Via Collider.
This interview was conducted prior to the start of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Collider: This is such a fascinating character study. It’s one of those projects where, as the audience, we start not knowing what’s going on or how any of the pieces, which really are these characters, fit with each other. How much did you know? How did you keep track of how it all fit together?

TIMOTHY OLYPHANT: I read all the scripts, before I even met Steven [Soderbergh] and Ed [Solomon]. I’d read all six, and I loved them. They were amazing. They were riveting and thrilling, and they were what people call page-turners, for every episode. After that, you dive in and start learning your lines and working the scenes, and you trust that it will all fit together. I don’t worry too much about that because that’s Steven’s problem.

With this being such dense material, do you just compartmentalize, as far as like your character and how he fits in, in any given moment?

OLYPHANT: Yeah, any conversations about the overall piece or scenes, for the most part, happened early. And then, maybe you address those conversations, once you have time, if you can find time while you’re in the midst of shooting. Sometimes Ed and I would get together and look at scenes, but it was based on our initial back and forth, from the jump. After that, you’re just playing the scene. That’s what I do. I don’t know about all the other people that do it other ways. All I know is that what I do is learn my lines and try to get out of my own way.

How does a Steven Soderbergh project work? When you’re working with somebody like that, who is also carrying the camera around and who seems to be a filmmaker who wants to be just in the middle of it, what’s that like to work with and interact with?

OLYPHANT: It’s wonderful. It just doesn’t get any better. You feel his energy, and you feel his interest. I worked with Walter Hill. He was one of those old school guys, who sits on an apple box right next to the lens, and I remember loving that. Any time you can connect to an audience, in this case it’s Steven because you can sense him right there, it’s wonderful. It’s like theater. The audience is telling you what the scene is. I much prefer that to the director behind the monitor watching the footage in another room. Even then, you can sense it, but this is wonderful.

Read more at Timothy Olyphant on ‘Full Circle’ & the Energy on a Steven Soderbergh Set (collider.com)

Source: An Easy Chat With Timothy Olyphant About The Return Of Raylan Givens And The Language Of ‘Justified’ (uproxx.com)

How much fun was this?

It was exactly that. I don’t want to speak for everybody, but I’m pretty sure all involved had a good time.

Does it come right back to you? Is it like an old pair of shoes or does it take some work to get back into that mode, into the voice, into the swagger?

You just put the shoes on and off you go. Put the shoes on. The hat still fits.

At the end of the original show, were you just done or were you still actively thinking, “Okay, well, if something comes along down the road, I’d be interested?” Did you have to be talked into it, I guess (is the question)?

My memory is, and I realize that’s not that reliable, but my memory is I said way back when that I’d be interested in coming back, getting the gang together again after some time. But that perhaps we needed some time just to free us up creatively.

I imagine it can be a mixed blessing to have something run so long and have the job be that chunk of your schedule, right?

It’s not just that. I think that the show is so much fun and creating these seasons back in the day, it’s a ridiculously difficult challenge for the writers and then at the same time just such a joy to do it. But in the end, I think that the nature of serial television is you feel beholden to things that creatively might not be what’s best. And just by taking a break, that alone just gives you some freedom to have some perspective to approach the work fresh. And in this case, since Graham (Yost) wasn’t going to come and write the show, the fact that (Dave) Andron and (Michael) Dinner took over, I think that break and that change to take the character to Detroit, it just took the shackles off. It just allowed them to make it their own. It gave them some freedom, and I think it made it exciting. Can we bring all these new characters in, do something totally different, and yet still have it feel like the show?

Does the limited series model open you up in terms of like, “Well, maybe we’ll come back in a couple of years?” As opposed to, okay, next season, next year, the next season, the next year. You’re a little freer with time. Is that part of the appeal?

Yeah, that’s what I was referring to, that I recall saying that years ago. That if they were interested in that kind of model, I think that’d be fun for everybody involved. I mean, it’s what they’ve been doing with that Bond character for half a century.

I was going to reference the old Murder She Wrote movies that would come back around. Bond is a bit of a cooler comp than Angela Lansbury for you, so I guess we’ll go with that one.

I’m an Angela Lansbury fan. That woman was money, so I appreciate that (comp).

Father Dowling Mysteries too.

I appreciate that as well. I’ll take all the cool old TV. I think Tom Selleck did it (make a series of TV movies) for a while.

I can’t remember what the name of it was, but yeah.

I’m going to go with Quigley.

I don’t think it’s Quigley Down Under, I don’t think that’s what we got as a movie-of-the-week every year or so. We should have. (Laughs) Oh, you know what? Jesse Stone? That’s it.

Oh, Jesse Stone. Okay, well, yeah, that has appeal to me (the limited series model).

Read more at An Easy Chat With Timothy Olyphant About The Return Of Raylan Givens And The Language Of ‘Justified’ (uproxx.com)

Source: Timothy Olyphant Loves Being TV’s Ultimate Cowboy – Rolling Stone

When you came back to do the Deadwood movie, you were finishing up a series that didn’t have a proper ending. Justified did, though, and it was an ending everybody liked.
I know. If this one doesn’t work, we have no one to blame but ourselves. 

Had you ever expected to play Raylan Givens again?
I believe I’m on record as saying, before we wrapped the original show, that while I felt we should wrap the show, I reserve the right to come back later. I thought there might be something creatively beneficial to taking a break. I’d seen Bond movies, and I feel like the breaks served them well. 

So how did this return come about?
The gang has stayed in touch. Both with Graham [Yost] and some of the other writers in the room, we’ve all remained in touch, as I’ve remained in touch with some of the folks at the network. Every cocktail had [someone asking], “What do you think? Should we do it?” But there was never enough there to jumpstart a serious conversation. But the book changed that. Elmore gave us a jumping-off point.

In the book, the Raymond Cruz character has a lot in common with Raylan. Both of them carry themselves like they’re modern gunslingers. 
It just felt Justified-adjacent. I don’t think Elmore would take it personally if I said that some of his books, while totally different characters from totally different backgrounds, they’re essentially cut from the same cloth. I wasn’t even particular about City Primeval. I just thought if we could get an Elmore book that we could strip for parts, it might start a conversation. Graham was happy to be involved, but he didn’t want to write it. I think for years, we talked about, “You know, he’s a federal marshal, he can go anywhere.” We always had a fantasy about taking him on the road, taking him to places like Italy. I don’t know how Italy became Detroit. 

Did it feel different to you playing Raylan again, versus playing Bullock again for Deadwood?
There were things about the Bullock, about the performance, I wanted to fiddle with. Because over that period of time, I wanted to think I’d gotten better at my job. It was an interesting challenge of, how can I make some adjustments but still honor the character? With this one, I felt, Well, I haven’t gotten any better since we wrapped. This should be pretty easy. [Laughs]

Read more at Timothy Olyphant Loves Being TV’s Ultimate Cowboy – Rolling Stone