Perhaps it’s only a war in my mind because I’m desperate to see more of Deadwood‘s Timothy Olyphant (pictured, right) at the moment. But play along: Will Olyphant (currently the baddie in Live Free or Die Hard) or his Las Vegas lookalike Josh Duhamel (left), featured in next week’s Transformers, emerge the bigger star this summer? And by “bigger star,” I mean “the one who’ll get offered the roles they’ll both be considered for first.”
The reasons I’m on Team Olyphant:
• He finally found a hair length that doesn’t make him look at all slimy. With that killer smirk, you know this took some work.
• He’s already shown range, while Duhamel has primarily shown skin. (Not that I’m complaining.)
• He uses double guns as assassin Agent 47 in October’s Hitman. And I love double guns. (I hope you’re growing your hair back, Mister.)
• He’s the sports reporter for Indie 103.1 FM‘s morning show with Joe Escalante, which is way cooler than dating Fergie. Olyphant had appeared on the program to promote the third season of Deadwood, and heard the station was planning on hiring a sports guy. He just started calling in every morning. That was over a year ago. Some recent highlights:
— 6/21: He’s traveling, so he gets someone to fill in for him: Crispin Glover.
— 6/18: He’s in Berlin promoting Die Hard and finds out that Tom Cruise and his Go costar Katie Holmes are guests at the same hotel. “My wife is like, ‘Oh, we gotta call Katie.’ Like losers, we went down to the concierge and we’re like, ‘Listen, we want to leave a message for Katie.’ And they’re like, ‘Katie who?’ And I said, ‘Don’t f— around. Katie Holmes. You know she’s staying here.’ And they said, ‘We have no guest here under that name.’ I said, ‘What about Mrs. Cruise? Do you have a Mrs. Cruise here, jack—? You know I’m in the movies. Come on!’ …. I just about got thrown out of the hotel.” He also reveals that his new film is called Die Hard 4.0 in Germany: “They don’t do that bull—- Live Free or Die Hard like we do back in the States.”
— 6/15: It’s his last day filming Hitman in Bulgaria. (Yes, he phoned in from Bulgaria.) He starts his report by quoting LL Cool J: “I’m going back to Cali, to Cali, to Cali. I’m going back to Cali. To Cali.”
— 6/14: He’s afraid listeners will miss Svet, who’s been his assistant in Bulgaria, so he has him deliver the report and feeds him lines. (Svet also delivered the report solo on 5/25, when Olyphant had to film a fight scene.)
— 6/1: He jokingly threatens to leave Bulgaria with two weeks to go on the movie because he can’t get a basketball game on TV there.
— 5/23: “Joe, get met the f— out of here, dude…This movie better be good.”
— 5/21: “I got a day off today. You know what they say here in Bulgaria, right? The only thing worse than working in Bulgaria is a day off in Bulgaria.”
Who’s with me?
Photo credit: Josh Duhamel: Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage.com; Timothy Olyphant: Mike Guastella/WireImage.com
Olyphant, no question. Come on, Deadwood versus Vegas? The guy is due.
Olyphant seems cool, but he was terrible in the terrible movie “Catch and Release.” So I’m torn.
olyphant…
reason for my vote:
F-tothe-E-tothe-R-tothe-G-tothe-I-tothe-E
Don’t forget his bad guy roles in Go and that neighbor porn star movie (the name escapes me).
Olyphant all the way!
I loved Olyphant a long time. For pretty much the same reasons that I liked Jack Nicholson and Christian Slater back in the day. Menacing, unhinged guys do it for me in the movies. Duhamel never did anything for me. He’s way prettier than I am.
Olyphant, no question. Go and Deadwood (and I quite fancied him in Catch and Release) outweigh Duhamel’s admittedly decent turn in Transformers.
Olyphant, all the way! I’ve loved him since Scream 2. And I’ll love him forever after the Family Circus rant from Go!
It’s clearly Olyphant…he had a string of playing that charismatic sleezy guy (Go, Girl Next Door, Scream 2) adding more to those roles than they probably called for. THEN, he went and completely reinvented himself as Seth Bullock, a fantastic character on “Deadwood.” When I first saw him all “Westerned” up I was like “Is that really him?” then it was like “That look really agrees with him.”
Duhamel’s ok, but he’s mostly eye candy.
Duhamel is waaaaay hot, but I choose Olyphant. I LOVE the movie Go. Olyphant is so sexy in it. And I never noticed before how much Duhamel and Olyphant look alike. Freaky!
Olyphant all the way! The main reason, he can act!
From GO! to Deadwood, to The Girl Next Door, to his hilarious cameo on MY NAme is Earl…..the guys got acting chops.
OMG! I thought I was the only Timothy Olyphant fan! Loved him since GO! And used to love Josh Duhamel but he’s lost all credibility by dating Fergie.
Olymphant all the way!! He was a**hole in Go and I still was in love with him! and he totally stole the show in Girl next door!!!
Sorry, Olyphant…(now I feel bad!)
Olyphant–mainly b/c he has some weird shape eyebrows just like me and yet he is really coming into his own as an actor. If he can make it, I can make it! (crickets chirping in the background).
Josh Duhamel couldn’t act his way out of a box.
Olyphant for all the previously mentioned reasons AND his hilarious guest starring role on “Sex & the City.” “I had this dream where I had these BIG HANDS!”