As indestructible as Deputy Marshal Raylan Givens seems on the FX drama Justified, his co-worker, Tim Gutterson, is no slouch either. Whenever a guy can put a hole through someone's forehead with pinpoint accuracy at any distance ("I don't miss," he once assures his boss, Art Mullen), you best not mess with him.
And Jacob Pitts, who plays Tim, would love to see different sides of him, to catch him outside of strict work mode. So do fans of the show, who have taken to the character and want them some more Tim. Pitts explains the dream scenario he has for Tim and Art, and colorfully shares other observations about Justified (with minor digressions).
AH: What had you known about or read by Elmore Leonard before Justified came along for you?
JP: I had known basically the movies they had made out of his books. I hadn't read a single story. That's all I knew.
AH: If Justified isn't the best show on television, it has to be in the top three or so. What would you say are the primary reasons why it's caught on so well?
JP: Violence and redneck culture, probably. Somewhere around there. Everyone likes a good gun in an advertisement.
For me, what I would find interesting if I wasn't involved in it is I think what's kind of a strain in a lot of the shows that have been popular, like The Sopranos or The Wire or a well-esteemed FX show that I can't think of off the top of my head, is letting people into a culture they're not familiar with.
I think a lot of people think they're under a dome of sorts living in the suburbs, tucked away from everything. And so this redneck, backwater meth culture is very exotic to them, the same way that a New Jersey mafia culture would be or a Baltimore drug culture would be.
AH: Well, and any time you can have Jere Burns and Stephen Root in the same episode, you're doing something right.
JP: Oh, sure. It's amazing. I had no idea it would be like that. I didn't think about that, that the guest stars that we would get would be people I had admired for years. I had an agent of mine once who asked, "Who would your career like to be?" And this is when I was, I don't know, 22, 23. And it was with a hot agency then.
I said, "I'd like to be like Stephen Root." And they just got this blank expression on their face. Like, that's not Johnny Depp. You're supposed to say Johnny Depp!
AH: When did you start liking his work? Was it in the NewsRadio era or sometime before that?
JP: I liked him in NewsRadio, and then I think he just basically started popping up in everything: King of the Hill, Office Space. The breadth that he's able to achieve with everything... Character actors like him, they can go, he's Jimmy James and he's Jimmy James forever. But he's got dozens of people inside of him to work with.
AH: What impresses you most about Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens?
JP: As Raylan Givens, just that snake-like walk he has. Because I don't know how he does that without tripping. You don't see it often because he gets a lot of close-ups.
As an actor, I'm constantly amazed. Every episode I would say he has around 50 pages of dialogue to memorize continuously, and he has ideas about every little moment in a scene, even if it's a scene where you're just delivering information: "Here you go, Raylan, here's the dossier on this guy who's going to be dead by the middle of the episode that will lead you to the next guy." Information that's boring where you should just show up, do it and say it.
But he comes in with all these ideas for nuance, how to make these nothing moments maybe say something about somebody. If there's an opportunity to be more of a storyteller and less of a functionary, he'll give it to you. And he's got to concentrate on all this other stuff. And the man isn't a raging alcoholic. I don't know how that works. I'm just amazed at his capacity to do things. I wouldn't be able to sleep if I were him.
AH: What do you think are the strongest attributes of the Tim Gutterson character?
JP: I don't think it's really been explored that much. I couldn't tell. I mean, I've got ideas in my head, but I wouldn't be able to say.
AH: Yeah. I know it's up to the writers, but how would you like to see Tim fleshed out?
JP: Well, let me see. Personally, I would love an episode... I think what we have established, I think—I'm loath to watch any episode I'm in, so I don't know how it's come across—but the way it is in my head is that he's a very capable, trained scout sniper, man-hunter, survivalist. He can kill you without you knowing from 10 yards away or 1,000 yards away.
But what I would like is for him to bring Art perhaps to his house for dinner, just checking in. And Art looks over at his shelf and he's like, [uncannily imitating Nick Searcy as Art] "Tim, do you have every issue of Maxim Magazine aligned chronologically on your shelf?" And I'm like, "Yes. And this is my collection of international shot glasses." I'd love this guy who could probably outlast almost anybody he comes in contact with have the emotional maturity of a frat boy.
AH: Was there any firearm training that you needed to have to take on this role of an ex-Army Ranger/sniper?
JP: Amazingly not. I got the job because I had met [creator and executive producer] Graham Yost. He had been a producer/writer/director on the miniseries The Pacific, and we had a lot of firearm training on that. And when I got this [Justified role], I went to the range a bit more. But there have been instances, particularly in the pilot, where I'm handling a modified AR-15 and I had never fired a fully automatic weapon. So that was a bit troublesome!
AH: By the way, what was it like to be a part of The Pacific?
JP: Best job I ever had, full stop. I'm a very cynical, untrusting person, I think, to a certain degree, particularly with other actors. And when we showed up, I met all these guys and you judge them instantly. "Uh-huh." "Right." "OK." "We're going to have a good time." "You're wearing your cap backwards and you're over 32." Stuff like that. Immediate shallow judgments.
And then we went to boot camp, which was more intense than I thought anything was going to be. You completely see this person who you thought of as a flake take up everybody's baggage and run with it, and take care of people in a way and just be selfless and amazing. So we got to know each other in a more intimate way than you would normally.
It was seven months of thinking about death every day and looking at exploded heads and blood spurters and everything. And then in between takes just giggling like little kids, sick as that is to say...
I wouldn't compare it to the real thing, ever, but it did give you a taste of people in combat going through that swing.
AH: Violently switching gears back to Justified.
JP: It doesn't have to be all violent, now.
AH: Well, you opened with violence, and I kind of ran with it subconsciously, I suppose. In this next episode (titled "Full Commitment"), I see that Tim's tagging along as backup for Raylan. Was that authorized by Art beforehand?
JP: Yeah, because the last episode Raylan and Winona were assaulted. So I'm not so much tagging along as I'm assigned to protect him and make sure he doesn't do anything else.
AH: From your perspective, what have been the high points of Season 2, which has introduced this huge story arc with the Bennett clan and Black Pike?
JP: As much as I do enjoy the people we get for episodic stuff like Larenz Tate, I really liked how it's coming together as a show with story arcs and character development. I think Season 1 didn't quite know what it was yet. I mean, there was a definite tone. We wanted to be like Elmore Leonard. We want to do this guy justice. What form that would take, no one knew. And now I think they have a better idea. I just like seeing more of the consistent pace.
AH: When will shooting start up again for Season 3, do you know?
JP: I would guess sometime mid-September, maybe October, something like that.
AH: From whom do you take the greatest pleasure watching work on the show, whether it's a recurring character or cast member?
JP: I would have to say Nick Searcy. It's not so much a matter of watching him work as trying not to let him fuck me up. Because he will. I think I saw it in Episode 4 in a re-shoot, and it was just the way he chose to stand. It was the most ridiculous position. No one would ever do that. And he did. As soon as he realized it was making me giggle, he did it even more absurdly. And it made the cut! That's basically I think how he develops his character: Which way can I fuck Jacob up the most? And that's the way we're going to take Art.
Alex Hoffman - Alex Hoffman is a graduate of the University of Kansas' journalism school whose credits include Midwest Commercial Journal, Lawrence ...
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