Walton Goggins Found Transforming Into the Ghoul in ‘Fallout’ Challenging: ‘It Was Extremely Uncomfortable’

Harrison Richlin
·2 min read
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Does Walton Goggins smell an Emmy approaching? Probably not, but only because his character in Amazon Prime Video’s hit “Fallout” TV series doesn’t have a nose. But nevertheless, his performance is earning rave reviews and awards voters are known to love a transformation. Goggins spent hours in the makeup chair before almost every shoot to turn into The Ghoul, a lone-wolf wastelander who’s been around for hundreds of years. In an interview with Deadline Studio at Prime Experience, Goggins acknowledged the difficulties of taking on this character physically and emotionally.

“The very first time we did the application [of his mask],” Goggins said, “I asked to be left alone for an hour and a half outside and Jonah [Nolan] came by. I just sat outside by myself and just photographed it like in the sun and in the shade. I was extremely intimidated but excited to see how this Ferrari would work. And then the very first day of filming, I was extremely insecure. It was extremely uncomfortable. And I didn’t know what the audience was seeing and what they weren’t seeing.”

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Thankfully, his director, Jonathan Nolan, was there to back him up.

“I said, ‘Man, do you see this?” said Goggins of asking Nolan if his emotions were being communicated on camera. “‘Are you understanding what’s happening inside?’ And he said, ‘We got it. We see it all. It’s all in your eyes, man. Just do whatever you want. You have the freedom to do what you want.’ And then once I settled into that, I had [the character], because it was so well-defined by what [showrunners Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner] wrote.”

Commenting on what the script of Robertson-Dworet and Wagner offered him, Goggins said, “The words are on the page. You know, Geneva and Graham really knocked these scripts out of the park and for me, it’s no different doing this or anything else I’ve ever done in my career. You read 250 times and you turn yourself over to an imaginary set of circumstances. I don’t believe in making choices. I don’t believe in playing characters to be quite honest with you. I believe that it is holding up a mirror to nature and it is immersing yourself in the world beyond the words.”

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