Walton Goggins has experienced the excitement of being part of a critically acclaimed series. He was a key cast member of both FX’s breakout programs “The Shield” and “Justified.” In fact, in 2011, he earned a Supporting Actor in a Drama Series nomination for his performance in the latter. That being said, his experience on Prime Video’s massive hit “Fallout,” has, so far, been at another level.
READ MORE: “Fallout” Showrunner Jonathan Nolan says appeasing fans would have been “A fool’s errand”
Adapted from the popular video game by Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet, this alternate timeline series finds Goggins initially portraying Cooper Howard, a movie star who has fallen on somewhat hard times before a post-apocalyptic war ravages the world. Hundreds of years later, the effects of the conflict have transformed him into The Ghoul, a beastly-looking gunslinger and bounty hunter on a mission to find out what happened to his family centuries before. The hours of makeup to transform into The Ghoul, a process he admits was “anxiety” inducing, saw him rewarded with his second Emmy nomination, this time in the Lead Actor in a Drama Series field.
“Fallout” was seen as a potential hit, but Prime Video didn’t expect rave reviews or some of the biggest streaming numbers of the years so far (or, frankly, the fact it became a late Emmy player). Goggins was overseas shooting the highly anticipated third season of “The White Lotus” (a season he describes to The Playlist as “a seismic consciousness shift”) when the show was finally released. He found the reaction gratifying but wasn’t in the States for most of it. He realized just how big it was on the streets of Thailand.
Goggins recalls, “I felt it kind of happening when I came back to America, but I felt it happen in Thailand, which is when I thought, ‘Oh, what? Wait a minute. O.K., really? It’s only been out for three days and people are coming up to you in Thailand?’ But, I’m grateful that people found it and people saw it and people liked it. And now we’re ready to move on. We’re ready to go do season two and start over from scratch.”
During our conversation last week, Goggins heaps praise on the also Emmy-nominated makeup team who helped transform him into The Ghoul, reveals where he found out about his own nod (a truly once-in-a-lifetime experience), why he’s grateful that White let the cast of the “White Lotus” once again read the entire series before filming, and much more.
This interview has been edited for time and clarity.
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The Playlist: Great to talk to you. You just got back from shooting “The White Lotus” overseas, right?
Walton Goggins: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was a long journey. It was a six-month ride.
I’m going to ask you about that, but first, you were actually overseas when you found out about your Emmy nomination.
You are correct, sir.
Were you on set? How did you find out?
Well, I knew they were coming up. I knew we had kind of been a part of the conversation, not just me, but more importantly all of the artisans behind that camera really. And the level of work that all of these – and I say artisans and in all that respective fields – they were at the high side of their creative potential. So, I knew the announcements were coming, but I got the time wrong, man. I was in Thailand, so I was thinking, “Oh, well yeah, it’s tomorrow morning. Alright, well, it will be O.K. either way. My life is going to go on no matter what.” I’ve been at this a really long time, and I had the good fortune of being nominated before in a Supporting Actor category, and I so enjoyed the invitation to that party, and that’s part of my life. So I went out to dinner, to be quite honest with you, by myself, and I’d been frequenting this restaurant with some expats there that I’d become friendly with. And I went and had a beautiful dinner and a Negroni. And then after dinner, I was just going to go explore this particular neighborhood in Bangkok that I really wanted to explore. And I got out of the cab and was about ready to start walking these streets. And I got a phone call, I think it was from my wife first, and she said, “Walton, congratulations!” I said, “What do you mean, congratulations for what?” And she said, “You got nominated!” I said, “Nominated for what? Whatcha talking about?” She said, “An Emmy.” I said, “No, no, that’s tomorrow morning.” They haven’t done that. She said, “No, no, no, no, it happened. It just happened right now.” And then three or 4, 5, 10, 20 people, 30 people started to call. Oh my gosh. And it was a way to go into the experience because I didn’t have any anxiety or pain or all of the things that kind of go along with the anticipation of something like that because I just wasn’t in that head space at the moment. People can say they were in a shower or, I don’t know, were you just taking a shower at eight o’clock? Maybe you are getting ready to go on your day. I know what I was doing and I was walking the streets of Bangkok after a great dinner and Negroni looking to explore a neighborhood. And then the phone call came.
