'Justified' Star Joelle Carter Talks About Ava's Gunplay and Getaway, and Making Elmore Leonard Proud

Spoiler Alert: This interview contains storyline and character spoilers for the “Trust” episode of Justified.

Well, she made it to Episode 11, at least, and that’s no small thing considering how much trouble Ava Crowder has found herself in during this final run of Justified. She’s facing a return to jail if she fails to help former lover Raylan put his frenemy Boyd in the hoosegow, and she, of course, still loves fiancé Boyd. But as Ava’s portrayer, Season 6 scene-stealer Joelle Carter, tells Yahoo TV, Ms. Crowder is also tired of being a pawn in the ongoing ego tussle between the ol’ coal-mining buddies, which led her to, pun intended, pull the trigger on her own getaway plan in “Trust.”

When you found out how integral Ava was going to be in winding down the series, what did you think?
I was thrilled. I’ve often been apologized to by the writers for Season 5… I don’t know why. [Laughs.] They were like, “We’re so sorry we put you in prison, but it was because we knew what we wanted to do in the last season — make it about the three of you.” And also, Ava never would have taken the deal unless what happened happened in Season 5. I knew that was their intention, but I wasn’t completely sure — and I’m not sure if they were completely sure — how far they were going to go with it. I think it kind of took on a life of its own, and it really serves [the story] well.

Ava’s evolution… she’s gone through a metamorphosis all these seasons, year after year, and Season 5 had a huge impact on that. She came out of prison a different person, in some ways hardened… to the point where she puts a bullet in the man she’s madly in love with.

Related: Graham Yost Talks the Shocking End of ‘Trust’

More on that in a second, but do you think once she went to prison and Boyd wasn’t able to get her out, that doomed their relationship?
Yeah, I think it did. I see the characters as still a little juvenile. They haven’t quite grown up in ways that people do who are living in a society where you have consequences for some of the actions you take in life. She was brought back out into the world and back into her own house, and yet still [she’s] in prison in a way… She’s having to inform on the man that she loves, because she feels abandoned by him, but she’s still drawn to him. There’s so many struggles for her besides being in between these two men and their great desire to outdo each other.

If Ava had to go back to the moment, the time where she made what she would consider to be her biggest mistake, when would that be? Would it have been getting involved with Raylan, or would it be getting involved with Boyd?
Hindsight is 20/20, right? Could I take it all the way back to marrying Bowman? Maybe that was her biggest mistake. Because all she wanted was to get out of Harlan, and that didn’t get her there. I think maybe putting her faith into men instead of herself. Or I might have to say trying to take care of Delroy’s body by herself might have been her biggest mistake, because that’s what ended her up in prison. They were coming after Boyd, but she was the one holding the body.

No one could have seen it coming that Ava would shoot Boyd and take off with the cash he stole from Markham. How shocked were you when you read the twist in the script?
I was like, “What?!?!” We were cross-shooting episodes — we’ve had a lot of schedule conflicts this season, so scenes were shot out of order — and this was one particular time that was very frustrating for me, because a lot of different ideas were being pitched around about how we’d get to the shooting of Boyd. And I think it was really solidified the night, maybe the day before, I had to shoot him. So [showrunner Graham Yost] had come to the set to pitch me the whole thing, and we had [done] the whole Raylan scene before this. Very confusing for me. I didn’t get to completely digest where Ava was at this moment. So within the evening I had to get with the visions of our director, Adam Arkin, and really trust that it was going to take care of itself in a way, and sometimes it just pays off so beautifully. I feel like Ava was waiting for this opportunity in a way… Raylan coming to the porch and saying, “This is it, it’s all over” was her catalyst to take this opportunity. I’m not sure how she was going to get out of it… I don’t know if she knew Raylan was going to be following her to the rendezvous site, or if she was going to get there and see if Boyd had the money and then maybe make the phone call.

Related: Graham Yost Talks the Rat and the Rise of Loretta in ‘Burned’

But this is where she was left, and so she had to take this opportunity. I feel like it was filled with adrenaline. It’s all in the moment, and there’s not even a second to have a reaction after shooting someone that you love. A lot went on really fast, and the adrenaline does take over for these people, as Raylan’s response to the shooting proves. I think he’s a bit turned on by the whole thing, but also making it very clear he’s going to come after her, and get her.

