tavis: good evening from los angeles. i'm tavis smiley. first up tonight, a conversation with acclaimed novelist ian mcewan, the author of award-winning books like "atonement" is out now with a book called "solar" about the ongoing debate of climate change and also actor timothy olyphant start is here with the critically acclaimed series "justified." ian eend timothy olyphant coming up right -- ian mcewan and timothy olyphant coming up right now. >> there are so many things that wal-mart is looking forward to doing, like helping people live better, but mostly we're looking forward to helping build stronger communities and relationships because with your help, the best is yet to come. >> nationwide insurance proudly supports tavis smiley. tavis and nationwide insurance working to improve financial literacy and the economic

empowerment that comes with it. >>♪ nationwide is on your side ♪ >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning made possible by kcet public television] >> ian mcewan is an award-winning novelist whose award winning books include "atonement" and "saturday." his newest is in stores now, "solar." thank you for being on the show. i read somewhere you don't want to be referred to as a comic novel or a skeptic novel. how should i refer to this? >> well, this is a nolve that i

hope will -- novel that i hope will cause some laughter but it is not funny throughout. its tension is pretty human nature and struggling with climate change. tavis: given that you don't want it to be called a skeptic novel, how does one read the narrative on climate change? >> i think for my own poimbings it is real. it is happening. we're causing it. i think skepticism is a very welcome process. science needs skeptics. it doesn't need deniers. nor does it need catastrophes. if you say the planet is going to hell in a hand cart next week, everyone is just going to party. it is a serious issue that requires measured judgments. public opinion lately has swung very much across the whole process and people are very,

very cautious against scientists. maybe that is a good thing. it needs rigorous review and i think it is getting it. tavis: what do you make of that pendulum swing? >> i think it was copenhagen. my character ends up getting invited to copenhagen. that was a great shame. there were the emails. probably a little more made of that. i think people think that scientists are like high priests. science is a messy business. science labs are full of competition and bristing egos just like any human institution. part of the fact that we have almost too much faith in scientists and then there was a moment in the i.p.c. report, the climate change body that reports every few years that exaggerated by a factor of 10 ice melt up in

the high tibetan plateau. that at least was pointed out by a climate scientist so in the sciences having to deal with itself really, having to be rigorous with itself. tavis: i want to come back to -- first thing is how do you decide to take a very serious issue, an issue to your point is being debated now like climate change and fictionalize it. >> it is really difficult. i would like to write a novel around this subject but you know, it is full of morals, ethics, politics, statistics. hard science and couldn't see a way in so five years ago i took a trip up to the arctic with some scientists. we were on a ship. spent a week there and there was a lot of discussion about climate change and what we were going to do and how to fix the

whole earth and i took place in all of those and there was a changing room where we had to keep taking off this heavy gear so we didn't bring ice and snow into the ship. it was a damp, cramped space. it was becoming so chaotic. one time i had two left boots. couldn't find my stuff. i began to be rather touched, amused by the great gap between our i'd eel isk notions how we were going to fix earth and a space a trillionth the size of the earth we couldn't control. i thought maybe that is the way in, human nature. we're clever monkeys but also very foolish. i think copenhagen was a perfect demonstration of that. tavis: you end up making your protagonist nobel laureate of all things?

>> yes, i took another trip. a conference addressed only by nobel prize winners. physicists and mathematicians. tavis: sounds like fun. >> when you get 40 of these guys in a room, 40 alpha males. you have never seen egos bristing like this. these were big, beefy, you know, bull scientists but the comedy and the tragedy of this is that they were powerful men but their work was far behind them, especially in math. you do it -- it is like a soccer player. you peak in your mid to late 20's. their grandeur rested on something 40 years back. i thought if i get down to writing this novel, here and now, i'm awarding them nobel prize letting him coast for the rest of his life, doing no more soirnings doing politics of

science, making the grand applications but never having an original thought ever again. tavis: the protagonist in the story is a nobel laureate who has to your point now, his heyday is line him but he finds himself in a particular space in time where he has a shot at >> i have to say my main character, michael beard, is a complete scoundrel. not above thieving another man's work. one of his gifted students is an -- in an accident and dice and he steals his work on -- dies and he steals his work on photosynthesis. he splits water into hydrogen and oxygen. if we could copy that we would solve our energy problems right

there. if you can split water cheaply you would have all the hydrogen you needed to run a power station. so he takes this idea and he ends up in new mexico with an industrial-scale opening for hawaii his power station but then -- for his power station but then all the chaos of his life has come trailing behind him. two of the women in his life, because he is a philanderer. a lawyer, things come pouring into this corner of new mexico, a sweet little town called lordsberg where i went and researched this.j@ something of chaos that the copenhagen meeting ended in. tavis: i want to come back to your research strategies in just a second but i have to go back and resurrect this. you refer to michael beard as a scoundrel in the text in the novel. indeed he is but the first few

