Denver native John Carroll Lynch has performed in more than 100 films and TV shows. And he owes it all, he says, to Norm Son of a Gunderson — the duck-painting husband of the pregnant police chief he played in “Fargo.”

“Norm was the first main character I ever played on film, and it made me a legitimate film actor,” Lynch said last week from New Mexico, where he is filming scenes for ABC’s “Big Sky.” “Nothing would have happened without ‘Fargo.’ ”

The Coen Brothers’ groundbreaking and trendsetting dark noir comedy, which somehow manages to be sweet, sunny and snowy all at the same human wood-chipping time, turned 25 this year. That milestone was marked by Denver Film with a special screening at the Sie Film Center on Saturday.

Most who know Lynch on screen know him as, well, OK … a psychotic murderer. He’s played the presumed serial killer in “Zodiac.” The sex-trafficking state trooper on “Big Sky.” The child-collecting cut-up on “American Horror Story,” which landed Twisty on every list of the creepiest clowns of all time. (And there are surprisingly many of those lists.)

It’s a wonder Lynch was recently cast to play the non-violent pacifist David Dellinger in the Oscar-nominated

“The Trial of the Chicago 7.” “I thanked (writer/director) Aaron Sorkin for allowing me to portray one of the most morally pure people I’ll ever get to play – and he seemed genuinely surprised,” Lynch said with a laugh. “I told him, ‘Yeah, I have been playing a lot of sociopaths.’ And he said, ‘ That’s funny. I just think of you as Norm.’ ”

And everyone loves Norm. Especially Marge, played by the Oscar-winning Frances McDormand, wife of Joel Coen. Norm is a simple Minnesota ice-fisherman who cooks breakfast for his wife and jump-starts her car before she’s off to investigate a triple homicide.

This reversal of gender and marital norms is just one thing that makes “Fargo” so remarkably ahead of its #MeToo time. And that’s clear from the first few frames of the film.

“It was clear in their casting of me,” said Lynch, who has played just about as many cops as killers in his acting

career. “They chose somebody for her husband who would be stereotypically cast as a law-enforcement officer. So when you see this couple sleeping in bed and the phone rings, you naturally think she is going to hand the phone over to her husband. But she doesn’t.”

Instead, there is a quick cut to Marge in her uniform and Norm in his pajamas cooking eggs to send his wife on her way to the crime scene.

“And it’s all done without comment.” Lynch said. “It’s 100 percent normal in this situation – and at the same time, you have never seen it before on film.”

Lynch, a graduate of Regis Jesuit High School, was in his eighth season in the acting company of the prestigious Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis when he was urged to audition for “Fargo.” When he finally read the script, which was being kept under tight wraps, it was love at first word.

“I opened it up and the white of the page was the white of the Minnesota landscape,” he said. “It was so beautifully written that you could feel the snow in the writing.”

And then, wouldn’t you know, it didn’t snow in snowy Minnesota. At all.

Before Lynch was scheduled to report to the set, he made a trip to Los Angeles to see if he could parlay his good fortune into future work. And it worked, because Lynch would appear in seven films released in 1995-96, including “Grumpy Old Men,” “Beautiful Girls” and “Feeling Minnesota.” The next year, he had prominent roles in “Volcano,” “Face/Off” and “A Thousand Acres.” Talk about a productive trip.

Problem was: Because there was no snow back in Minnesota, they decided to flip the schedule and film all of the interior scenes first.

“They called me in L.A. and said, ‘Yeah, we need you here tomorrow for the bed scenes,’ ” Lynch said. “So I flew back on a red eye. I got picked up at the airport and was taken straight to the sound stage. I put on my pajamas and got right into bed – and fell dead asleep between takes.

“It was so funny because Fran got out of bed to get coffee and when I woke up, she was getting back into bed with me. The crew were moving the lights around and talking in whispers because they didn’t want to wake me.”

Most of Lynch’s scenes in “Fargo” involve food, which, 25 years later, still amuses his Regis pals. “My senior quote in our high-school yearbook was, ‘Are you gonna finish that?’ ” he said with a laugh.

Lynch made one suggestion to improve the Coens’ script, and it involved making breakfast for Marge. The scene originally called for Norm to make two plates. Lynch told the creators it would be more fitting if Norm were only making breakfast for Marge at that time of the morning.

“He makes her breakfast because that’s what he said he would do,” Lynch said. “It’s too early for breakfast for him.” Establishing that reversed marital dynamic was essential, he said.

Somehow, McDormand and the Coen Brothers managed to create the kind of feminist icon 25 years ago that people are clamoring for now. But the brothers were not trying to make a statement with their creation of Marge, Lynch said. Rather, “they were simply taking full advantage of having one of the best actors in the world to play her. Fran McDormand is undeniable, simply by her talent. She not only makes Marge the warm and enduring heart of ‘Fargo,’ she is the warmest of all their protagonists.

“Marge is a hero in the clearest sense of the word – and most of their movies don’t have heroes. She’s brave, she’s decent, she’s kind, she’s loving and she’s pregnant. That’s a hero. And her relationship with Norm is part of that warmth. They genuinely love each other.”

It’s notable that Norm never takes an active interest in Marge’s police work, Lynch said. Rather, he’s focused on winning the annual Federal Duck Stamp Art Contest. “That’s not a U.S. postage stamp,” Lynch said. “These are the stamps you buy to shoot ducks on protected property.” Norm loses to the neighboring Hautman Brothers, who in real life have now won the contest 14 times since 1989.

“That Norm only gets second place is a big part of their story,” Lynch said. “And the fact that Marge has to cheer him up after the day she’s had is really funny and endearing.”

Part of the change in Hollywood now, Lynch said, isn’t only about creating original characters like Marge on the page. “It’s about looking around and saying, ‘ That person is awesome. I don’t care what they look like. I don’t care what their gender is or their sexual orientation. I want a story that features that person.’

“And in this case, that person happened to be two things: A woman, and one of the greatest actors of her generation. And because of Fran, no female actor can now take on a role in law enforcement, from ‘Mare of Easttown’ to ‘ Top of the Lake’ to ‘Stunt Town’ to ‘Big Sky,’ and not think of Marge when they do it.”

Marge, who will be immortalized on celluloid for her wistful closing line, delivered ponderously while transporting her caught killer to jail in a whiteout storm: “There’s more to life than a little money, you know. … And here ya’ are, and it’s a beautiful day. Well. I just don’t understand it.”

And the Coens can’t have her say that line, Lynch said, without it dripping in irony. “She’s got a murderer in the back seat, and it’s the greyest day on earth, on the bleakest landscape they could find,” he said. “But it IS a beautiful day because inside Marge, it’s always a beautiful day. That’s what’s so moving about it. She is aware with gratitude that her life is precious, and that the life she is carrying is precious. “We could use more of that, I think.” Denver Film hosted a 25th-anniversary screening of ‘Fargo’ on Saturday featuring Todd Melby, author of “A Lot Can Happen in the Middle of Nowhere: The Untold Story of the Making of Fargo” for a Q&A and book signing.

Denver Gazette contributing arts columnist John Moore, who graduated with John Carroll Lynch from Regis Jesuit High School, is an award-winning journalist who was named one of the 10 most influential theater critics by American Theatre Magazine. He is now producing independent journalism as part of his own comany, MooreMedia.

“Norm was the first main character I ever played on film, and it made me a legitimate film actor. Nothing would have happened without ‘Fargo.’ ”

Denver native John Carroll Lynch