Your briefcase move in the season premiere was cool. Did you come up with that or was it scripted?
Carter: Everything he did in the premiere was so cool. I mean, I don’t want to toot a horn, but…
Goggins: Actually, I did come up with that and it really kind of stemmed from I had an injury over the summer with a bad strained tennis elbow, and it was still working itself out when the show began. I had limited movement in my arm at that time. I was doing physical therapy and I said to [director] Michael [Dinner], “I don’t know that I can do anything more than just hit this motherf***er with a briefcase.” That’s just how it happened.
Carter: What else do you do in that situation? You don’t have any guns.
Goggins: What else are going to do? It turned out it was cool.
Sad question, but when was the last time each of you saw Elmore Leonard?
Goggins: You met him here at a panel for last season.
Carter: I did. That would be the last time I saw him.
Goggins: And that was the last time that I got to see Elmore was almost a year ago today, here at this panel, but we had a communication through Gregg Sutter who is his researcher and has been his researcher for 30 years. It was so sad to see him go, but God d***, man, what a light. What a life.
Carter: He’s not gone. He lives through his work.
I’m grateful that he’s been here so I’ve gotten to meet him too, but what was your last interaction?
Goggins: I had multiple but not nearly as much as Graham [Yost] and Tim [Olyphant]. It was just so humbling. I don’t get starstruck so much anymore. It takes a very special person, except for Joelle Carter when she walks in a room. No, it takes a very special person to make me go, “Oh my God.” That never went away with Elmore. Every time he walked into the room, it was like, “Oh my God, there’s the man.” I just couldn’t wait to talk to him.
Carter: I did get notes from him via Tim [Olyphant] or Graham [Yost] so that was really sweet, just saying what he liked about the show or the character.
What did he say about Ava?
Carter: Oh, he loved my rendition of Ava. I love that I get to say that. Really, one of his favorite scenes that he mentioned before in season one was between Winona and Ava, when they first meet and talk about Raylan. It was nice that he supported his women.
How is Boyd going to handle the Mexican drug traffickers?
Goggins: I think there’s more to the Mexican story you have to wait and find out. Suffice it to say it does not go well down there and Boyd Crowder for the first time in his life is a man on his heels. He is not being proactive. He’s just reacting to everything that is coming his way. Mexico is just another example of that.
He’s so busy with this, does he have much interaction with Raylan this year?
Goggins: I think I might get fired if I told you, but we do have interaction. I think continuing with where we left off last season, when Raylan and Boyd met they were very, very specific and for a reason. I think each and every one of them to me was very powerful and advanced the story and hopefully we’re continuing to approach it that way.
What do you each hope for Boyd and Ava in the final season?
Carter: Survival.
By the end, does is matter? Wouldn’t a great death scene be cool?
Carter: Honestly, staying true to Elmore Leonard, I don’t think Ava should die, only because I’ve had dreams about the three, Boyd, Ava and Raylan encountering each other in the end and things happening and people walking away. I’m not sure if that means who dies. I don’t know why.
Goggins: For me, I can’t imagine walking away from this experience still breathing. For me, oddly enough it would be similar to my experience on “The Shield.” To be quite honest with you, I hope it happens on every show that I do because for me and the person I am, it would take up too much of my mental process throughout the day to think about these characters that I love so much, about what they’re doing in the world. There’s a finality that comes with death that allows me to put it down.
Are we going to see Venus Van Dam again on “Sons of Anarchy?”
Goggins: I can’t tell you that.
They only have one more year left too.
Goggins: There’s one more year left there and I think if it’s organic to the story and if Kurt [Sutter] finds a way, I would play in his sandbox any hour of the day, any day of the week.
She might live.
Goggins: [In Venus’ voice] I think she would live. Venus would live, because I love Venus.