pages of this book, the way you start this book. you come out the gates -- you come out of the block so fast in the opening of this book, i assume that that was by design. you're like oh, my. i mean, you got thievery. again, that's just in the first few pages of the book. >> in the first few pages of the book, his fifth marriage is dissint greating. it is his wife having the affair with the builder. this man is going to play an important part of the plot spending 16 years in jail for no good reason other than he got on the wrong side of michael beard. so, yeah, it is important with a novel to arouse a reader's curiosity and come in with something strong. tavis: you mentioned in this conversation two or three things that really fall in the category of research. so you literally spent time with

nobel laureates. >> yeah. tavis: you literally spent time on this ship frozen in the middle of nowhere. >> yeah. tavis: you literally went to new mexico to research the setting of the novel. why -- i'm not naive in asking this but why is all of that so important? it is a book, ian. it is a book. and you have approached this like you're trying to win a prize. >> you've got to create for the reader a sense of authority and to do that, you need the smoke and mirrors of knowing what you're talking about, to have been there and talked with who have a sense of what it is like. also the research often gives you ideas. it is not as though you know where you're going when you're writing a novel. it is like a journey. no clear instruction as to what to do every day. yeah, you have here in the states, a wonderful lab up in colorado, in a little place called golden just outside

denver, called the national renewable energy lab. i spoke to scientists there where they are working on this artificial photosynthesis and i hung out with them and i wanted to know about the jealousies of science. while this was all happening, the u.b.a. stuff -- it didn't surprise me and shock me as much as it shocked others. in fact, their crimes were fairly small. trying to stop a paper being published by a rival. well, the paper was published anyway. extrapolating a bit of data. it is a standard technique. you extrapolate the curve. not quite as great a sin as people made out but still, it is important to now and then to, you know, wear out some shoe leather just to find out what's necessary. tavis: for you, finally here, when the subject matter is so serious, like climate change, you fictionalized this.

is there a message that you want to empower readers with or is this purely entertainment? >> no, i think it is more than entertainment although i hope that it will entertain a reader. tavis: it is not proselytizing, though? >> no. fiction has to have the life blood running through it of the real world and none of your intentions. i would like to reader to take away from it a sense that this was an extended reflection on our human nature. i mean, i don't just think we're fools. we're incredibly clever. we make amazing medicines. we're capable of extraordinary acts of -- amazing machines. we're capable of extraordinary acts of love and kindness. but also short-term thinking. it is a reflection on human nature.

tavis: the new one from perennial best selling author ian mcewan, the book is called "solar." ian, good to have you on the program. i appreciate it. um next on this program, former "deadwood" star, timothy olyphant. stay with us. tim estimate a talented actor whose credits include "deadwood" and "damages." his latest spronlt the new fx series "justified." here now a scene from "justified." >> let him go. >> just wait one second. consider the situation, shall we? i am a deputy, a united states marshall.

we don't do these things alone, either. you know i got back-up. listening to everything right now on a little microphone here in my shirt collar. you're going to die unless you let me go. you won't be the only ones. tavis: [laughter] you're in a serious situation right there. >> yeah. yeah. that's what makes drama. tavis: that's one way to put it. i was talking to somebody about the show. it is pretty simple. shoots people. >> yeah. tavis: beats people and says if i see you back here in 24 hours i'm going shoot you. >> yeah. it is great. tavis: you enjoy this character, i take it? >> it is a kick. all of those characters are a kick. tavis: how did you end up in this role? >> they gave it to me.

[laughter] i -- a year or so ago i did a couple of episodes of a show called "damages" on fx. and that basically led to this. john and the network shot me an email which by itself was pretty cool and said they were going to do this show based on an elmore leonard short story. tavis: did you know leonard's work prior to the show? >> i'll be honest with you. i told everybody yes. but really no. i've been lying for months. i thought about this on the way over here. i'm going to come straight on this. here is what i knew. "out of sight" the movie. "get shorty." i loved it. i remember reading the script years ago. this isn't fair. i should have stopped myself. i remember reading the script to

"the big bounce" and i loved that script and i loved that character. that owen wilson played, i think. i remember thinking i would love to get my hands on one of those characters. but i hadn't really read the books until i got this job. i read -- tavis: i was being a little bit flippant when i talked about the fact that he shoots people, although he does. tell me more about the character that you play on the series. >> it is fine. i actually hate talking about these things. he is a marshal. [laughter] and he goes back to kentucky where he grew up and he shoots people. you did fine. [laughter] that's it. that's it. tavis: they call the series -- i figured this before i saw it but then i saw it, i understand why they call it justified, in my mind at least.