Do you think she had made the decision long ago that she was capable of shooting Boyd, or that she was willing to shoot Boyd, if the right circumstance presented itself for her to get away from this whole mess?
I think it’s all built up through the season so beautifully. Even everything that happened out at Boyd’s father’s cabin in the woods… Boyd and Ava are struggling with their hearts and their souls and their violence and mistrust, and they want to embrace each other and hold on tight and run, and get away with it all. But then there’s also all these other elements: Boyd’s obsession with being better than Raylan and getting him and rubbing it in his face. She just sees more and more that these two men aren’t really concerned about her well-being as much as their own agendas. So I feel like after all that, it was coming to the point where she’d be ready to shoot anyone. She needs to get away, she needs to survive.

Do you think she purposefully shot Boyd in a place that might not kill him? It looked like the shot hit him in the shoulder area. Was that a deliberate decision?
As far as I’m concerned, Ava didn’t want to kill Boyd in that moment. She wanted to slow him down, and she wanted to do something where Raylan couldn’t chase her immediately. She doesn’t want to kill Boyd. I [said] that… I fought for that. [She wasn’t] at a place where she would want to kill him, see him dead. But she definitely wanted to shoot him.

Is it safe to say that once she drives off with that truck of cash, she no longer has any thoughts about her and Boyd together making it out of Harlan?
Exactly. She knows there’s no turning back now. This is one step too far, and it’s a step she needed to take, and she stands behind it. It was hard that night, because I knew in my head that this was the last Ava-Boyd scene they were going to shoot, in what we knew as the love story. This was ending it all. Sometimes it hurts to do what you need to do in life.

Related: Graham Yost on the Dungeon, Death, and Real Harlan DJ

Who should she be more concerned about right now: Boyd, if he lives, or Raylan?
I want to answer this question, I’m just trying to figure out if I’m going to give something away. I think that this puts them both in very bad positions, and for different reasons. They desperately both want to be the one to catch her. So I’m not sure, that might be a question for them to answer.

Do you think their egos are bruised by the fact that she’s got the upper hand over them right now?
Sure, of course. Yeah, definitely. They are men. They’re men, but they also, both of them, don’t get taken advantage of too often. Someone doesn’t usually get the upper hand on them. So that’s got to be a hard pill to swallow, especially since they both trusted this woman. They both loved this woman in different ways.

And probably both still do. We know Boyd does. Raylan seems to have some feelings lingering there, too.
I’ve always said there’s something between them besides chemistry. Maybe it’s history. They really care about each other, and Raylan’s a man of his word, and he said over and over again, especially this season, “I’m going to take care of you, it’s going to be OK, you’ll be OK.” Now he’s got to prove that. Even if being OK is defined by putting her back in prison, which is not OK for Ava, but…

Speaking of that, she had another card to play when she found Dewey’s gator tooth necklace. Raylan dismissed it as proof that Boyd killed Dewey, but is there any chance that might come into play again?
The necklace? Dewey has to live on, because the writers can’t get enough of him. It might come back into play.

Related: Graham Yost on Winona’s Return, Ava’s Camping Trip

In our weekly postmortem with Graham, he said that the next episode, “Fugitive Number One,” is one that everybody is particularly proud of. What can you say about it?
Oh, my gosh, it’s off the track. As hard as it was to get these [final three] done and to navigate them, I think we did a really good job. We’re really proud of the end of this show, and I wasn’t quite sure how it was going to happen. As is the history of Justified, I think chaos makes this show run smoother. I can’t really say too much. If Graham hasn’t said it, I’m not going to say anything.

When you read the series finale script, what word or words describe your reaction?
“We did it.”

Is that “we did it” with an exclamation point?
[Laughs.] With an exclamation point! I actually said it in front of Graham, and we both said it: “We did it!” Whatever episode a character ends their journey on, it’s like, “It all worked out,” and it will serve the fans. And I hope Elmore [Leonard] would be proud.

Justified airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on FX.