TAGGED AS: Prime Video, Sci-Fi, streaming, TV, Video Games
Walton Goggins is an award-winning actor who has been a familiar face on our screens for the better part of 40 years, from his scene-stealing work in The Righteous Gemstones, Justified, and Django Unchained to his latest effort as the Ghoul on Prime Video’s Fallout, which has audiences and critics raving. Kicking off Season 2 of our Awards Tour Podcast, host Jacqueline Coley sits down with Goggins for a wide-ranging chat about his varied filmography, from early work in television to working with some of the most influential directors in Hollywood. From Steven Spielberg to Quentin Tarantino to his primary director on the Fallout series, Jonathan Nolan (Westwood), each has recognized Goggins’ ability to dynamically command the screen and make every audience member fall in love with even his more villainous portrayals.
Jacqueline Coley for Rotten Tomatoes: Let’s begin with this incredible role that you’re currently promoting right now with Fallout, playing the Ghoul and Cooper Howard. This has to be one of those great calls to get to play those characters. I’d love for you to talk about how you got invited into the Fallout world.
Walton Goggins: It was written by Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner and directed by Jonathan Nolan and Clare Kilner, Frederick E.O. Toye, and Daniel Gray Longino. Geneva was an old friend of mine — we did Tomb Raider together — and Graham I didn’t know, but I’m a very big fan of, and I didn’t know Jonathan but have been a fan of his, going back to Memento. I met him once at an Academy Award luncheon when we won for the short film we did, and it was the same year that Memento came out. He says he remembers it. He’s lying. (laughs) But I have been a fan ever since, and they wanted to get on the phone and talk about this project.
I really didn’t know anything about Fallout when they told me what it was going to be about. I went online and read an article about it, and there was a character there. I thought, “Oh, well, maybe it will be the hero of the story, the Vault Dweller.” And then I stopped reading the article, and we got on the phone, and we started talking. Three minutes into it, I said, “I’m in, just so you know. I’m in.” And he said, “Well, don’t you want to know what you’re playing?” In the back of my mind, I think, “Oh, that’s the hero.” And he said, “You’re playing…” I said, “No, it’s irrelevant. I’m in.” He said, “You’re playing a guy called the Ghoul, and he’s been walking in a radiated landscape for 200 years, and he doesn’t have a nose!” I said, “You know what? Maybe I do want to read those scripts. Could I do that?” (laughs) And then I read it and called them immediately afterward, and I said, “I’m in! Noseless and all!”
94%
Fallout: Season 1
(2024)
is streaming now on Prime Video.
Watch the video for the full interview with Walton Goggins.
