Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Did you ever think this movie was actually going to happen?No.
Thats as definitive as it gets.It was like a Zen feeling when it first finished.
You mean whenDeadwoodwas canceled after season three?Yeah.
Things finish when they shouldnt have, for all sorts of reasons, you know?
Hubris, money, egos.
Who the hell knows what went on withDeadwood, or if well ever get to the bottom of it?
After about six months, I was like, Why the helldidthis show finish?
I got pissed off for a while.
And when it came time to go back again, everybody came back.
Or both of us.
You know,Seth and Al Ride the High Country, or whatever.
Theres nothing after this.
Its a finite piece, and it tells a different kind of story than episodic television could.
What can you tell people about it?Its not just a repetition of howDeadwoodwas.
The town is no longer the same.
Theres some buildings now made of brick.
And all the people are older.
You mentioned that youre telling the story differently here than you would if it were a fourth season.
You have two hours and a lot of characters.
But most movies arent like that.
What was it like, going back to the town of Deadwood?
Putting on the suit and the long underwear?
You walked on the set and everybody was the same again, except they were older.
And this time, when you finished a scene with them, you were actually saying good-bye.
It was quite surreal in a marvelous way, because the work stayed the same.
Everybody just turned up and brought their A game again.
Had you watched the show again since you were acting in it?Oh, yes!
Ill watch this for five minutes, and Im still there 35 minutes later.
Youve been around a while, havent you?
The first time you came to the set, werent you writing for that New Jersey paper?
The NewarkStar-Ledger, yeah.
The first time I met you in person was in 2004, at a hotel in Pasadena.
The Television Critics Association gave you a special award for your performance in the first season ofDeadwood.I remember.
We were in a bar full of reporters.
You asked me about the monologues.
Youre also getting a blow job or addressing a severed head in a box.
Id say, Well, Mr. Milch, before Id answer a question.
We call each other Mr. Milch and Mr. McShane as a gesture of mutual respect.
As for that detail about the pages being hot from the printers, well, yes.
And Id say, Fine, give me another 20 minutes.
Whats another page to learn?
A lot of actors hate last-minute rewrites.Only if its shit!
Good dialogue aint difficult to learn.
Its only the crap, the flavorless expository bullshit, thats difficult to learn.
Nor did Seth Bullock blow away somebody with his six-shooter every episode.
Because of all that, the changes didnt bother me.
I found them exciting.
It was a fabulously interesting show to dobecauseyou knew that whatever script you got wouldnt stay the same.
How can an actor not love that?
It wasntThe Seth and Al Show.
Even the characters who were only in one episode got good stories.
America in the 1880s in the aftermath of the Civil War.
Im sure we would have got into the aftershocks of Reconstruction, particularly racism.
We already did a fair amount of that, and Im confident we wouldve done more.
The depth of rage and sorrow in that moment was unlike anything Ive seen on television.
That was a historical reality, and still is a reality, one that we dont want to acknowledge.
What other TV series would have even thought to show something like that?
That was great drama.
It shook you up.
It made you check your preconceptions.
Jim Beaver?Yeah, Jimmy!
He said, Well give him a little English in his background.
just in case anybody wants to moan about your accent.
Which was the funniest thing!
Anyone who knows how to read would have said, If we dont do this, were crazy.
Wow, so its been almost 20 years now.
Holy cow.Yeah, holy cow!
But we all look back on it fondly because it was such a great time for everybody concerned.
It made me work.
There was never three years of work like it.
The best part of it is the talking.
You know what that feels like?
Milch let us be active participants in the creative process, in ways that few TV series allow.
The production itself made that possible.
It was all happening in one location, from the writing to the shooting.
It was a formidable place to be.
Do people talk to you aboutDeadwoodout in the world?Oh yeah, all the time.
How does it feel being associated so strongly with one character?Im fine with it.
And when that day finally comes, Ill be happy to go down as Ian Al McShane.
