Justified kicks off strong tonight. The modern-day Western, from the twisty mind of novelist Elmore Leonard and veteran TV showrunner Graham Yost shakes off the cloud of criticism that hung around it in Season 5 with a vengeance. The show’s final season (of which I’ve seen the first three episodes) is maybe its strongest yet, with the promised showdown between the lawman Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) and the outlaw Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins) finally coming to pass. But as the clock strikes high noon in Kentucky’s Harlan County, it becomes clear that the show is about more than just pistols at dawn or cops and robbers.
Justified has always been a show about history, roots, and family. The family you grew up with, and the family you make. As we head into the final season Erica Tazel, who has played Deputy U.S. Marshal Rachel Brooks for five seasons, steps into the role of interim chief, a.k.a., Raylan’s boss, a.k.a., the materfamilias. We spoke with Tazel about her time on Justified and her theory about who, if anyone, will leave Harlan alive.
VF Hollywood: We spoke with creator Graham Yost last year about the backlash around Season 5. The show was a critical darling for most of its run, what do you think went wrong last season?
Erica Tazel: I think what the writers do is incredibly difficult, you know, spinning so many plates. What’s great about Elmore’s work, I mean true Elmore, is that you get to spend so much time with the bad guys. The writers on the show love that. I think that we all agree that we spun too many plates last year, but the beautiful thing about this season is that it gets reined in and we get back to what we’re good at. Five seasons in, I don’t think that’s such a bad thing. You try some things, maybe they don’t work, and that’s why it’s called a creative process. I think what they are doing this season is more in line with what we started in Season 2.
Justified is your first major role onscreen. How did you land it?
I’d been in L.A. for a couple of years and things got really, really quiet and I was faced with the inevitable, “O.K., how do I eat now?” I got the audition but I thought there was no way I was going to get it. I thought maybe if they made Rachel a rookie I’d have a shot. But the other women there at the first audition were older than I was and when I got called back to read for the producers there were about 13 of us and, with the exception of about one or two women, everyone had a recognizable name or face. So that was exciting. I thought, well, at least I’m in good company. It’s going to be one of them, the pressure’s not on me. But I got it. That was six years ago and it feels like six weeks.
Elmore Leonard's created some great, tough female characters like Karen Sisco and Jackie Brown. How does Rachel fit in with Elmore's women?
I mean, Ava Crowder is the quintessential Elmore woman. They’re all extremely strong even in their vulnerabilities and weaknesses. They have some sort of sense of humor and they’re survivors. Rachel wasn’t actually an Elmore creation, but after seeing the first season, he fell in love with her and included her in the Raylan novel that he wrote a few years ago. I think, walking away from this experience, that’s the best thing that could have happened. Because Elmore was very opinionated and he liked what he liked and to be included and have him write some stories for Rachel along with Raylan is great.
Other than some of the villains like Mags Bennett and Katherine Hale, Rachel is one of the few major female characters to never have been a love interest for Raylan. Do you like that about her? Or do wish they had gone there?
I sort of like the mystery there. There was talk of maybe going there. It’s something that I never personally saw happening between them, but a lot of my friends who watch the show have said, “Oooooooh you like Raylan! There’s an energy!” The writers played with the idea that there would be a line crossed, but I think Rachel is pretty smart and pretty practical so I think that even if she wanted to, she wouldn’t jeopardize her office relationship for something that probably wouldn’t work out. I like the will they/won’t they, so maybe in an alternate universe.
Speaking of alternate universes, Rachel never really got her own episode. What would that have looked like? A Rachel-centric episode?
When they brought on Limehouse in Season 3 I was researching African-American miners in Kentucky, to see if that even existed. There’s a community there that’s very similar to Noble’s Holler so I spoke with the creators of the show about Rachel going undercover. Because it would have been the only time in this world that she could actually blend in. And then through that experience we could learn something a little more personal about Rachel, about her background, without taking away from the central story. I still fantasize about it. I loved working with Mykelti Williamson.