Hey, no matter what happens and any other nominations you’ll land for the rest of your life, you will always remember that one because that’s such a singular experience.
You’re right. I will never ever forget that moment.
Not only did you get nominated, but the show earned 17 nominations, including the team that worked with you for hours to do the makeup for the Goul. How happy were you for them and for the other artisans on the show?
That’s the most gratifying part of all of it. And I say that genuinely, Jake Garber was my makeup guy who applied for makeup. Vincent Van Dyke was the person who designed and built the pieces continuously because I had to have a whole new piece every single time we applied it. And to see Howard Cummings, our production designer who’s been working with Jonathan for a really, really long time, and all of the other people behind the scenes. [Costume designer] Amy Westcott, got that nomination because it was through her and Jonathan’s imagination that this look of the Ghoul was even possible. I applaud when great work gets recognized, and it’s not just for our show, but for “Shōgun” and for “The Bear” and for all of the other shows that were nominated for multiple nominations in all of these categories, that just speaks to the quality of work being done by all of these people and sections or sectors of what we do for a living that aren’t normally recognized by the public at large. As an actor, I understand what all of these people do. For the most part, it isn’t an individual sport. It’s a team sport and it always has been. And you don’t make a movie or a television show in a vacuum. It’s a village. And we all share in the responsibility of making it as good as you possibly can daily. And I’m so looking forward to seeing everybody.
When you signed up for this role, you knew that yes, there would be scenes that wouldn’t be in makeup, but that you’d be playing him in the past and his “current” incarnation. Was the makeup experience tougher than you thought it would be?
The expectation out of the gate was acute anxiety daily of going into it. And I’ve said this in other interviews, but I am a person who likes to move. Luckily for me, Jake Garber, who’s also been nominated for 10 Emmys, I mean, he’s not a stranger to this recognition. He knows me really well. We’ve done like six or seven movies together, and he’s a good friend and he knew enough to structure this experience in a way that gave me room to breathe and room to process it. And it became easier as the days went on and we got the time that it took to apply, it became more streamlined and we always looked for ways to do it. And just the process of being The Ghoul throughout the day, it became easier. But it’s still a very interesting mental place to be in your periphery in that suit. And I would imagine so many other actors say the same thing about prosthetics and wearing ’em in that way. You just don’t see the way that you normally do. You don’t speak the way that you normally do. There’s just a baseline uncomfortability that’s just part of the experience. And again, Jake said it better than most, excuse my language, but he said, “You bought the f**king ticket, now take the ride.” That’s what it is. And so I’m not one to complain. I’m not that kind of guy. And that was the experience. I wouldn’t be lying if I said I’d breathe a sigh of relief on the other side of it. I’m grateful for the opportunity to do it again. Maybe I don’t remember every single moment, but no, I really am. I’m better prepared for it now than I was back then.
It was almost a year after you finished filming before the show was released on Prime Video. Clearly you were impressed by the scripts and by what you had gone through, but did you think it was going to be a hit? Were you surprised by the critical acclaim?
Well, I had, our very first press stop on our tour was in Brazil in November. And it wasn’t until that moment that Jonathan sat us down, it was Ella [Purcell], Aaron [Moten], and myself. And we watched the first two episodes with everything in it, right? I mean, I think maybe there were a few, and I dunno that it was completely done. In fact, it wasn’t completely done now that I remember, but it was enough there to really understand what it was on the other side of it, because I’m not a results-oriented guy. I didn’t think about whether this is going to blow up or it’s not going to blow up. That’s not my job. What my job was and what I took from that screening was this deep satisfaction that the work that we all put into this wasn’t in vain and that there was a story that we could all be extremely proud of and we could walk away from it knowing that we gave it everything that we had.
Starting really with Jonathan Nolan literally helming and going into a milieu that he’s not known for. He doesn’t make comedies, he doesn’t make anything with satire. He’s the most earnest guy I’ve ever met in my life. And he did it. He captured that tone and he gave us the space to capture behavior and to be these people and what Graham [Wagner] and Geneva [Robertson-Dworet] did, and the writing of these stories and how complicated and detailed and nuanced and these two parallel tones simultaneously. And again, every artist that I just mentioned before to see all of this work on screen, I just felt like it was, this is something that we can walk away from and be very, very, very, very proud of.
