Robert Taylor: People connect to the truth, nuance of 'Longmire'

BUFFALO, Wyoming, July 22 (UPI) -- Australian actor Robert Taylor says playing the titular lawman in Longmire has meant as much to him as it does to the beloved contemporary western's many fans.

"There's something nourishing about it," Taylor told UPI during a sit-down interview at the TA Ranch in Buffalo -- a tiny, friendly town at the foot of Wyoming's Bighorn Mountains -- on Sunday.

The show -- which initially ran from 2012 to 2017 -- remains wildly popular in reruns on Netflix.

Each year, Buffalo -- the inspiration for the show's fictional locale of Durant -- hosts Longmire Days, a fan festival celebrating Craig Johnson's best-selling Walt Longmire mystery books and the series based on it, which co-starred Lou Diamond Phillips, Zahn McClarnon, Bailey Chase, Adam Bartley and Katee Sackhoff.

This year's four-day event included panel discussions and autograph sessions with Taylor, Johnson and former Longmire stars A. Martinez (Jacob Nighthorse), Louanne Stephens (Ruby), John Bishop (Bob Barnes) and Derek Phillips (Travis), as well as a rodeo, parade, talent show, concert, high tea, skeet shooting, horseback riding, 5K race and picnics.

Although Taylor said he's never actually sat and watched his own show, he has great memories of making it and understands why some people binge it again and again.

"I know exactly why this show works and why people connect with it. There's just truth and it's nuanced. It's not contrived," he said, noting it distinguishes itself from more "cookie-cutter" entertainment that doesn't feel authentic or insightful.

"The characters are trying to do the right thing in tough circumstances. They are not special people. They are not amazing or great people. They're just people and things go wrong. Great drama doesn't have to be on a great scale," Taylor added. "People just connect with it. I connected with it."

Taylor said he doesn't know exactly what to say when people talk about how he gets into character to play Walt.

"I don't do that. I'm not myself, but, for me, it's just been a lifetime of trying to get to a place of just being alive in the moment," he added.

"It's not a 'method,'" he said. "You learn the lines. You forget them and you just believe it."

Although he has appeared in The Matrix, The Meg, Skull Island, Vertical Limit, Apples Never Fall, The Newsreader and Ballykissangel, Taylor said he never gets as much attention as he does when he is in Buffalo where banners with his face festoon street signs and people line up to take selfies with him or to tell him why they love the series.

"This show is very personal to me, just in my career," he said when asked how he feels about the fanfare.

"I've been around a long time, but I've never been a famous guy," Taylor added. "You should see me at home [in Australia], nothing. Some of my friends don't even know, really, what I do."

Taylor said there are still rumblings of a possible Longmire revival if Netflix and producer Warner Bros. can work out a deal regarding the licensing rights.

"There is always talk about doing some movies," he added. "That could seriously happen."

Should Longmire come back as a show or TV movie, Taylor said he and the rest of the cast would jump aboard.

Until then, he will be seen in the Netflix western, Territory, playing the father of New Zealander Michael Dorman's character.

"You've got Walt Longmire playing Joe Pickett's dad," Taylor quipped, referring to the Wyoming game warden whom Dorman played for two seasons in the Paramount+ series, Joe Pickett.

"I think people will like it," Taylor said of their upcoming collaboration. "That guy is one of the best human beings I've ever met in my life."