“I just bought a house”: the 2007 movie Timothy Olyphant accurately called a “pile of shit”
At the end of the day, actors are just like us, because everyone has bills to pay. Admittedly, their bills will be more expensive, but there’s only so much any thespian can prioritise the craft at the expense of a fat paycheque. Timothy Olyphant knew what he was getting into, but he desperately needed the cash.
It’s always felt odd that he’s never quite been able to make it as a movie star. After all, he ticks all the boxes that Hollywood looks for in its leading men: he’s tall, he’s handsome, he’s shown that he’s got charm and charisma to spare, and he’s even got a couple of classic TV shows under his belt.
However, has Olyphant ever played a major role in a great movie? His feature-length debut came back in 1996 when he appeared in the cult favourite, The First Wives Club, and he’s been in a few solid flicks, a couple of hits, and a handful of underrated gems, but never anything that could be called a classic.
Yes, he was in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, but only for a few minutes, 1999’s Go is pretty good, Rango won an Academy Award, and Scream 2 is arguably the best of the slasher saga’s sequels, but after 30 years, he still hasn’t managed to find himself a definitive big-screen breakout role.
On the plus side, he took top billing in Deadwood, one of the greatest TV shows of all time, and he headlined six seasons of Justified as Elmore Leonard’s creation, Rayland Givens, so there’s that. In between those two high points, though, he found himself stuck in a financial rut.
In May 2006, three months before the final episode of the show’s third season aired, it was announced that Deadwood had been cancelled. It took two decades to find closure when the feature-length coda was finally released, but Olyphant had more of an immediate problem. Namely, his bank balance.
When he was offered the villain role in the fourth Die Hard, he accepted it on the spot without reading the script. Why? “I just bought a house,” he explained. “They just cancelled my fucking show. Yes, I’ll do it. ‘What about this video game adaptation?’ ‘Yes to that, too. I’m in. I’ve got to make up some TV money.'”
That video game adaptation was Xavier Gens’ Hitman, which started shooting seven months after the Deadwood finale. Thanks to his freshly purchased home and axed series, Olyphant had to go where the money was, and since it was the most lucrative offer that came his way, he was happy to do it, up to a point.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but the film was awful, and Olyphant couldn’t have looked less interested if he tried. Still, it taught him a valuable lesson that he’s followed ever since: “Find yourself bald in Bulgaria doing some pile of shit; that will get you up a little earlier in the morning and make you work a little harder.”
