The Hollywood Reporter
[This story contains spoilers for Justified: City Primeval’s two-episode premiere.]
Vivian Olyphant knows what you’re thinking, but she won’t let it faze her.
The 20-year-old actor recently made her onscreen debut during the two-episode premiere of Justified: City Primeval, the revival of FX’s beloved neo-Western series that concluded in 2015. She plays Willa Givens, the daughter of Timothy Olyphant’s charming U.S. Marshal, Raylan Givens, and it’s a role she understands better than anyone as the real-life daughter of the series’ leading man. The younger Olyphant may have grown up on the Justified set, but she still had to go through a lengthier audition process than usual to play Willa. Ultimately, she earned the role by capturing Willa’s unlikely combination of street smarts and mischievous naiveté.
Vivian knew full well that claims of nepotism would come her way following New York Magazine’s highly publicized piece on the “nepo baby,” and so she’s unafraid to address the subject.
“It’s a very normal thing for a child to be interested in something that their parents are doing, especially if it’s something as fun as acting. Having a parent that acts and knows the job and is supportive of it just makes it a lot better,” Olyphant told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview conducted before of the SAG-AFTRA strike.
Co-showrunners Michael Dinner and Dave Andron based the new series on Elmore Leonard’s novel City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit and his “Fire in the Hole” novella, and it begins with Raylan and Willa road-tripping in order to drop the latter off at camp as a form of punishment. The father-daughter duo wind up having to take a detour to Detroit, and a double homicide involving Clement Mansell (Boyd Holbrook) takes Raylan’s attention away from his teenage daughter.
When Raylan eventually starts to put the squeeze on Mansell, the murderous con man retaliates by tracking down Willa at her hotel and deceiving her into thinking he’s an old friend of her father’s. Recognizing the threat against his daughter, Raylan arrives on the scene and beats the tar out of Mansell, as Willa watches along in tearful horror.
For Vivian, the climactic moment of the two-episode premiere is more complicated than Willa being frightened by the violence that her father inflicted on another person. “That’s when she realizes that she’s made a mistake. It’s an intense thing to watch your dad beating up some other guy, and she feels guilty. She feels like she did something wrong and pushed her dad further away. I think she also knows her dad is in danger.”
Below, in a spoiler conversation with THR, she also discusses how her real-life dynamic with her father compares to their fictional relationship.
Vivian Olyphant as Willa Givens in Justified: City Primeval. Kurt Iswarienko/FX
So, was acting always the plan, or did it start to pull you in recent years?
I was always interested in it when I was younger, just from visiting my dad on his sets and watching him having fun, basically. I also loved meeting everybody on set. So I knew that was the place where I wanted to be, and I would also put on shows for my family. I would write plays. Performing was always something I was interested in.
And you’re going to school for it right now?
Yeah, I go to the William Esper Studio in New York.
Hollywood has always been a family business, but some people still get critical whenever an actor’s child joins the business. Did you prepare yourself for that kind of criticism?
Yeah, I knew about the “nepo baby” and that world, but it’s a very normal thing for a child to be interested in something that their parents are doing, especially if it’s something as fun as acting. Having a parent that acts and knows the job and is supportive of it just makes it a lot better. So I knew about all that, but I’m just not paying attention to those comments.
Just out of curiosity, did you debate using a different last name like some people in your position do?
(Laughs.) No, I never thought about that.
So, what’s the story behind your audition process?
I went to Berklee [College of Music] in Boston for one year, and while I was talking to my parents on the phone, they mentioned how they were casting for the role of Willa. And I think they knew that it would be something I’d be interested in doing. I thought about it and read the sides, and then I really became interested after reading the sides. So I asked my parents if I could audition, and they were in full support of it. So that’s how it happened. And then they came to visit me in Boston for a weekend, and that’s when we shot my audition tape together.
When did you hear back?
So, I think they usually tell working actors two weeks after they audition, but they knew I didn’t have anything else going on, so I heard back about a month after or maybe a little bit longer. It was a while until I heard back.
Willa and Raylan Givens ( Timothy Olyphant ). Chuck Hodes/FX
Had you seen any of Justified prior to auditioning?
