Timothy Olyphant as U.S. Marshal Rayland Givens on "Justified"

Timothy Olyphant could easily pass for the Hollywood heartthrob type but a quick rundown of his film and TV roles will tell you Olyphant likes to play it a little loose, which, means that he’s not always playing the good guy. And even when he is, he’s certainly not averse to playing someone with an unusual moral code.

From playing a gun-for-hire, Agent 47 in a movie adaptation of a video game (“Hitman”) and an Internet terrorist (“Live Free, Die Hard,” also known as “Die Hard 4.0”) to the quirkier role of a porn producer in “The Girl Next Door,” Olyphant seems to be quite happy to take on the challenges of his profession.

“I’m just trying to get the best material I can get my hands on,” he says.

In “Justified,” the series based on the novel by noted author Elmore Leonard that premieres this June 17 on AXN, Olyphant plays U.S. Marshal Rayland Givens—a role one scribe calls “a smoldering lawman with issues” who operates with his own brand of “extralegal” justice. Indeed, Givens may appear trigger happy, but he does it with reason and conviction.

“I hit the jackpot with this one,” Olyphant shares. “I think what was so attractive about this role is that he seems complicated. [At] times he’s very familiar—in characters that we’ve seen and kind of grown up watching. And at the same time, there something just so contemporary about him, and at times very unexpected.”

The unexpected in the Givens character is that, he’s not only imposing the law but he’s coming into a place that brings up a lot of memories for him.

We first see Givens in his old coal-mining hometown in poor, rural Kentucky where he is reassigned from Miami after having shot a suspect point black in broad daylight when the latter refused to leave town. Being back in Kentucky stirs up many issues in Givens, including having to confront people he’s known since childhood who have turned into town hooligans, as well as the memories of an outlaw father.

“I love, in the pilot for example, I love that when a guy pulls a shotgun on him, that the character is very calm and collected. Often talks the guy down and really tries to articulate the situation so that there’s no misunderstanding. But when the guy is rude to him, he grabs him by the head and hits his face against the steering wheel. And I just thought that was so funny… such a wonderful character. He’s just a step away from death and he’s just very calm, and a guy mouths off to him and he often flares up and gets angry and I just love that sort of moral code—you’re gonna point a gun at me, fine, just don’t be rude. That cracks me up,” he shares.

Olyphant has had other opportunities to play interesting roles on TV before—in “Samantha Who,” “Damages” and “Deadwood,” among others.” But Olyphant especially likes the fact that “Justified” allows him to slowly uncover the complications of his gun-totting character.

“[It’s] really been a lovely opportunity for me to play a character that’s so charming and fun… so easy going at times. And I like the idea that there’s a deal of anger there but it’s masked in sort of an easy-going kind of quality. Elmore’s so funny; he has so much wit to him and stuff. It’s so fun to do to constantly be trying to find the joke and the humor, the lightness to it, and really trying to honor Elmore’s work in that respect. When you read Elmore’s book, you get the feeling he was writing them with a bit of a twinkle in his eyes,” he states.

When asked if there are any similarities between him and Givens, Olyphant quips, “I look a lot like him, that’s about it.”

But he plays the Givens character with as much sense of humor as he seems to have in real life—a real tongue-in-cheek characteristic that somehow comes across his delivery without it being distracting or him trying too hard.

In a previous interview Leonard had mentioned, “I never once thought of ‘Justified’ as a Western. And I was surprised to see that reviewers were talking about it."

“I think it’s the hat and the badge and the gun,” executive producer Graham Yost had chimed in.

So, in meeting Leonard after they had already shot the pilot, Olyphant also got the feeling that the author had a slight issue with the hat. Although Leonard had been generous with his compliments, Olyphant kids, “The only thing he told me was don’t worry about the hat. ‘You don’t have to wear the hat if you don’t want to.’ Yeah I don’t think he likes the hat, I’m not sure. I don’t think it’s the one he wanted. He told me, ‘Don’t worry, you could lose it, the wind could blow it away and it’s gone…”

But because even Leonard had to concede with Yost that Olyphant wears the hat well, Givens will keep his hat—at least for now.

Meanwhile, as the series enjoys its success abroad and premieres in Asia, Olyphant is not kicking back. As to whether he is considering any other upcming projects, without missing a beat he replies, “I might do some gardening here at the house, that’s really the big thing that I’ve got next. The weeds are out of control!”

And as a parting shot, he is asked to describe Hollywood in five words. “Hang on, I’m gonna come up with a really good one for you: I. Have. No. Clue… Haha, that’s only four! We could add a curse word in there, and that would be: I have no ****** clue! Five words about Hollywood. I don’t understand it… what the hell… nobody does, that’s the whole thing,” he laughs with relish.

He shoots, he scores, he kills!

“Justified” premieres on June 17 on AXN.