Writer-producer Graham Yost, creator of Justified, reflects on how he built one of television’s most faithful and lasting tributes to Elmore Leonard’s voice.
When Yost first read Leonard’s Fire in the Hole, he knew instantly that Raylan Givens could be “the coolest character on television.” His approach was simple: “Let Elmore be Elmore.” Every line of dialogue, every rhythm of speech came from that principle. “I’d be typing and think, what would Raylan say next? Then I’d check — what did Elmore have him say next?”
Yost filled his writer’s room with Leonard novels and handed out wristbands stamped WWED: What Would Elmore Do?. “My vision for the show was just to do the best Elmore Leonard show possible,” he says. “That was it.” It worked: Leonard loved Justified, calling it “the first show that really got me right.”
In one of the video’s best moments, Yost recalls the day Leonard visited the set in Santa Clarita during the filming of Episode 4. Tim Olyphant turned to him and said, “You got any more stories about Raylan?” Leonard smiled — and went home to write another. That became Raylan, his final novel.
Yost ends with quiet pride:
“The greatest review we ever got was that Elmore liked it. We were all lucky — we got to do an Elmore Leonard show.”
