Walton Goggins on praise for his trans performance: It made me cry

These are photos from the Season 5 premiere of Justified, which aired last night. I will not spoil (except to say that Raylan declined a beej from an unlikely offerer) but readily admit that I am an extreme fangirl of this show. Even after last season’s mind-numbling waltz into the Drew Thompson mystery, I’m still here. Timothy Olyphant and Walton Goggins are back for more bromantic action. Oh yes, Olyphant looks slick and got a haircut. As for Walton, his hair looks a dreadful mess, which (as any loyal fan knows) is the precursor for an excellent season.

More photos from the premiere appear at the bottom of this post. First let’s take a brief detour for a Walton Goggins interview. This isn’t as amazing as his thoughts on femininity, but it will do. Walton is posing here for Justified, but he’s also discussing his captivating turn as transexual, Venus Van Dam on Sons of Anarchy. He came onto the role in a roundabout way, but he did a a wonderful job:

“You know it was a conversation with Kurt Sutter who is an old friend of mine from The Shield. We were talking about how I could participate in Sons of Anarchy and the restrictions based on Shane from The Shield and how a character like that could be seen in the world of Sons of Anarchy. I kind of off handedly said that the only way we could do it is if I was a transgender. He sent me a text about a year later asking were you serious and I was filming Django at the time and was about as masculine as I could possibly be and I said ‘about what?’ He said ‘about playing a transgender’ and I said, ‘why do you have pages’ and he said ‘yep.’ So I said send them and when he did, I was just floored. I was blown away by this woman who is elegant, refined, sophisticated, funny and a three dimensional human being. Regardless of their sexual orientation and it’s been one of the greatest experiences of my life. I was stopped by someone the other day walking into the grocery store and it was a transgender and she said, I want to tell you how much I admire what you did. I didn’t want to be the jerk who assumed it was for Venus, so I asked this person what are you referring to specifically. She said Venus and she said thank you very much for liberating us from the definition of victim and misfit and drug addict and thank you for giving us a voice with power behind it and someone who has fully accepted who they are and has something to contribute to the world and that is a light in the world. Outside of what any critic or fan would ever say that conversation for me alone was the most important endorsement that I have ever received as an actor. It was an extraordinary experience and I was with my wife at the time. It really made me cry.”

[From TV Wise]

I love this interview, and it’s hard to imagine Walton crying at all from the tough guys he plays on the tellie. He also has an upcoming guest spot on Community, which should be interesting. I’d still take Olyphant first, but Walton is a tough competitor. These pictures are proof.

I’m including photos of Jacob Pitt (who is a closet fan favorite) and Jere Bruns (who is hiding his amazing Botox brows behind glasses) in the gallery. Also on tap are the ladies of Justified. My pretend girlfriend, Joelle Carter, looks great. Erica Tazel is working it and will hopefully get more screentime this season. She deserves it. Natalie Zea (who recently got engaged to Travis Schuldt) is back as Winona, who will spend most of the season offscreen in Florida raising Raylan’s baby daughter. Amy Smart also joins the show this season as a social worker who gets down and dirty with Raylan. I can’t wait.

Photos courtesy of WENN

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