Yahoo | Interview Garret Dillahunt

Things have spun wildly out of control for Ty Walker on this final season of Justified, and when last we saw Avery Markham’s (Sam Elliott) mercenary, he’d killed for some much-needed medical supplies and was headed to… where?

Walker portrayer Garret Dillahunt, who was reunited with his Deadwood pal Timothy Olyphant for the Justified gig, talks to Yahoo TV about how Walker landed in this desperate place, reminiscing with Olyphant, his upcoming Amazon Prime drama Hand of God and a guest appearance on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and how he and a few of our other favorite funny guys ended up in Ingrid Michaelson’s new music video.

When I first heard that you and Sam Elliott had been cast in the show, it just seemed like, “Yes, how has he not already been on Justified?” Is it something that you and Tim Olyphant had talked about earlier on in the series?
We didn’t know exactly what it would be, but definitely, I had wanted to do it. His show shoots roughly the same time Raising Hope would shoot. We would see each other at Fox get-togethers, and I was always happy to see him because he is a funny guy. His show went longer than my show, so I was free, and I sent him a text that said, “Hey, I’ve got some time on my hands.” I had shot the Hand of God pilot after Raising Hope ended, but it was going to be a while until we started shooting the rest of the season, so I was just twirling my thumbs and it was a perfect time.

Did you have a hand in developing Ty Walker?
A little bit. These guys don’t need much help, and I didn’t want to… I just didn’t want to hurt the show. They’ve built something over the past five seasons, and they deserve a fair and complete send-off. I just didn’t want to be the weak link or distraction, although I wanted to be on it. Tim’s very active in helping actors find little things that people might not have considered. There were a few things… the beard is something that I had for Hand of God, and I was afraid that by the time we finished Justified I wouldn’t have time to grow it back before it was time to [resume Hand of God]. I said, “What if I just keep it, just let it keep growing?” Just little things like that, little ideas, but they are very receptive to it.

Ty seems to have an allergy issue, too.
I guess I never thought of it as an allergy… I just came in blowing my nose one time, and I thought it would be sort of funny. I don’t think he’s disrespectful; he’s just confident. I don’t think he underestimates the [locals] at all, because a lot of tough soldiers come from hillbilly country, and he’d be aware of that. It’s just one of those little things that humanize the moment.

His military background humanizes him, too. You can imagine that he and his cohorts have seen a lot of bad things — what we know happened to Choo-Choo, for example — and you can see how they chose this path, hiring themselves out as mercenaries.
I agree. When [Justified showrunner] Graham [Yost] called and told me a little about the guy, I immediately called some ex-military friends of mine. I didn’t know I’d be in a suit and sort of a sleek front man, and not do a whole lot of actual military things. I was getting ready, and I wanted to do that because you just instinctively have a lot of sympathy for our [military veterans]. The things we expect them to do and then the very little help they get when they return. It’s kind of a stunning behavior, isn’t it, on the part of us? It’s like “Yeah, yeah we need to mold you into this weapon, where you can do incredible things and still stand upright, see yourself in the mirror, and just come along. Yeah, you’ll be fine. Good luck. Come on, snap out of it.” Not to say it’s an excuse for any kind of bad behavior, but it certainly makes it seem understandable. This is what these men are good at, and let’s at least do it together. I’m sure there was a lot of legit stuff at first, and then they just fell in with the guys who aren’t so legit.

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