What Goes Around Comes Around For Timothy Olyphant’s Character in Steven Soderbergh’s FULL CIRCLE

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede Timothy Olyphant jumped at the chance to work with acclaimed filmmaker and multiple OSCAR® winner Steven Soderbergh on the new Max limited series FULL CIRCLE. In fact, Olyphant said he was basically “in” when he got the first call, before he had even read anything. Olyphant admitted that FULL CIRCLE is a bit of a departure for him tonally, compared with some of his other recent projects (JUSTIFIED: CTY PRIMEVAL, DAISY JONES & THE SIX, FARGO, SANTA CLARITA DIET). So he went into FULL CIRCLE with a potent mixture of confidence, nervousness, apprehension, excitement, and trust. “The one thing that helps you sleep at night is that you’re working with Steven (Soderbergh), and everything you’ve ever seen him do is fantastic – so you say, ‘well, I assume this will be fantastic as well,’ ” Olyphant said in a virtual interview. Olyphant then laughed as he added, “I mean, I don’t think I can ruin a Soderbergh piece. I just don’t think I’m capable. I could give it a shot, but I just feel like, you know, he’ll get rid of me before I ruin it.” Olyphant has no reason to worry. Not only does he “not ruin” FULL CIRCLE – which debuts with two episodes on Thursday, July 13, only on Crave – he helps elevate it, as part of an impressive all-star cast that also includes Claire Danes, Zazie Beetz, Jharrel Jerome, Dennis Quaid, Jim Gaffigan, and CCH Pounder. Directed by Soderbergh, and created and written by Ed Solomon, FULL CIRCLE is set in motion by a botched kidnapping in present-day New York City. As the mystery is uncovered and the investigation proceeds, it becomes apparent that there is something very deep going on, dating back decades, and connecting different families, different cultures, and even different nations in sinister, spiritual, and vengeful ways. Olyphant plays Derek, who is married to Danes’ character, Sam. Together they’re the creative forces behind a fancy culinary brand, fronted by Sam’s dad Jeffrey, played by Quaid. Life is good on the surface, at least economically, and notwithstanding the regular struggles of day-to-day life. But Derek is carrying secrets, and he’s not alone in that regard. “He’s definitely in a bit of a jam,” Olyphant said of his character. “He has clearly tried to keep something under wraps, and keep everything together. He has been doing that for a very, very long time. And it’s all kind of unraveling. He strikes me as someone who’s trying really hard. He seems like he genuinely cares about everybody involved. But he just made a really bad decision at some point, and it’s just catching up to him.” Asked what it was like working with Soderbergh, Olyphant said bluntly, “it was mind-blowing. I’d heard about him. I’ve seen just about everything he has done. And I knew he worked quickly. I knew he was a man of few words on the set. But even with as much as I knew, it was just shocking to see the way he works. He has set up a system that is so efficient. Even when someone tells you that he’s not going to give you notes, it’s really shocking when a director doesn’t give you any notes. The note is when he says, ‘okay, next shot.’ That means he liked what you did. And that’s it. I’m embarrassed how much I’ve sort of relied on directors telling me, ‘that was really great.’ I thought I needed that. Apparently, I don’t!” But regardless of which director he’s working with, or whether he’s playing a straightforward hero or a man who’s hiding something big, Olyphant said he takes the same basic approach to acting. “I know there’s more to it than what I’m about to tell you, but I don’t quite understand that part,” Olyphant said. “I only know that what I do is, I run the lines a lot. I like running them over and over and over. And the more you run them, the more things start to percolate, you make choices, and you just commit to things. I’m aware of the tone, but otherwise, you just kind of go back to the same old questions: who wants what? What happens if they don’t get it? And why now?” Those three questions are always swirling in FULL CIRCLE. billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv