FROM his breakout role of Detective Shane Vendrell opposite Michael Chiklis in acclaimed crime drama The Shield, Walton Goggins has emerged as a true acting chameleon.

As charming criminal Boyd Crowder on hit FX series Justified, Goggins has been mining Southern bad-boy gold for five seasons, and has again dodged a showbiz bullet.

His Shane Vendrell in The Shield was supposed to die in an early episode, but lasted seven seasons.

Likewise, Crowder wasn’t supposed to survive the pilot of Justified. But Goggins’ portrayal proved so irresistible they decided to keep Boyd around.

“When you’re an actor there are no guarantees, and in life you’d be amazed by the jewels that life sends you. Boyd is kind of a crowning jewel for me,” says Goggins.

In the soon-to-end season five, Goggin’s Crowder has become as integral to Justified is its central character, Deputy Marshall Raylan Givens (Timothy Oliphant).

Crowder has spent the season fighting the justice and jail system he has long played on the wrong side of, with his girlfriend Ava (Joelle Carter) in jail, and him seemingly powerless to help her.

It’s dark stuff, and has thrown up a mass of contradictions.

News_Image_File: Female factor ... Actress Joelle Carter who plays Ava. News_Image_File: Actress Erica Tazel who plays Deputy US Marshal Rachel Brooks.

Which isn’t surprising, given that Crowder started life in Justified as a criminal white supremacist, moved on to become a born-again preacher, morphed into a drug dealer and then started making inroads as a ‘businessman’ with dreams of marital bliss.

“This season he’s been powerless, unpredictable, volatile and not sure what he is,” Goggins says.

“He says late in the season: ‘You know, I spend of my most time with hookers, dope dealers, murderers, thieves and liars. I would say I’m guilty by association, but between me and you I’m just as despicable as they are’.

“For a person like Boyd being told to accept anything is difficult — let alone the fact that you’re never going to see your woman again.”

News_Image_File: Ever-changing ... Actor Walton Goggins, as Body Crowder, and Damon Herriman (Dewey Crowe) in a scene from Justified.

Goggins knocked around Hollywood for about 12 years before landing his role in The Shield. His many and varied screen credits include the movies Lincoln and Django Unchained, and he’s soon to start shooting action comedy American Ultra alongside Uma Thurman, Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart.

He excels at dark cable television roles, a skill which resulted in one of his most memorable guest appearances in cult series, Sons of Anarchy, for creator and good mate Kurt Sutter.

The character of transgender prostitute Venus Van Dam came about as a joke, after Sutter said in an interview he could never cast Goggins in a guest role because viewers would identify him too much with his character from The Shield.

“I wrote him an email and said go f@#k yourself. The only way I’d do your show is if I played a transgender,” Goggins laughs.

“It was a joke between two friends — although it’s something I’ve always wanted to play ever since an auditioned as a transgender for an independent movie 15 years ago.”

Sutter’s response was to send Goggins a script, and the deal was sealed.

“I learned to walk in high heels while I was doing Django with a full beard — it was very weird,” he laughs. “My wife gave me plenty of tips.”

Goggins’ roles may be heavy on darkness and drama, but one of his closest friends is the more mainstream The Big Bang Theory’s Johnny Galecki.

The pair talk almost daily, and laugh at the suggestion of their alter-egos winding up on each other’s shows.

Goggins suspects his Boyd would fit in better in The Big Bang Theory than Johnny’s Leonard would in Justified, ‘because Boyd has a gun’.

News_Image_File: Justified’s stars ... Actors Timothy Olyphant, who plays Raylan Givens, and Walton Goggins (Boyd Crowder).

JUSTIFIED, SATURDAY, (April 5) 7.30PM, FX