these are people who have done bad things. >> yeah, that's true. yep. i wanted to call it "kill tucky." tavis: not kentucky. >> no one would go for it. i talked to everyone i could. i went all the way the ladder. tavis: you stick to the acting. you stay with the acting. >> they were going call it "lawman" then steven segal came out with a show called "lawman" and row and it for everyone. -- and row and it for tavis: you have been acting how long now? >> over 10 years. tavis: that's not a really long time. is this something that you saw -- i know you didn't see the character coming but is this something you saw fitting into the kind of role that you would

like to take on one day? >> no, i actually -- i think when i started this line of work, i thought maybe one day if i worked at this i could play characters like this one. tavis: yeah. acting for just over 10 years now, which means you didn't do this as a child overbly. how did you figure out this is what you were supposed to be doing, 10 years ago? >> it was a bit of a hunch really. i was out here in los angeles. i was a fine art major at u.s.c. and needed -- i owed some electives. it was four years, i was already out. i was a swimmer at the time. i was swimming down in orange county. i owed some elective units. i was down in irvine and they had like i could take any class i wanted. they had like acting 101 there at university of irvine. i thought, well, this is something i always kind of thought about and it was about

that time of my life where i had to do something. so i took this class and it was a blast. i thought -- i waited for a while, it was a decision to go get my masters in fine arts or move to new york and study acting. and seemed like the most fun idea at the time so i drove across the country and started taking acting classes with a man name bill and i did that for two years and i went out and tried to get work. so when i showed up in new york, really i had take then class for like a quarter and i knocked on his door and met him and said i want to learn how to act. i hadn't done a high school play. i had just taken this one little class, but it seemed fun. and it worked out. tavis: i don't want to interrupt.

>> you should because i'm just going keep -- tavis: i deliberately didn't want to interrupt your story because i'm always amazed at stories like that where people are doing something else and then through sort of happenstance they find something that they are really gifted at and next thing you know, the guy is fronting his own series on fx. >> thanks. you know, at the time i was married. i still am, actually. tavis: that's important to say, in case your wife is watching. >> she was just like pick something. i wanted to paint. start a band. that seemed fun. acting seemed fun. she said pick something. so i moved to new york. you know, i felt like i had a leg up in a way. not having any experience, any bad habits, you know, i

approached it in a way that was more -- it felt like i was trying to -- as an athlete i was trying to take everything i learned as an athlete and apply it to something that was quite different. in a way it was very helpful. i set very specific goals and tried to be really methodical about it. tavis: what do you make of how well the series is doing? i mean, it is -- it ain't that old yet. >> no. tavis: and you're already. -- burning them up already. >> well, it doesn't suck. [laughter] you know, you do these things, you want people to see them. so, i don't know, i'm very proud of it. i worked really hard and it was a kick to do. it was fun. i'm thrilled that people are responding to it. tavis: is this attire this big hat and these clothes you wear, is this attire you would ever prior to doing this character,

get caught wearing? >> no, i'm not sure i should be wearing it on a tv show. [laughter] tavis: you like this look? >> well, went for it. [laughter] you know what i mean? you know, the thing is you forget that -- just about everywhere else, everyone is wearing them. you know? that's one thing about being in l.a. and new york. you forget. i shot a movie in iowa last year. went down into des moines, there was a concert. it wasn't even country western. it was james taylor. every dude had a hat on. tavis: i don't have one of those, timothy. >> you should. tavis: you're like everybody is wearing it. no, we ain't. >> you should wear one. come on. give it a chance. tavis: there is a funny clip, which i swear will never see the light of day and if it does the folk around here will get killed.

laughing. ryan is he knows where i'm going. one day, speaking of those big hats. larry hagman was on the show. >> oh, sure. tavis: he walked on, of course, with his big hat on. >> he wasn't fooling around. tavis: we were talking about this hat. it filled all of my head. peffs like dude, you got a big head. it is on the cutting room floor so it will never be seen again. if i keep watching this thing long enough, i may get one of those. >> it will look good on you. you got to try different ones. the thing about the hat, everyone talks about the hat. tavis: it is the kind of hat that would inspire you to talk about it. it is a big hat. >> as soon as the writers write a show all about the hat, that's when i stop wearing it on the show just to screw with them. because they never come to the set. so i did one episode where i didn't wear the hat because i knew the next episode was about

someone taking my hat in no one said anything to me. i don't know how it went over. tavis: you're kind of ornery aren't you? >> i think it is best to be. tavis: his name is timothy olyphant. his series is called "justified." it is on the fx network. good to have you on. good to see you. that's our show for tonight. catch me on the weekends on p.r.i., public radio international. i will see you next time back here on pbs. until then, good night and keep the faith. >> play hide-and-seek. you want to know my favorite hiding spot? come here. i'll show you. that closet, right there. i knew every inch of this space. i remember that carpet and this

paneling. the secret compartment. you guys know about that? oh, i'm sure it is still there. what the hell is this? i don't know. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley on pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time with former education department official diane ravitch on the role of testing in u.s. public schools. that's next time. we'll see you then. >> there are so many things that wal-mart is looking forward to doing, like helping people live better, but mostly we're looking forward to helping build stronger communities and relationships because with your help, the best is yet to come. >> nationwide insurance proudly supports tavis smiley. tavis and nationwide insurance working to improve financial literacy and the economic empowerment that comes with it.

>>♪ nationwide is on your side ♪ >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.