‘Wynonna Earp’: Tim Rozon Interview on Playing Doc Holliday

Wynonna Earp Tim Rozon
Tim Rozon in ‘Wynonna Earp’ (Photo by Michelle Faye/Syfy/Wynonna Earp Productions)

Just like fans of the Syfy series, Wynonna Earp star Tim Rozon says he’s anxiously awaiting news on a season two renewal. The series, based on the IDW comic created by Beau Smith, has built up a passionate fan base but as of our interview on May 26, 2016, the official word on a second season had yet to be delivered. Rozon joked that the networks like to torture actors by keeping them in the dark, but he remains positive he’ll be able to step into Doc Holliday’s boots for another season. “Trust me, every project I’ve ever worked on, this is the one I want to work on the most,” admitted Rozon.

Wynonna Earp starring Rozon, Melanie Scrofano, Shamier Anderson, Dominique Provost-Chalkley, and Michael Eklund premiered on April 1, 2016 and airs on Friday nights at 10pm ET/PT.

Tim Rozon Interview:

Why do you feel so connected to this particular role? You’ve played other characters that you’ve been into, but what is it about Doc Holliday that’s special?

Tim Rozon: “I have, and I’ve been really lucky to do that. I mean, if you get to do this stuff for a living, you’re very lucky. You know what I mean? I feel super lucky to have it. Everybody’s different and every person is different and every actor’s different and everybody has different wants and needs, but I’m a kid who loved comic books my whole life. I’m also a science fiction fan and I’m also a Western fan. My dream was to be in a Western and my dream was to be in a science fiction show. This is a science fiction show based on a comic book where I play a Western character, and not only a Western character but I play the iconic Western character Doc freaking Holliday. It just was like my dream checklist all checked off at once. It was the greatest thing that could ever happen to me; I’m not lying when I say that. For me, it’s the best thing that ever happened.


It’s been amazing. When we got to go to WonderCon, we got to tour IDW first and the head of IDW, Ted Adams, was amazing and just touring IDW offices, meeting Beau Smith… Beau was one of the nicest men ever and he’s the guy who created Wynonna Earp. Being in the comic book, look, are you kidding me? This is my dream. I’m in a comic book fan. I have long boxes at home. I’m a comic book collector; I’m not joking. It’s just the coolest thing ever.”

And it was just announced the Wynonna Earp cast will be attending the 2016 San Diego ComicCon.

Tim Rozon: “Yeah. For me it’s like I’m going to Egypt, to Mecca. This is the San Diego Comic-Con. I was already blown away at WonderCon, so now to go to San Diego is everything. It’s literally everything. It’s the ultimate dream. It’s the big one. It’s San Diego f**king Comic-Con! I can’t wait.”

Doc is really stealing the show and has become a fan favorite. [Laughing] When’s he getting his own spinoff?

Tim Rozon: “Hey listen, for me it’s really an ensemble cast. It’s like I kind of had this conversation with Dominique who plays Waverly at the beginning. She asked me, ‘What do you think? Do you think people are going to like it?’ I said, ‘To be honest, I’ll tell you what I think, I think in a lot of ways I’m going to be people’s favorite, you’re going to be people’s favorite, Bobo’s going to be people’s favorite.’ I said, ‘The hardest job is Mel’s job.’ You know what I mean? Everybody kind of needs to like Mel.

People are going to love Doc and they’re going to hate Doc. A lot of people are going to have him as a favorite because he’s that different. Whereas poor Mel, everybody’s got to like Wynonna. I think she did an amazing job. I think no one will actually be able to steal the show because at the end of the day, she is still the show. It is Wynonna. It’s her holding it all together. And with such a good cast, I think would Doc be good if it wasn’t against Wynonna or if he didn’t have the chemistry with her? Or the brother/sister relationship he and Waverly have? I really like the relationship with Doc and Dolls, the two opposites. They play so funny together because of the performance of the other actors and the story, and the writing – it’s so freaking good. I think that’s why it is the way it is. I think it’s an ensemble piece.”

But back up a second… You said people are going to love or hate Doc, but I haven’t heard of anyone hating your Doc Holliday in Wynonna Earp.

Tim Rozon: “Well, listen, I don’t want anybody to hate him either. I’ve played the character one way and one way only since the beginning of the show: that’s hell-bent on revenge and that’s toward the Stone Witch. As we get closer to Doc finally dealing with that, he’s got blinders on. He’s got one vision and if anybody gets in his way, unfortunately Doc is not going to stop until he gets that witch. That’s all I’m going to say.”

While he was down at the bottom of that well for all of those years, what was he thinking about? Was anything else on his mind other than revenge?

Tim Rozon: “You know it’s funny because it’s the question everybody asks. I don’t know. Who can say? But for 130 years he was stuck down there. For me, he played it over and over and over in his head. I think Doc is that simple of a guy, just revenge, just anger. He wants revenge. I think if he had the choice of mortality – because right now he’s immortal – or in killing the witch, I think he knows which one he’s going to take. Because right now don’t forget we’re in the interesting situation where I believe he just shot the witch and then we saw he was injured himself, right? I don’t want to give away what happens or anything, but I’m just saying if he has a choice, he would take the witch’s death, even if that meant it was at the expense of his own.”

Wynonna Earp Tim Rozon
Tim Rozon as Doc Holliday in ‘Wynonna Earp’ (Photo by Michelle Faye / Syfy / Wynonna Earp Productions)

Can you talk about your fight scene with Shamier Anderson? That looked pretty hardcore.

