FX’s “Damages” has added a second new actor to its cast, signing former “Deadwood” star Timothy Olyphant for season two.

Olyphant will have a season-long arc as a guy who enters Ellen’s (Rose Byrne) life and becomes entangled in both her personal and professional struggles. His casting follows that of Oscar winner William Hurt, who’ll be playing a new client of Patty Hewes’ ( Glenn Close).

“We’ve been huge fans of Tim’s all the way back to his New York theater days,” creators Todd and Glenn Kessler and Daniel Zelman say in a statement. “His magnetic combination of humor, charm and menace make him a perfect fit for our show. We’re thrilled to get the chance to write for him.”

LOS ANGELES, June 16, 2008 – Academy Award winning actor William Hurt will join the cast of FX’s Golden Globe award winning series Damages for its second season, which is scheduled to return to the network in early 2009, announced Nick Grad, Executive Vice President of Original Programming, FX Networks.

Production of season two starts on June 24th in New York. Damages is produced by Sony Pictures Television (SPT) and FX Productions.

Hurt joins Damages for a season-long arc as a new client of Patty Hewes (Glenn Close). Details of Hurt’s character are being kept under wraps, but insiders have intimated that Hurt’s character will not only share a professional past with Hewes, but a personal one as well.

Oscar-winning actor William Hurt will reunite with his “Big Chill” co-star Glenn Close in the second season of FX’s series “Damages.”

The cable network announced Monday (June 16) that Hurt will take his first-ever regular role in a TV series when the show returns early next year. Filming on the new season is scheduled to begin next week.

“We believe ‘Damages’ has one of the finest ensemble casts anywhere on television, and the fact that an actor the caliber of William Hurt has joined the cast speaks to the quality of the series,” says Nick Grad, who oversees original programming for FX. “It will be great watching him and Glenn Close work together again.”

Hurt will have a season-long arc as a client of Close’s Patty Hewes. FX isn’t saying much more than that — in fact, its own press release cites anonymous “insiders” in saying that Hurt’s character will have both a personal and professional history with Patty.

Rose Byrne and Tate Donovan will join Close and Hurt as regulars, reprising their roles from last season.

Hurt won a best actor Oscar in 1986 for “Kiss of the Spider Woman.” He’s been nominated three other times, most recently for “A History of Violence.” He’s currently on screen in “The Incredible Hulk.”

He has starred in several TV miniseries in his career and made a handful of guest appearances, but “Damages” will mark Hurt’s first regular role in a weekly series.

For its entire first season, Damages averaged 5.1 million total viewers and 2.5 million Adults 18-49 in a weekly multi-telecast cume. On a first-run basis, Damages averaged 2.5 million total viewers and 1.1 million Adults 18-49.

Season two of “Damages” begins production June 24 in New York.

In the first season there were a lot of deaths, so I have to imagine there are new characters coming in?
There will definitely be two or three new characters. Patty will be taking on a new case at some point, and there will be an attorney she’s up against at some point. Not all of the new characters will necessarily be in the first episode, but they will be introduced in the first few episodes.

Are we getting some characters on the FBI side of things now that we’re kind of digging into Patty’s investigation?
The FBI characters we saw last year will be back. Eventually, we may see more of their world, not immediately, but eventually.

Is there any chance of seeing Ray Fiske again or of seeing David Connor again?
Definitely. Nothing on our show is impossible. I wouldn’t rule out any of them.

What do you think the fans will be excited about in season two?
The thing to be excited about is the dynamic between Patty and Ellen. It’s so completely different; it’s been turned upside down. Ellen’s working for the feds and is an informant. When the season begins she’s trying to take Patty down and that creates a totally different theme from last season.

So, is Patty going to find out this season that Ellen’s…
We’ll see. That’s going to be a season-long theme. There are two questions at the beginning of the second season: Is Ellen going to be successful in taking Patty down? And, Is Patty going to find out she’s trying to?

Close, who this month begins filming a second season of the hit FX TV show Damages, has certainly had her fling with characters unlike her. She grew up in patrician Connecticut, attended prep school, and spent part of her youth in Switzerland and Africa, where her physician father ran a clinic.

She has played everything from the unbalanced ex-lover in Fatal Attraction to the cartoonish villainess in 101 Dalmatians.

She says she’s still fearful when she approaches a role. “Because there’s no formula . . . . And you never know what element is going to open up that character for you. And a lot of times it’s intimidating to be faced with doing somebody like the Marquise de Merteuil (Dangerous Liaisons) or Patty Hewes (Damages.)

“My shyness can come out in front of a character that I’m being asked to play, and you’ve got to get through that,” says Close, who’s dressed in beige slacks, a navy blazer and a beige and navy sweater.

“Until you find what that key is � whether it’s the voice, or sometimes it’s how she presents herself. Sometimes it’s not until you get into the full look, which is why I think of the costumer as a really important collaborator, as they’re putting together the look. It’s very much a part of who that person is.”

For someone who has mastered Broadway, TV and film, it was a critical decision when Close, 61, agreed to star as the resolute litigator in FX’s Damages, which will begin its second season in January. Source