INTERVIEW: Timothy Olyphant Is the Hitman

Hitman is based on a videogame of the same name. The story revolves around Agent 47 (Timothy Olyphant). He has been educated to become a professional assassin for hire. His most powerful weapons are his nerve and a resolute pride in his work. 47 is both the last two digits of the barcode tattooed on the nape of his neck, and his only name.

This Thanksgiving, Hitman will open across the country. Earlier today, we got a chance to sit down with its star Timothy Olyphant and discuss the film at length. He confirmed that Xavier Gens has been fired from the project, and that Luc Besson hasn't been as hands on with the film as some of his other projects.

Here is our conversation with Timothy Olyphant. He is the Hitman.

So, is this all of the hair that has grown back since you finished filming, or is it short for another role?

Timothy Olyphant: This is all that has grown back. I've done a lot of reshoots.

Can you talk about the reshoots and what all they entailed?

Timothy Olyphant: Yeah, we did this kick ass little action sequence in there. Some touch ups, and stuff. Little bits, little inserts. We are lucky to have that luxury. Then we also had an action sequence that we sort of added to.

Can you tell us a little bit about your character?

Timothy Olyphant: Agent 47 is based on this videogame character. He is the type of guy that was born and bred for the purpose of killing. The story is essentially about a guy that was hired to do a job. He does it as seemingly well as he has done any other. But then he is told by the people he works for that there was a witness. And he needs to go clean that up. But something is not right. She is a woman, played by Olga Kurylenko. She was just fantastic. She did a very lovely job. But there appears to be no recognition when she sees me. Which obviously means something is not right. And the next thing you know, someone is trying to kill me. I thought I saw the killer on television, and nothing makes sense anymore. This guy's world is turned upside down.

Did you play the videogame to try and get a feel for it?
Timothy Olyphant: I did read about it. The lovely thing about the internet is that there is a wealth of information there. However factual, I am not sure. But there was a wealth of information. And it felt like we were doing a good job honoring the videogame. That's what I understood from what I read. This is a good tribute to the game, but at the same time, we weren't really a slave to it. Which was a nice place to work from. Xavier, the director, was a big fan of the game. He is a big gamer in general, and he loved the game. He was really adamant that certain things were reflected from the game. Other than the imagery I saw, there were things that Xavier and I both saw eye to eye on. That was obvious once we got the script. It was hard to tell what came first. Were there things that came from the game that inspired our choices, or were they choices that we wanted to do that weren't necessarily reflected in the game? We were conscious of the game the entire time.
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