Justified - New York Magazine: Timothy Olyphant Interview

Source: New York Magazine [follow link for complete interview]



NEW YORK MAGAZINE: Justified’s Timothy Olyphant on Season Three, Oxycontin Turf Wars, and Stealing From Elmore Leonard

by Jennifer Vineyard
January 17, 2012


The FX show Justified [began it's third season January 17.] The show’s well-mannered but not-to-be-fooled-with lawman, Raylan Givens — winningly played by Timothy Olyphant — was first seen in Elmore Leonard's work, two books and a short story called Fire in the Hole. Now Leonard has borrowed the character back for a new novel, simply called Raylan, which has clearly been influenced by the show. And the show, not to be outdone, has lifted lots of new material from the book (which is also coming out this week). Clearly, an investigation was called for. Vulture started at the obvious place, with Olyphant himself, speaking to him about the new season, its story lines, its bad guys, and the give-and-take with Leonard...



... Q: Do you get to bug Elmore Leonard a lot?

Timothy Olyphant: [Laughs.] "You know those floors, where you need a key for the elevator? Elmore's on one of those floors. I'm not sure who, if anybody, has a key to that floor, but he does his thing, and we all reap the benefits."

Q: Ah, okay — because there seems to be some synergy between the show and Leonard's upcoming book, Raylan.

Timothy Olyphant: "I'm well aware of it. [Chuckles.] We steal a lot from that. I'm a big fan of his stories, so I read them at every turn I get as it is. But that book, we stole a lot of it for season two. We just stripped it apart last year. We were sort of privy to the book as it was being written in its various stages, so last season, we read some of what he was writing, and many of the characters are in large part from the book. We did our own thing with it — in the book, it was a patriarch instead of a matriarch — but he had the sons, the storefront, the marijuana, and Loretta McCready hanging out, as well as the coal mining representative coming to Harlan, the town meeting, and Raylan as security detail. That's all in the book, and he encouraged us to steal from it..."


Justified airs on Tuesday at 10/9C on FX.