You said you’re not a results oriented person, but it is one of the biggest hits of the year, not just on Amazon Prime, but in streaming overall. It was massive. Were you surprised?
Well, I knew that this is a story based on the Bethesda game. “Fallout,” right? It’s an intellectual property that means a great deal to them. 300 million people play this game. And I have a son who is a gamer who FaceTimed playing games among many other things. But the games that he’s playing now will be similar to me watching “Little Rascals” as a kid and what “Tom and Jerry” means to me as an adult, what “The Three Stooges” mean to me. These games are for people who use them in a way for relaxation when they get home from school or whatever. This is where they spend their time. This is how they relax. So I thought, “O.K., well maybe they’ll show up and maybe I think they’ll like it. I really think that they’ll like it. Hopefully, we’ve done the best that we could.” But what I didn’t anticipate and what I felt like it was at least a possibility is for it to transcend that built-in fan base and that it crossover because we told this story in a way that wasn’t just for the gamers. It was because it’s a story that we believed in, and it was our version of that story and Geneva and Graham, their take on it, and the story that Jonathan wanted to tell. And I suppose it was very gratifying, really to watch it all happen in real time. I wasn’t in America for a lot of it. I felt it kind of happening when I came back to America, but I felt it happen in Thailand, which is when I thought, “Oh, what? Wait a minute. O.K., really? It’s only been out for three days and people are coming up to you in Thailand?” But, I’m grateful that people found it and people saw it and people liked it. And now we’re ready to move on. We’re ready to go do season two and start over from scratch.
I know you can’t say anything about season two specifically, but do you feel more pressure to live up to the first go around?
I think it was always there from the beginning for the people who were responsible for building this world in a way that honored how special this game is and the experience of playing this game is for so many people who played it. That was there from the very, very beginning. For me, it was, “How can I contribute to this story without feeling that responsibility on the other side of anything?” There is an expectation the second album, I suppose, by any artist that you really, really love. I maintain that you just play the music that’s in your heart. And I believe that there are enough people here in this experience who are so deeply committed to continuing this story in a way that is authentic and original and part and parcel of standing on the shoulders of what we did in season one. That’s what we’re in control of. I know that on day one, I’m all in and my heart will be there. And I can say the same for Ella and Aaron and Howard Cummings and Jake Garber and Jonathan Nolan and every other person that was nominated for these Emmys that we are going to put our hearts and souls in every f**king frame, in every single moment.
I have two quick questions for you on “White Lotus.” You’ve done so many different genres. You’ve now done Westerns, and apocalyptic Sci-Fi like “Fallout.” if you could think of one word to just describe the experience of shooting “White Lotus” what would it be? Or maybe it’s two words?
A seismic conscious shift. A seismic consciousness shift.
Love it. And then also, because so many of the other actors who’ve worked on previous seasons have said that showrunner and writer Mike White provided them with the whole scripts before they began filming. Unlike other mystery series, they knew everything that was going to happen before the end of the run right away. Did Mike do that this time around, or did you not want to know whatever the mystery is, whatever happens at the end?
Yes, the answer is yes. Everyone got all the scripts fully started.
Did you appreciate that? Is that important to you?
Yes, very important to me. Mike is a f**king genius. I mean, he writes it all himself. And the nature of filming in a lot of these places and being on the move for as often as we were on the move and necessitated the way in which they kind of board all of this. Necessitated everyone having the scripts upfront. I can’t tell you the processor, how they kind of put it together. That’s beyond my pay grade. But I can say that it was a necessity and it’s a necessity. And I, for one, am very grateful for any experience that I’ve had where the executive producer or the writer gives me all the scripts upfront. That happens with a movie, right? It’s no different than a movie. So you understand where you’re going and how to calibrate this experience for yourself. And yeah, that’s the way to go if you can. And if not, then the other way is the way to go. It doesn’t really matter.
“Fallout” is available on Prime Video.