Tim Rozon: “That was one of those scenes that I was dreading. Shamier Anderson is so good, he’s so physical, he’s so athletic, he loves that stuff. He’s so good at the choreography that I just knew he was looking forward to that for months. I was like, ‘Oh, my god, I’m going to just get toasted here. How am I going to do this?’ It’s a testament to Steve McMichael, the stunt coordinator, how awesome he was. We practiced this thing and Shamier was amazing with me. There was a stunt guy who was dressed up exactly like me and ready to go in and we never used him once. For me, that was one of my greatest accomplishments ever. You’ll see the scene and it’s two minutes long, trust me it was 10 hours. It is just Shamier literally beating the crap out of me and it was one of the funniest days I’ve ever had.

I need to say that the other actor Joris Jarsky who plays Whiskey Jim Byers and all the background performers, they were so amazing that day. They were so into it energy-wise that honestly me and Shamier really fed off them. We were just blown away. I couldn’t even hear the director say cut or action. We couldn’t. Everybody was just going that bananas and they were so into it that it really just was this thing and we just fed off it and we went for it. Stuff happens, yeah, you get hit here or there, but in the scene you don’t care about it. We just went for it and it was this amazing thing. When I finally saw it last week I was like, ‘It just looks freaking amazing.’ I was super proud and happy I did all of that myself. I did it all pretty much myself.”

Congratulations on surviving it!

Tim Rozon: [Laughing] “Yeah, I know, surviving it. Don’t get me wrong, Shamier was already probably at the gym the next day while I was taking Epsom salt baths.”

You speak absolutely nothing like your character. How did you come up with that specific cadence for Doc?

Tim Rozon: “I can’t explain. I don’t know. He was just there. Sounds cliché but I was just born to play this character. I can’t explain it. I can’t even do it for you now. It wouldn’t even be to. I can’t. It’s just I have that mustache, I put that hat on, I put my guns on, I walk out of my trailer, and boom, he’s there. Just there.”

What can you say about the evolving relationship with the Earp sisters?

Tim Rozon: “I can’t give anything away but I will say this, Emily Andras is amazing. She is the showrunner and the head writer on this show. She is going to take everybody on a voyage. Every storyline, no matter how you think it’s insignificant or small will get dealt with by the finale. Every storyline. It’s all coming. Everybody just needs to be patient and remember you’re in good hands because Emily Andras is genius.”

When you get your scripts are you always amazed at what’s in store for Doc?

Tim Rozon: “Of course.”

Has there been one in particular that’s blown you away?

Tim Rozon: “There’s been so many. I remember when I first got the episode with Dolls and you see him taking the drugs. His eyes change and I was wondering what’s going on with Dolls. There have been so many moments where I’m blown away because I’m honestly a fan of the show. It’s weird because I know I’m in it, but I’m such a fan of it. It’s crazy. It’s kind of like I get outside of it and I’m reading the stuff and I go, ‘What?!’ It’s weird because I’m more drawn to the other storylines. I’m a big fan of the Dolls/Wynonna relationship, too. I want to see something happening there because I find their chemistry actually really magnetic. I find it more of a physical thing than a sexual tension there all the time between the two of them.”

I see more of a sexual tension between Doc and Wynonna.

Tim Rozon: [Laughing] “Well, I didn’t say there wasn’t that.”

Is there anything at all that you can tease about the season finale without of course going into any specifics?

Tim Rozon: “I honestly, like I said, put your trust in Emily Andras and she will take you there. Listen, everything is getting resolved, everything everybody wants some way or another is going to be there. Then there’s a bunch of sh*t that’s going to happen that’s going to blow everybody’s freaking mind. That’s the finale. Let me tell you, there’s things coming and people are going to be ripping their TVs out of the wall. Oh yeah, it’s coming.”

As a fan of Westerns, why do you think they’re so few and far between?

Tim Rozon: “I honestly don’t know. My favorite book ever is The Shootist. They made a movie of it a long time ago with John Wayne. He played him and that’s is my all-time favorite book. I’ve seen the movie only once, but a lot time ago, but book-wise it’s the greatest. I’ve always been a huge Western fan. I don’t know why.”

Wynonna Earp has a Western vibe without going overboard.

Tim Rozon: “I’m the only cowboy, honestly. I mean don’t get me wrong, everybody is a cowboy in one way or another, and Wynonna is a cowboy at heart and definitely in spirit. To be honest I’m the only one really who’s a cowboy. Like an honest to goodness cowboy. It’s an interesting dynamic.”

What do you think about Doc Holliday’s adjustment to life in 2016? Is there anything coming up that you can tease that he has a hard time with? Has that been fun to play?

Tim Rozon: “Yeah, to be honest, for me it’s one of the funnest things ever. You know, Doc Holliday’s not scared of a gun fight, he’s not scared of a bunch of demon Revenants, he’s not scared of any of these things. But he has no idea what a tweet is and he’s mystified by a cell phone. He doesn’t know what to think. We kind of saw it in episode eight with him having fun with the car and the wipers, and there will be more of these things. These are all of the fun little moments to have.

I like the way Doc, he’s so serious and he’s dealing with the revenge, but it’s nice sometimes when he has these moments where he’s kind of vulnerable in the sense that he’s from the 1800s. He’s from 150 years ago. He’s stuck here now and he has no idea how to use windshield wipers in a car. It baffles him which is funny. He just got out of a massive fight with Dolls who he knows might or might not be some super creature or whatever because he doesn’t know, but he knows something is up with Dolls and he’s not scared to fight Dolls. Then again he gets in a car and he tries to use wipers and he’s petrified. That’s Doc Holliday. It’s awesome.”

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Here’s our interview with the Wynonna Earp cast from WonderCon: