Interview - Hitman

By Drew Turney
Interview with Timothy Olyphant
Star of Hitman.

Timothy Olyphant has hit leading man status with Hitman

He’s never been a leading man until now, and he gambles on the traditionally-dire world of the video game adaptation? How crazy is "Hitman" star Timothy Olyphant?

Video games haven’t had a good history. Was that ever a fear for you when you signed on to Hitman?

I knew nothing about the game, so when I first got a call offering me this movie based on a video game I just assumed ‘crap’. That was my knee jerk reaction, probably rightly so given the history.

But then I looked into it more and more, and from what I saw and read - the game is really astonishing in its own right. It’s very elegant and cool with an iconic character and the script put aside any concerns I had. If you hadn’t have told me it was based on a video game I wouldn’t have guessed.

You could tell that it was going to be this visually stylised thing. Any concerns I had quickly went out the window, it was just going to be a good opportunity.

Was it helpful to know as much as possible about the game beforehand or not know so much?

I try to keep things as simple as possible, I’ve found that to be helpful in the last few years. If you start loading yourself up with too much information its easy to get a bit lost, but with this one it was important to be respectful of the source material so I didn’t ignore it by any means.

You do what you can to get as physically close as you can to the character you see in the game, and at the same time the things you can’t do physically you just have to go with that. You always keep in mind that bottom line that you want to get to the heart of the thing. So we were respectful of the source material but we weren’t slaves to it, and that was really to the film’s advantage.

You’ve made a good career being the villain, in films from Girl Next Door to Die Hard 4.0. Is that more interesting?

You’re just always looking for the best jobs you can get your hands on, and I’ve been very lucky and worked consistently in a lot of different roles but I’m not in a position of just picking and choosing, so you’re just trying to get your hands on the most interesting thing available. Those roles often are a kick because there’s a lot of room when you play villains.

What about the performance demands? It can’t be too hard walking around with a scowl shooting people?

There’s a bit of that, for sure, it was kind of easy. What’s great about these kinds of jobs from an acting perspective is that you don’t have to do too much for the character because it’s his actions that define him.

So the fun of the job is all the other stuff in between. Trying to find other angles to look at instead of falling into the old clichés. I always kind of looked at him having this travelling salesman aspect to his job. He just goes from one place to the next taking people out, and there must be a level of it being like anybody’s job – there’s a bit of monotony to it.

So those are the things you try to find so it doesn’t just become a bunch of snarling and killing people.

Is it hard to get yourself into the headspace of a contract killer?

It can be, but you’re in Bulgaria for months away from your family so it’s easy to find that and tap in to that existence on the set. You’re a bit of a circus freak in the way, going from town to town done up in make-up.

But the job’s a blast. There’s a old saying about sex and pizza – when it’s good it’s good and when it’s bad it’s still pretty good. I find that tends to apply to my job.

You’re done comedy and drama, now you’re blazing the action genre. How different are they?

I was fortunate to have a few weeks with Bruce Willis before going off and doing my action film because he was a good guy to watch and learn from. But it’s new to me and I rather enjoyed it, so I hope I get another opportunity.

How different are the demands of the job than drama or comedy?

I see it as pretty much the same job in terms of how you wake up in the morning and approach the day. You’re still playing ball and the same basic tenements apply, so it doesn’t feel any different than any other job.

You’re aware that with the job comes different responsibilities, whether it’s your role on the set or your position and there’s things that are available to you and the impact you have and the opportunity to have a bigger role.

So what’s up next now your currency in Hollywood is rising?

You’re catching me at home and I’m unemployed. But I’ve been very lucky to work consistently for almost ten years now and I’d be more than happy to go on doing that for another ten years, it’s a good way to make a living.

HITMAN opens December 6th across Australia