Timothy Olyphant would be the first to admit that he’s had a charmed career. He's had a string of memorable TV roles – from “Deadwood” to his starring role in “Justified” and now “Santa Clarita Diet.” Not bad for an art major from Modesto, Calif.; Donald Trump’s presidency has been a boon for late night talk show hosts, especially for Stephen Colbert. But every late night host faces a quandary: how political should they be?
Timothy Olyphant might just be the luckiest guy in Hollywood
Timothy Olyphant is perhaps best known for the character Raylan Givens on the FX series “Justified,” where it seemed that his role as a U.S. Marshal in Kentucky fit him like a Stetson hat.
But Olyphant is now trying out a very different role in the Netflix comedy series, "Santa Clarita Diet."
In the show, his wife — played by Drew Barrymore — is a realtor-slash-zombie and must eat human flesh to survive. Olyphant plays Joel Hammond, a husband so dedicated to his family that he’s willing to commit murder.
Olyphant's route to becoming an actor was a circuitous one. Early on, he attended USC on a swimming scholarship where he also majored in fine art. On a hunch he moved to New York to pursue acting and first found work in theater. His first film roles were in “Scream 2” and Doug Liman’s 1999 film, “Go." Since then, he's played a wide range of characters in both film and TV.
When Olyphant sat down with The Frame's John Horn, he started by discussing how his career in acting got launched.
Interview Highlights:
On starting his acting career and misconceptions about struggling actors:
When I went to New York, I had no acting experience at all. I'd never done a high school play. Nothing. It was a hunch. I took a class after college. I needed some electives so I took an acting class. I had so much fun. I was already an art major and was thinking of getting a masters in painting. They were both absurd choices. I moved to New York and started taking acting classes. I'm struggling, I'm taking classes and I'm waiting tables and bartending. That was already exciting. I'm like, Look — I'm that guy! I'm a cliché! Growing up in Modesto, I never thought I'd be that guy, so this was already pretty fun.
You always hear that only two percent make it [in acting]. So you start talking to all the people you're waiting tables with and bartending with and asking them what they're doing. Most of them you've thought to yourself, That's not going to work! Your plan is not a good one! It's the story that everybody likes to tell — that people are discovered. that these magical things happen. First of all, the story is often not really true. And two, if you think they were trying to become professional basketball players, no one would say, I used to play a lot. I haven't been playing lately, but I have an uncle who knows the guy who's an assistant trainer for the Celtics and he said, there's a chance... I believe that applies, that metaphor.
On getting his role in "Scream 2":
I auditioned for it. As I recall, I think I auditioned for the first one [too]. And it meant a huge amount. It was a big movie and a lot of people saw it. It was a flashy part and I was very grateful they gave me that opportunity. And it led to other parts. The day I met with [director] Doug Liman, he said he had just recently seen "Scream 2" and he was interested in meeting with me about that.
On early work with Danny Boyle and Holly Hunter:
I did a scene that basically got cut out of a Danny Boyle movie, "A Life Less Ordinary," where I was working with Holly Hunter for the day. Those are moments. Danny Boyle — there was just a way in which he works — an enthusiasm. He makes you feel like everything is wonderful. But watching Holly Hunter was pretty life changing. I hadn't seen that before. We were doing a take and the camera's on her. The wind picked up and she turned her face into the wind. Some noise would happen off-camera and she'd turn and look at it and then look back at me. She had this monologue and at first I kept thinking, She's screwing up [the camera shots]. Then I realized, no she's not. She's actually just completely dialed in to the entire experience and everything that's happening and she's not concerned with getting it right. She's not even trying to get it right. She's interested in the moment and whatever was happening at the moment. It felt fearless and unconscious and I remember flagging that moment — that day — and thinking, Well, that's where you want to go. That's where you want to get to.
On "Santa Clarita Diet" and whether he fits his role on the show:
It's a very traditional, simple show. I play a guy who loves his wife and he wants to protect her, he wants to provide for her. He loves the family, he's trying to keep them together. She's eating the neighbors and that's making it difficult. I'm trying to work it out and keep it together. I was really quite surprised they offered it to me.
I think you could make an argument that in those first two episodes, I'm miscast. You could put a more nebbishy character in there and it would explain a lot. But I think that the wonderful thing about television is that it's a fluid piece. If you get to the fourth episode, I think it's a match made in heaven. I think it's a perfect part for me.
On what it means to be executive producer on Santa Clarita Diet:
Nothing. Producing? It means whatever you want it to. You can stay home and collect a paycheck. On this show, I mostly do a lot of cheerleading. It depends. On "Justified," I — for better or worse — was very involved. On this show, I'm involved, but it's Victor [Fresco's] baby and he really knows what he wants and I'm a little out of my element. But I've been very lucky. My job allows me to still be a student. It allows me to still be a child. It allows me to still find things about it where I know nothing and an opportunity to learn about it. That makes the acting more fun.
On being an actor and contributing to the production process:
Acting really is — I don't know what people tell you, but it's pretty easy. You say what they tell you to say, you wear what they tell you to wear and you hit your mark. You're really just — as far as I can tell — present and in the moment. It's in between [takes] where you've got all this time [to get] involved in the storytelling ... to think about the bigger picture, the story, where it's going, the opportunities that we're not taking advantage of. The distraction of the two things tend to complement one another.
How is the Trump Era transforming late-night TV?
There's no doubt that President Trump has had a significant impact on late-night television.
The current slate of hosts — from Samantha Bee to Jimmy Fallon — are defining their shows by how deep they're willing to delve into politics and how critical they are of the Trump Administration.
In an interview in the current issue of New York Magazine, former late night host David Letterman went so far as to say that comedians and late-night hosts today have "an obligation" to take on the president.
But politics and late night television haven't always gone hand-in-hand.
Culture journalist Mark Harris, also in the current issue of New York, writes that during the Johnny Carson era of The Tonight Show, it would have been unheard of for Carson to reveal his own political leanings.
Harris told The Frame's John Horn that things started to change when Jon Stewart took over The Daily Show in the late '90s.
"People started to realize that there was an audience for someone who wore his political convictions on his sleeve, more than Carson did."
But even for Letterman, Harris says, it wasn't until later in his late-night career that his own political leanings became discernible.
"It was jolting to hear Dave get political," Harris says. "Now it's completely normal, it's almost surprising when you see a late-night guy and you watch him for an hour and you think, I have no idea where he stands on anything. That's the exception now."
So who are the winners and losers of this new era of politicized late-night TV?
Harris singles out Samantha Bee (host of Full Frontal on TBS) and John Oliver (host of HBO's Last Week Tonight) as two hosts who've been able to comfortably step into the role of political critic.
Others who have yet to fare as well include The Daily Show's Trevor Noah and Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon.
While Fallon would likely prefer to continue with Johnny Carson's apolitical model, Harris says, that might not work any longer.
"Fallon, I think, understands that Trump right now is Topic A, Topic B, Topic C, Topic D. You can't avoid him, you can't do comedy around him. So as a non-political comedian, he has a particular challenge in trying to find a way to approach Trump and I'm not sure he's done it yet."