Interview: Timothy Olyphant Loves Being TV’s Ultimate Cowboy (Rolling Stone)

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]

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