Justified in his success
Adelaide-born actor Damon Herriman will be a regular sight on the TV screens of discerning viewers this year, kicking off with the highly anticipated final season of neo-western Justified.
With its sixth and final season starting next week, the show's obsessive viewers will finally get to see Raylan Givens and Boyd Crowder's rivalry reach boiling point and learn the fate of Herriman's character Dewey Crowe.
A down-on-his luck white supremacist, Crowe has grown to be one of the most popular characters on the show, now appearing frequently after only being in a few episodes in the first three seasons, and missing the entirety of the fourth.
"I didn't know if I'd be coming back at all and then in season five they wrote the most stuff for Dewey that they had done up to that point," Herriman says.
"It's like a gift that keeps on giving, I just loved playing him. It's just an amazingly written character and it's just been a real joy for me to get to do."
Despite Dewey's many flaws, including his nazi tattoos, constant failed schemes and unquenchable thirst for drugs and hookers, Herriman can see why he is so popular.
"If Dewey was a really smart, manipulative, conniving character then you'd really dislike him, there would be nothing redeeming about him," he concedes. "He's like a mangy little dog . . . part of you hates him but there's a part of you that feels sorry for him because he's just so pathetic."
The actor is stoked his character is a major focal point of Fate's Right Hand, the season six premiere, and says it is one of the best episodes ever written for him.
"It feels like it's got everything great that was written for Dewey in all other five seasons; they jammed into one episode," he says. "It was pretty cool for me to get that script and read it and go 'wow this is a pretty awesome way to kick the season off'."
The actor, 44, has been a regular on Australian screens since appearing on The Sullivans as a child in 1976 and has since been a regular on All Saints, Water Rats, Love My Way and Offspring. Now, worldwide TV audiences will become even more familiar with him because he has been cast in two hotly tipped new US series.
Eight-part mini-series Flesh and Bone is a drama about a competitive New York ballet company. The show was created by Moira Walley-Beckett, who won an Emmy for her writing on Breaking Bad.
"I play a schizophrenic homeless man in it, so back to the not shaving and not showering stuff," Herriman jokes. "Getting to film in New York for five months is a dream for any actor. It was something I always wanted to do and never assumed it would happen."
On the subject of Breaking Bad, the actor will also appear in Vince Gilligan's new series Battle Creek. The man who created the epic tale of Walter White remembered Herriman from his bit part on the show, which saw Jesse Pinkman knock out his drug-crazed character with a bong.
He portrays Det. Niblet in the new CBS series, set to premiere in March.
"It's been great to be able to be showered and wear a suit for a change," he laughs. "Interestingly, this guy is a bit more in the vein of the nice guy, nerdy characters I played a lot 10 or 15 years ago. It was nice to get back into that after a few years of playing outsiders, rednecks and psychos."
'It feels like it's got everything great that was written for Dewey in all other five seasons, they jammed into one episode.'
