Call it an old-school approach.
Timothy Olyphant revealed he had to resurrect an old computer in an attempt to log on to the “SmartLess” podcast. Ultimately, he wound up using a friend’s office to make the interview happen.
“I needed a computer,” Olyphant, 58, told hosts , Will Arnett and Sean Hayes. “I guess you can’t do your show if you don’t own a computer.”
As the hosts pressed him, Olyphant doubled down on his surprisingly low-tech lifestyle.
“I got like a, you know, I got a phone and I got a thing,” said. “That’s all you gotta do.”
“I don’t buy it,” Bateman questioned. “You don’t have, and you being an artist, you don’t have an iPad with one of those little, one of those little stylist pen thingies?”
The “Five-Star Weekend” actor then explained that while he technically owned a desktop computer, it had been sitting unused long enough to become a project in itself.
“We went⦠I had a⦠we went and got out an old desktop computer that we still have in the house and plugged it in and started it up, and they were all USB things.”
The aging machine proved to be another obstacle. After digging out the outdated desktop and getting it running, Olyphant joked that appearing on the podcast required far more effort than expected.
“There’s a lot of sacrifices that went into this guys,” he admitted. “And don’t get me wrong, I appreciate … I’m super honored, and it is a pleasure to be here. I’m a big fan. I listen â I don’t listen â but I read the transcripts. And the show’s very good. Very, very, very good.”
Bateman wasn’t ready to let the conversation go, continuing to question Olyphant’s aversion to computers.
“But wait, but Tim, you’ve never been tempted to buy a laptop or a desktop just to see the landscape out there, like all the different sites you can go visit to expose yourself to?” Bateman said.
“Felt condescending,” Olyphant replied.
Bateman then shifted the conversation to artificial intelligence, wondering whether Olyphant had any interest in the technology despite avoiding computers.
“All this talk about AI and stuff. Not curious to see what the fuss is about?” the “Arrested Development” actor added.
“But you can do all that on⦠on the little phones,” Olyphant emphasized.
Olyphant landed his breakthrough role in 1999 with the cult crime comedy “Go.” His performances in “Deadwood” and “Justified” cemented his star status. His other notable works include “Santa Clarita Diet,” “The Mandalorian,” “The Book of Boba Fett” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”
