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Margo Martindale has a long history of playing characters that are raw, memorable and slightly unhinged. In Prime Video’s new series “The Sticky” however, the three-time Emmy-winner is stepping into the lead with one of her meatiest roles yet: a desperate maple syrup farmer.
“This is a woman at the end of her rope who finds a way to fight for her life,” Martindale tells Variety. “The desperation makes me laugh, but this was also a world I knew nothing about.”
The Canadian series is loosely based on a famous maple syrup heist that went down in Quebec in 2011 and 2012. Over several months, thieves stole more than $18.7 million of the liquid gold (pure Canadian maple syrup is nearly 30 times more expensive than oil), then sold it to legitimate — and unaware — distributors.
The TV series is a reinvented version of those events, with fictionalized underdogs behind the heist. They’re led by Martindale’s Ruth Landry, a woman who is fighting to keep her Quebec maple syrup farm afloat while caring for a sick husband. Early on, she joins forces with a struggling security guard named Remy Bouchard (Guillame Cyr) and a low-level Boston mobster named Mike Byrne (Chris Diamantopoulos).
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Courtesy of Amazon The series was co-created by Brian Donovan and Ed Herro after Donovan learned about the heist from his Canadian brother-in-law during Christmas six years ago. The criminal elements in and around Montreal caught his attention, and a week later he and Herro began coming up with new characters for the story.
“Quite honestly, the real heist was very methodical and boring. They just slowly, quietly stole syrup over a number of months,” Herro says. “They got caught, and the story was over.”
“These characters are people who you could never imagine succeeding in this sort of undertaking,” says Donovan. “I mean, a $20 million heist is not an easy thing to do.”
Getting Martindale on board was a dream for the creators, who recall her throwing herself into the character. The actor had never heard of the heist, and reveals there were many conversations about creating a “Fargo” feel to the story, full of dark comedy and epic Quebec scenery.
Heist movies were obviously a huge inspiration, but the creators went well beyond those, especially for the show’s tone. “We’re huge fans of the Coen Brothers and Noah Hawley. We wanted to make it our own, of course, but ‘Fargo’ was a large influence,” says Herro. He adds that they also talked about “Breaking Bad,” “Better Call Saul,” “Silence of the Lambs” and Quentin Tarantino’s use of music when creating the look and feel of “The Sticky.”
“We’d never done a heist before, so we wanted to make sure we knew the pantheon of heist movies and shows,” he adds.
Courtesy of Amazon “There’s also a Sam Shepard feeling to it, like in ‘True West’ and the desperation of those two brothers,” Martindale says. “I went to see that show with John Malkovich and Gary Sinise many times, and I would howl with laughter at the desperation.”
When viewers first meet Ruth Landry, that desperation is palpable. A corrupt maple syrup bureaucrat named Léonard Gauthier (Guy Nadon), is strong-arming her into selling her farm, she’s struggling to care for her spouse and infuriating red tape has put the entire season’s worth of syrup in jeopardy.
One moment, Ruth is soft and tender by her husband’s bedside. The next, she’s screaming her head off and chopping down a tree in waist-deep snow, taking her rage to the extreme. A couple of scenes later, she’s calmly plotting a crime. Part of the fun of the character is feeling for her without knowing what she might do next.
“Somehow it’s easy for me,” Martindale says with a laugh. “Playing psycho, sort of. Ruth’s got a little bit of rage, and then a little bit of emotion. It’s really fun to do.”
It’s the type of role that casting directors have eyed for Martindale ever since she embraced the part of the awful mother in Clint Eastwood’s “Million Dollar Baby.” Over the years she’s become well known for portraying complex women on series like “The Americans,” “Justified,” “Fargo” and “The Good Wife.” The difference is that this time, she’s graduating from supporting character to lead.
“Over the last 10 years, the invisibility of the older woman has become a topic, and I think we’re proving them wrong,” Martindale says,. Now 73, she says that she always saw herself working well into her life. The ability to do so while tackling complicated female characters with dark sides has been an unexpected but enjoyable ride.
“Maybe people relate to these characters because I have joy and fun in it,” she adds. “I can slit a guy’s throat and watch it bleed out, and tell him why I hate him. That’s the best and only in your fantasy world, right?”
“The Sticky” debuts on Prime Video Dec. 6.
