‘Justified’ rides off into sunset

As Modesto-raised actor Timothy Olyphant hangs up his hat for good as Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, it’s not without a certain amount of sadness.

It’s not necessarily that he regrets walking away from his role as the modern-day lawman on the FX series “Justified.” Or that he feels there remain stories to tell of crime and punishment in rural Kentucky after the show’s six seasons. It’s that he’ll miss something specific about Raylan when the drama airs its final episode Tuesday, April 14.

“He is much cooler than I am, but I imagine he’s much cooler than most,” the 46-year-old said in a phone interview while walking his dogs. “It’s fun that for six years not a day went by where I didn’t show up to work and do something cool. On the contrary, in my life, I feel like not a day goes by where I don’t show up and do something stupid.”

Series creator and executive producer Graham Yost knew that Olyphant, who had finished three seasons on the HBO Western series “Deadwood” before signing on to “Justified,” had the perfect combination of characteristics to pull off cool, calm and collected Raylan. The character was created and cultivated by the late American novelist and screenwriter Elmore Leonard in two novels and a short story before appearing on screen.

Yost said that when he was developing the show Olyphant was high on his list to helm the series. But the actor was busy playing another man with a badge, as the sheriff of a town infected with a killer virus in the horror film “The Crazies.” So, waiting until he finished filming, they missed the 2009 pilot season, the traditional launching period for all new shows.

The wait, Yost said, was worth it.

“You know, I wasn’t a ‘Deadwood’ watcher, so I didn’t know how good he was in that. But we knew he could ride a horse and wear a hat,” Yost said in a recent phone interview. “But first and foremost, I knew Tim was a great actor. Raylan needed to have a sense of humor and charm, a sense of romance. He needed to be very cool, but also had to be dangerous, with an undercurrent of anger. He needed to be smart, but not pretentious and intellectual. Tim’s got all of those things, and not every actor does. In fact, very few do. So there was a feeling he would fit in perfectly.”

Over the seasons, Yost said he and Olyphant continually pushed each other in terms of the characters and plots. At times, he said, their disagreements were quite intense. But the show never suffered from it. It was quite the opposite.

“This was not an easy road for either one of us. There were times where things were very contentious, with Tim seeing things one way and I another,” he said. “But out of that friction came some of the best work that either one of us has ever done. The stories wouldn’t have been what they were without his contribution.”

Olyphant characterizes his contribution a little less charitably.

“Yes, I agree. I really pushed him and pulled him in every direction, I really did,” he said. “That was a nice way of saying I was a big pain in his ass for the entire six years.”

Still, there’s no arguing with the results. The series earned Olyphant his first Emmy Award nomination, for outstanding lead actor in a drama series. The show has earned eight Emmy nominations during its run, including two wins. It also received a Peabody Award in 2010.

As the series prepares to air its final episode, Yost and Olyphant said they feel they’ve been able to give fitting ends to the key characters, including Raylan, his childhood friend turned criminal nemesis, Boyd, and the third point in their on-again, off-again love triangle, Ava (played by Joelle Carter).

“Tim and I talked about this early on that one of the themes in Elmore’s writing is that people don’t change,” Yost said. “A bad guy is a bad guy is a bad guy. Character is destiny. But we felt for a TV show, Raylan could change. But it also would be important and that it would take six years. And that was important from the beginning.”

The growth in Raylan’s character mainly came from him becoming a father. This season, that has played out in his decision to leave Kentucky to be a father to his daughter.

While neither Yost or Olyphant will divulge the final outcome for Raylan and company, they said they feel good about how things are wrapped up, and it stays true to Elmore Leonard’s world and characters.

“I walked away from it with a sense of accomplishment. It’s easy to walk away from something when you feel you gave it everything you could,” Olyphant said. “In that regard, I have a good feeling about the job and how it came to an end. I felt like I was giving it 110 percent from beginning to end and was enjoying it fully from beginning to end. It’s not always easy to accomplish those two things at once. It was a great job in that respect. I feel like I was getting so much out of it every step along the way.”

Olyphant said he will miss the cast and crew, many of whom have been with the show since the first season. The series also has brought in a slew of impressive guest stars over the years – from Margo Martindale to Patton Oswalt and Mary Steenburgen to this season’s addition of Sam Elliott.

“Emotionally, (leaving) was very bittersweet. I really grew to love working with those people. They were a wonderful group of people, and we had so many wonderful moments,” Olyphant said. “I’ve been doing this long enough to know that those experiences are few and far between. That’s not how things usually go in this town. I am really going to miss that.”

Filming wrapped Feb. 20, and since then, Olyphant already found his follow-up project. He recently wrapped work on the new Oliver Stone film about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Olyphant plays a CIA field agent who befriends Snowden (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) after he leaks the classified documents.

He said signing on to the project was a no-brainer. “Oh, what’s not to like? There is so much attractive about that job, starting with Oliver Stone, and you just go down the list,” he said. “Great story, great cast, good part. There was a lot to like about that.”

With his follow-up project already completed – “Snowden” is set for release in December – Olyphant is again a free agent. He said he is open to all offers, from films to another serialized drama. For now, the actor said he is enjoying a little downtime, spending it with his family and, yes, even walking the dogs.

“This is the first time in a while that I don’t have something lined up for a few months from now,” he said. “The break will last as long as the next job finds me, I guess. But at the moment I’m enjoying the break thoroughly.”

This story was originally published April 8, 2015 at 5:00 PM with the headline "‘Justified’ rides off into sunset."