TORONTO -- He's given John McClane the fourth worst day of his life and been the love interest for Jennifer Garner.

But what actor Timothy Olyphant, 41, hadn't done was endure a mind-numbingly-cold, 20-day shoot in Winnipeg to play a dimwit junkie trying to orchestrate an ATM rip off.

Adapted from Lee MacDougall's play by Canadian director Gary Yates, "High Life" features Olyphant as Dick, a hapless loser who along with pals Donnie (Joe Anderson), Bug (Stephen Eric McIntyre) and Billy (Rossif Sutherland) try to pull off a daring bank heist.

"Dick was a blast to do," he says in an interview shortly before the movie's premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

"As opposed to the challenges of a big stupid movie where the task is, 'How do I do this and not look like an asshole?'" he jokes. "This is a piece of cake."

Better still for Olyphant, it gave him a chance to connect with dialogue that he really enjoyed.

"The script was fantastic and the characters were great. It's not very often that you get that kind of writing.

"But," he pauses, grinning, "I didn't know how cold it was going to be, otherwise I might have said no."

JAM! sat down with Olyphant to find out what he thought of Winnipeg, where he is most at home and what kind of ride he hopes "High Life" takes audiences on.

Q: We saw you earlier this summer in A Perfect Getaway. What was it like going from sunny, sweaty Hawaii to what looks like a very frigid Winnipeg?

A: The cast in Perfect Getaway is way better looking. Milla [Jovovich] and Kiele [Sanchez] and Steve and Rossif are not quite the same. It's like having a bunch of Steve Zahns in this movie. There's a scene in [High Life] where a female [bank] teller walks by and we're all in the car and I remember saying to the guys, 'There she is. That's as good as it gets in this movie.' And it's cold in Winnipeg. It's f---ing cold.

Q: What was the most Canadian thing you indulged in while in Winnipeg? I've never been.

A: Well, it's not high on the list of vacation spots and tourist destinations. But I really liked that town and it has some great history. At one time, the richest people in North America lived there. I think the wealth came from fur trading.

Q: I'm Canadian and I don't even know this. How do you know this?

A: Because I was there. I read the plaques on the walls. I read the hotel brochures. I believe it was fur-trading money. People can write in and correct me if I'm wrong. But there's some great old places there and there's a really nice arts scene there too that's very vibrant that the community really supports. On the one hand that's surprising, on the other it makes perfect sense. Because it is so remote, very few companies can tour through there. They were left to their own devices and had to come up with their own ballet and their own opera and their own theatre and it's great. I took my kids to a production there.

Q: You've been a versatile actor during your career. You've been everything from the bad guy in Die Hard 4, to Jennifer Garner's boyfriend in Catch and Release, to a mysterious loner on Damages. Where are you most at home as an actor?

A: I've been really lucky. I've been allowed to work for a long time and fairly consistently and make a career out of it. But the lovely thing is it feels like in the last two years, I've enjoyed the job more than before. Partly, that's me and what I'm bringing to the material and partly I'm just getting my hands on really good material; this I include in that. So it's been a nice run and I really look forward to what comes next. Part of the fun is not knowing. I think one thing that I really look forward to doing is pure comedy, so hopefully we'll check that off in the next year or two.

Q: What kind of ride do you hope High Life takes audiences on?

A: It's a fun movie. It's a blast and it's a nice breath of fresh air. It's short. So many f---ing movies are too long. This is a nice, tight, little film. You know what always baffles me? They release DVDs with extended, longer-cut versions of the film and I'm wondering when they're going to come out with the one that has even less footage than the film. When is it going to be, "The Postman - now 20 minutes less on DVD?" That's what I want to see. Everyone wants to make films longer when they should be making them shorter. It's like telling a joke. There's always a better, shorter version. Whenever you hear a good joke, you think to yourself, 'That was a great joke. It just needs to be tightened up a little bit.' I don't know why the movie industry keeps going the other way.

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