Timothy Olyphant on ‘Full Circle’ & the Energy on a Steven Soderbergh Set
Jul 21, 2023
From director Steven Soderbergh and writer Ed Solomon, the six-episode Max series Full Circle follows an investigation into a botched kidnapping, the individuals connected to it, and the secrets that have long been hidden. As the puzzle pieces come together, revelations make the three seemingly unrelated storylines take shape as a more intertwined crime drama that runs as deep as the ties that bind family.
During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Timothy Olyphant (who plays a husband and father that oversees his father-in-law’s business, as he finds himself caught up in this kidnapping) talked about being drawn in by these scripts, learning the lines and getting out of his own way, the energy that Soderbergh brings to the set, how he approached his character, and the relationship dynamic between this married couple. He also talked about how thrilled he is about how the season of Justified: City Primeval ultimately turned out, even though it’s different from how it was originally envisioned.
This interview was conducted prior to the start of the SAG-AFTRA strike.
Collider: This is such a fascinating character study. It’s one of those projects where, as the audience, we start not knowing what’s going on or how any of the pieces, which really are these characters, fit with each other. How much did you know? How did you keep track of how it all fit together?
TIMOTHY OLYPHANT: I read all the scripts, before I even met Steven [Soderbergh] and Ed [Solomon]. I’d read all six, and I loved them. They were amazing. They were riveting and thrilling, and they were what people call page-turners, for every episode. After that, you dive in and start learning your lines and working the scenes, and you trust that it will all fit together. I don’t worry too much about that because that’s Steven’s problem.
Image via Max
With this being such dense material, do you just compartmentalize, as far as like your character and how he fits in, in any given moment?
OLYPHANT: Yeah, any conversations about the overall piece or scenes, for the most part, happened early. And then, maybe you address those conversations, once you have time, if you can find time while you’re in the midst of shooting. Sometimes Ed and I would get together and look at scenes, but it was based on our initial back and forth, from the jump. After that, you’re just playing the scene. That’s what I do. I don’t know about all the other people that do it other ways. All I know is that what I do is learn my lines and try to get out of my own way.
How does a Steven Soderbergh project work? When you’re working with somebody like that, who is also carrying the camera around and who seems to be a filmmaker who wants to be just in the middle of it, what’s that like to work with and interact with?
OLYPHANT: It’s wonderful. It just doesn’t get any better. You feel his energy, and you feel his interest. I worked with Walter Hill. He was one of those old school guys, who sits on an apple box right next to the lens, and I remember loving that. Any time you can connect to an audience, in this case it’s Steven because you can sense him right there, it’s wonderful. It’s like theater. The audience is telling you what the scene is. I much prefer that to the director behind the monitor watching the footage in another room. Even then, you can sense it, but this is wonderful.
Is it still very collaborative?
OLYPHANT: We exchange looks. In between takes, I look at him and watch him responding silently. That’s it. We hardly spoke. We spoke, but not about the work.
If you weren’t doing something right, he probably would have mentioned it.
OLYPHANT: That’s what I kept telling myself. If we’re moving on, I guess I must have done it right.
Image via Max
How did you view this guy? Where did you start with this character?
OLYPHANT: It all just snowballs. You have an idea of what the role entails and what your job is or what you’re trying to bring to life. The scenes were really well-written, so it made it easy. You have a dialogue with everybody involved. You start by getting the wardrobe and all those things that help you look like you created a character, but really, you’re just relying on other people that are really good at what they do.
What was it like to work with and explore this marriage dynamic with Claire Danes? She seems like someone who is so emotionally present in a scene, so what’s that like, as her scene partner?
OLYPHANT: She’s the best. I can’t tell you how much I admire and respect her work and the way she works. Like with Steven, we hardly talked. We literally met, minutes before we rolled. It was just a joy to work with her, but we never spoke about our characters once.
She’s one of those actors that, for me, when she just gets on her face or even in her eyes, you can feel so much of whatever she’s going through.
OLYPHANT: Yeah. I felt like I was working with a professional athlete. I didn’t see any of the work. I just saw all the magic.
With everything that this guy goes through and everything that comes out because of the circumstances he finds himself in, do you think he feels relieved once it’s all over, or is he someone that would have preferred to keep his secrets a secret?
OLYPHANT: Oh, I have no idea. I know he was trying his best. It certainly seems like he was living in his own bubble, and that partly that involves his wife because she has to want to also live in a bubble, or you would think she would notice something otherwise. I tend to be the kind of person that feels like most people get what they signed up for, but I don’t know if anyone signed up for that. But it felt a little bit like there was a lie that was agreed upon between them. I don’t know how you could be that close to somebody and not know. You may not know the specifics, but it’s hard not to imagine they knew something was up.
Image via Max
I’ve spoken to you this year already, for Justified: City Primeval and for Daisy Jones & The Six, which are very different from each other and from Full Circle. to see you in such very different things. Since we first spoke about the return of Justified in January, I’ve now watched the whole season, and I want to thank you for having a hand in making what I think is a great season of a show that I already loved and that already had one of the best season finales, but now has another incredibly satisfying season and great finale. If it’s the end, it feels like a great place to leave that world, but if it goes on for more seasons, I can’t wait to see how it will continue. Ho do you feel about where you leave things?
OLYPHANT: First of all, I’m not gonna lie to you, I just love hearing that. You’re the first person I’ve talked to that’s seen the whole thing. I hope you’re a part of a trend of people that love the whole thing. That means a great deal. Since we’re on HBO Max’s dime, I don’t wanna kick this down too much, and I don’t wanna get into spoilers, but I’m so happy that we did it again. When we first started the conversation about what I wanted it to be or what I thought it could be, it wasn’t exactly what you watched. In a great way, what did happen, that I was hoping would happen, especially because Dave Andron and Michael Dinner took the reins from Graham [Yost], is that we broke away from the show and gave those guys license to make it their own. We took a lot of big swings. I was hoping that it would not feel anything like the show, and yet be like, “Oh, that’s the show.” That’s what it felt like when we were shooting it. And then, the way we ended was their creation, I was all for it, as soon as I heard it, but it was a big swing. They deserve all the credit in the world, if we pulled it off. I loved working with my kid. I loved the whole cast. It was really special. I said I wouldn’t go on about it, but I really appreciate you saying what you did. I’m thrilled that it worked so well.
Is there any rhyme or reason to the stuff that you do? Do you sit down and go, “Okay, I’ve done these things recently, so I need to do something over here”? Do you just feel really lucky that, especially in just these last six months, everything has been so different?
OLYPHANT: It’s not like I’m sitting back, picking and choosing, or at least not sitting back and picking and choosing from tons of great material. I’m looking to get my hands on the best material I can find. I do enjoy getting paid. It’s very satisfying to make a living doing this. When jobs, like the ones that came up this year, do both those things, they’re both incredibly gratifying, creatively, and I get paid for it. It’s a bit of a dream come true.
You certainly seem like you’re having a lot of fun with the projects you’re doing.
OLYPHANT: As my daughter pointed out, she discovered recently that I basically get paid to act like a child, and she’s not completely wrong. It’s child’s play, but it’s very gratifying.
Full Circle is available to stream at Max.
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