Fans of Amazon Prime Video’s “Fallout” are thrilled the dystopian sci-fi series just received 10 Emmy nominations, for production design, fantasy/sci fi costumes, hairstyling, makeup, sound editing/mixing, and stunts. Based on the popular post-apocalyptic video game franchise, the show continues to be a cosplay highlight at the annual San Diego Comic Con, which takes place next week.
Walton Goggins as The Ghoul in Fallout
At a recent “Fallout” set visit in Los Angeles, actor Walton Goggins (loved for roles in series like “The White Lotus” and “The Righteous Gemstones”) told Soundsphere he thoroughly enjoys playing dual roles– as Cooper Howard, a former movie star/father, and a bounty hunter known as the Ghoul, a mutated, decaying and dangerous outlaw with a mysterious past, who has been alive for 200 years.
While Goggins has played many fascinating characters over the course of his career, none are as badass as The Ghoul, who he describes as a “pretty intimidating” guy.
“I like playing good guys with a propensity to be bad and bad guys with a propensity to be GOOD,” Goggins told Soundsphere. “I so enjoy playing Cooper Howard/The Ghoul because it gives me the opportunity to do both.”
As a production designer Howard Cummings loves working with Goggins. “He is really talented and appreciates the world of design. You can see that if you go on YouTube and watch his Architectural Digest tour of his home, everything in there is curated by him. He will sometimes stop the set when I walk on, because he loves to talk about what we’re doing!”
One set that Goggins really appreciated was when the cast was shooting at a Southern California location called Vasquez Rocks.
“This area has been used in every ‘Star Trek,’ said Cummings, who is nominated for an Emmy for his work on the series. “I wanted to go there because I thought it was funny, nobody’s ever done a drive-in movie theater there! We had to convince the Park Service that I could shoot it in two days. Walton loved how the theater was playing all Cooper Howard’s shows and the skeletons of people who had died watching his movies (when the apocalypse hit). He really loved it!”
Goggins had never played someone like Cooper Howard, so he watched a lot of Gary Cooper, a lot of John Wayne, a lot of ‘Gunsmoke’ and many interviews.
“The video that we have from that time, people that populated the screen were well-spoken and gregarious, but also reserved and a little conservative, not just politically, but just the way in which they expressed themselves, they were regal. And I thought, ‘Okay, yeah, that’s Cooper. He’s part of the greatest generation.’”
The first two “Fallout” seasons surpassed 100 million viewers worldwide; both rank in the top four most-watched seasons of all time on Prime Video and are streaming in more than 240 countries worldwide.
Emmy nominated costume designer Dayna Pink said Goggins is a dream to dress.
“Walton looks good in everything. So trying to make a choice on what he is going to end up wearing for a scene is always so hard, which is a great problem to have! Every single thing that we put on him or have made for him worked perfectly. We had too many choices!”
Goggins’ transition into the bounty hunter involved a layered prosthetic application process, which they have learned to streamline.
“I had to wear a whole mask. We wanted people to lean into The Ghoul and to not look away from him when he’s onscreen, but to study him. He’s got a little swagger to him like the Marlboro man, if he had been smoking in a radiated world for 200 years. He has a similar swagger and charisma as Cooper and they’re both funny as shit, but Cooper doesn’t carry the pain around the way that the Ghoul does.”
While the show’s first season was shot in New York, producers decided to relocate to Los Angeles for season two. “It seemed like a natural choice in a second season to try to get back to L.A. just because the show was set here — even if ‘here’ is an irradiated post-apocalyptic version of L.A.” said co-executive producer Jonathan Nolan.
“When I first got this offer, I said yes without even reading a script,” acknowledged Goggins. “And they said, ‘well, don’t you want to know who you’re playing?’ ‘Not really, I don’t care! My very first day in New York, where we filmed season one, they didn’t intend to intimidate me, but it was extremely intimidating when you get invited to a set like this. My inner monologue was just ‘don’t f–k this up!”
Goggins also has had a blast navigating the more menacing mutant-like creatures. His memorable encounter with the massive handmade radscorpion looked so real, there was no acting required!
“There’s this one moment early where this creature comes out of nowhere, and it’s a genuine surprise for me, that’s my real reaction. The puppeteers had it on a pulley and just yanked the thing out and in that instant, it was so real, there’s nothing fake about it. It’s good old-fashioned storytelling and nothing beats that.”
The popular series is coming back for season three, and will have new cast members Aaron Paul, Emily Mortimer, Manny Jacinto and Thomasin McKenzie joining the series.Goggins is hopeful for more seasons after that as well.
“I don’t want it to go away. We have so much more to say.”