just days after celebrating her 65th birthday. The actress recently spoke to The Times by phone from Vancouver -- where she’s filming “Legion,” an upcoming FX series based on the Marvel comic book -- about playing a character in which she doesn’t have to worry about “holding my stomach in.”

What made you want to play Floyd?

You don’t see women in that light very often, a woman who was liberated without thinking she was liberated. She had a very powerful husband who she was a good partner with. She really respected him and when he became incapacitated, there was no question she would step in. And I just thought it was funny the first time you see her, she’s in the kitchen basting a turkey and her son’s in the barn torturing a guy. She probably has a pretty good idea what’s going on. Then she barks at him for making a dirty joke.

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Were there any particular details that helped you unlock the character?

I was fortunate that in the scene [“Fargo” show runner] Noah [Hawley] gave me to audition, she talked a lot about her life and the things that she’d been through. I think anyone who’s lost a child — and she had lost more than one — I think they become a little bit vulnerable. Her conflict of course is that she is a mother. You can be as strong and as tough as you want to be but you’re always going to sacrifice things for your children. That’s always going to be your weak spot.

You devised your own theory about the origins of her name.

I decided that she was sort of daddy’s girl. For whatever reason they named her Floyd — maybe her father always wanted a son and thought he was going to have a Floyd by hook or by crook. I loved just hanging out with my dad and going to the lumberyard and going to the dump and the hardware store, so I figured that she was like that, only more so.

Floyd is not a fashion plate, let’s put it that way. Was that liberating for you?

Gosh, yes. It also made me kind of sad. I thought, “This is how men get to feel almost all the time.” Not that men don’t have their own concerns and vanities, but I don’t think they have any concept of the pressure on women. I thought, “Finally, I’m getting to just think about what I’m supposed to be thinking about, instead of thinking about holding my stomach in or the camera angle on my face.

You’re working with Hawley again on “Legion.”

I would have done anything that he asked me to. I started out in the theater and I’m used [to having] really great words to say. That’s more rare, once you start doing film and television. When you get something like the kind of speeches that Noah writes and the characters he creates, it’s like an oasis in the desert.

You’ve been working steadily for a long time, but you do seem particularly busy at the moment.

Busy is good for an actor. I never had to work a civilian job. I know I’m fortunate. Certainly as a woman and not a spring chicken, there really is not a lot out there, certainly not a lot that is very interesting and particularly not three-dimensional.

Did you make any decisions along the way that have contributed to your longevity?

I’ve never been typecast. That can also prevent you from working too because it’s much easier to hire people who you think of right away. You go, “Oh, I know who plays that part.” I think in the end it has served me well to be a little bit more versatile.

Was a fear of being typecast one of the reasons that you left “Designing Women” when it was still a hit?

I felt like I was making faces for a living. It had nothing to do with the role. You become an actor because you don’t want to do the same thing all the time. A cushy series that is long-running is very nice and comfortable, but it kind of goes against your instinct as a performer.

People still seem to have a lot of affection for “Designing Women.” Why do you think that is?

It was unusual for its time period. Unlike a lot of comedies that you see, the characters were not interchangeable at all. They were very specific and very funny. People fell in love with them. Linda Bloodworth is an amazing writer. I think for the first two seasons, she wrote every episode by herself longhand on a legal pad. Each episode was so long, we had to cut so much of it. A couple of times, they even sped us up a little bit. Everybody would say, “Your voice sounded a little high in that scene.”

TV has gone through a huge transformation over the last decade. What has that been like for you as an actor?

There’s so much more opportunity, but at the same time, there’s a lot of stiff competition because now everybody wants to do television. I’ve lost some roles that I might not have lost even five years ago.

You played Aileen Wuornos in a television movie in the early ’90s. How did you feel when “Monster” came out a decade later?

I was so jealous, are you kidding me? I thought [Charlize Theron] was great. I just so wished that I could have done it in a situation like that where there weren’t network censors and sponsors that we had to answer to. Park Overall played my girlfriend in the movie. We were not even allowed to allude to the fact that we were anything more than roommates.

I felt kind of bad a little bit that we were doing a story that might dredge up really painful things for some of the victims’ families. Then, I thought about even Aileen Wuornos sitting on death row in Florida, who didn’t even have a chance to say, “No, you can’t do a movie about me.” She was a very sad creature.

How did you feel about the way things ended up for Floyd?

I was hoping she’d go out and be able to take a lot of people with her, but no. I wanted to kill Kirsten’s [Dunst’s] character. She ran over my kid, I’ve got to pay her back! [laughs] I thought Kirsten was absolutely brilliant. My favorite thing that she’s ever, ever, ever done. Her character just became nuttier and nuttier. We didn’t share one moment of screen time. But we played poker a few times.

Did you win?

No, I did not.

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