I’ve never seen Justified before, but the only reason is because I’ve never seen anything that my dad is in. I see him all the time, and in my free time, I don’t know that watching him is something I’d be interested in doing. But I knew what the show is about, and I visited the set growing up, so I knew the creatives on the team, too.
To me, Raylan is the coolest guy because he’s both personable and dangerous, but when you watch him, are you able to buy into the character’s charm? Or do you just see right through him as your dad?
Well, there was actually a time on set where I watched him shoot a scene in which he had to fire a gun. And then there was this little trick that happened, and I was like, “That’s pretty cool.” So there were times where I was like, “That’s really cool,” and I haven’t seen my dad be that cool before. (Laughs.)
How much of your real-life dynamic with your dad is on the screen? Do you guys ever bicker like Willa and Raylan do?
I do argue with my dad, but not as much as Willa and Raylan argue. Willa tries to get her dad’s attention a lot, so she’ll do things that are kind of rebellious in order to get his attention. But I know that my dad loves me, so I don’t need to do things to get his attention.
The show begins with Raylan driving Willa to some kind of camp. She punched a girl at school, and so it’s some form of punishment. Is that correct?
Yes, that’s correct.
It seems like she splits time between her mother and stepfather’s house, and Raylan’s. Which household do you think she prefers?
Oh, wow. I think that she spends enough time with her mom that she really just wants to spend time with her dad. So I would say that spending time with her dad is most exciting for her, because she doesn’t get a lot of time with him.
She wears a fake nose ring, but she hasn’t told her mother that it’s fake. So, it makes sense that she enjoys her time with her dad more if she’s willing to aggravate her mom like that.
I agree.
Willa has street smarts as we see in the fake Rolex scene. She recognizes right away what’s going on and she turns the tables. Do you think she picked up those skills from her dad?
Yeah, she has a bullshit detector that she acquired from her dad.
She also has a mischievous side. She orders the “dumbest drink on the menu” at the bar for Aunjanue Ellis’ character, and then she orders the entire room service menu the next morning.
In the first episode, Willa brings up how Raylan always gets “the call.” He always has to go and leave, and I think she’s doing these rebellious things in order to get his attention and make him stay.
Raylan and Vivian in Justified: City Primeval. Chuck Hodes/FX
Despite her dad’s orders to not leave the hotel, she goes for a stroll around Detroit and finds a glass shard after the fake Rolex scene. Will that piece of glass come in handy at some point?
(Laughs.) I’ll just say that everyone should keep watching.
At the end of episode two, Raylan finds Willa in the hotel restaurant with Clement (Boyd Holbrook), and she doesn’t realize how threatening the situation truly is. Raylan then drags Clement outside and whales on him. The episode ends with Willa crying in response to what she’s seen. Is she crying because she’s horrified by what her dad has done? Or is she crying because she’s realized that she’s caused a much bigger problem than she can even begin to understand?
When we were filming the scene and I was doing my emotional prep, Michael Dinner directed me by saying, “Imagine this is the last time you’re seeing your dad. Imagine he’s not coming back.” And so I think that’s when she realizes that she’s made a mistake. It’s an intense thing to watch your dad beating up some other guy, and she feels guilty. She feels like she did something wrong and pushed her dad even further away.
Does she recognize that this situation was much bigger than her?
Yeah, I think she also knows that her dad is in danger.
For scenes like that, can you cry on a dime?
Oh, yeah! I cry all the time. (Laughs.)
Vivian Olyphant as Willa Givens. Chuck Hodes/FX
Now that you’ve logged a good amount of time working on set, what was the biggest lesson you learned? What was something that you didn’t know going into it?
This is also advice that my dad gave me, but when you come to set, just let go of the work you’ve done at home and have fun. The work happens at home and then the play happens at work. And that is something that I’m always gonna do on future sets. It just allows you to enjoy the filming process and really be able to be there in the moment.
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Justified: City Primeval is now airing Tuesdays on FX. This interview, conducted prior to the July 13 SAG-AFTRA strike, was edited for length and clarity.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
