Among the many races in post-apocalyptic video game series Fallout is the Ghoul, posthumans severely mutated by prolonged exposure to radiation, which greatly extends their lifespans but gives them a zombie-like appearance. In the upcoming Prime Video “Fallout” series, Walton Goggins (The Hateful Eight, Predators) is almost unrecognizable as The Ghoul.
Bloody Disgusting caught up with Walton Goggins and executive producers, writers and co-showrunners Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner at the SXSW “Fallout” activation this week, where the trio revealed that The Ghoul was written specifically for Goggins. They also discussed what to expect from the series in terms of tone.
A character like The Ghoul requires extensive work in the makeup chair, as you might imagine, with the team transforming Walton Goggins into a noseless, zombielike cowboy in the wasteland. The type of transformation that surely informed his performance, right?
“No, it had nothing to do with my performance whatsoever, “Goggins cracks. “No, no, no. Yeah, it did. It was a bit past Covid at first. I mean, it was so many discussions kind of back and forth between Graham, Geneva and Jonah and myself about how we wanted this to look. We wanted the audience not to be repulsed by the visual experience, but to really lean in and look at the details. And we did it what, like three or four times? Vincent Van Dyke made the piece and a really good friend of mine, Jake Garber, applied it. We learned a lot over that process. Then we landed where we landed. It was an extraordinary experience. It was very daunting to begin with, but I’m so happy that it turned out the way that it turned out.”
As for what enticed the actor to the series, Goggins revealed he was on board almost immediately.
He explains it was the creators who sold him on The Ghoul: “[Director] Jonathan Nolan, Geneva and Graham.” Goggins elaborates, “I think at one point, the very first Zoom that we had, I don’t think I’m making this up, but I think three or four minutes into the conversation I said, ‘Look, I’m in. I’m in no matter what.’ They said, ‘Well, don’t you want to know what you’re playing?’ I said, ‘That’s irrelevant. It’s good. I’m in.’”
“We were stoked because we’ve written the role for Walton,” showrunner Graham Wagner adds. “It was several things. I think we were a week into talking about the project, we knew we wanted a Vault Dweller, a Brother of Steel member and a Ghoul. I mean, the first thing was just like, well, if Walton Goggins was in a Fallout show, we would watch it.”
Walton Goggins as the Ghoul in “Fallout.” Photo courtesy of Prime Video.
Geneva Robertson-Dworet expands further, “That was the first exercise; what’s the Fallout show we would watch? Walton’s name came up and we’re all like, ‘okay.’ And that was that.”
While the series leans into action and comedy, the games also veer into horror. Expect that to carry over into the series, as well.
Robertson-Dworet teases, “What was scary in the games was scary because you didn’t know where it was going to go, which made it important to us to not just replay those moments. So we had to create new scary scenarios. There’s a few in the first few episodes where some upsetting stuff happens and some of it is played goofy and some of it’s not.”
“Yeah, that’s exactly why we had to cast Walton because he gets to nail that,” Wagner chimes in. “The scary and then laughter. Although certainly that was hell for Walton in terms of the many hours of makeup every morning that he had to put on and endure all of that in the heat.”
Ella Purnell (Lucy) in “Fallout”
Goggins says of the lengthy makeup process, “I mean, I will say, I think for all of us, there is a tactile quality to this show, and this is not disparaging about it. I’m not going to say the name of another show or anything like that because I didn’t anticipate how tactile this experience really was. Reading it on the page, forgive my language, but I thought how the fuck are they going to pull any of this shit? It was so big. The ideas were so big, and once we were kind of in those spaces and Jonah was doing, capturing visually what these guys wrote down, I thought, of course. And it’s a very different experience when you feel like you’re actually in the world.”
Wagner’s response to Goggins highlights the series’ expansive scale and how they approached it through practical effects whenever they could.
“Yeah, no, it’s true,” Wagner confirms. “The production was almost as much of an adventure as what you see in the show. We shot all over the world, went to Namibia, to Utah, shot in the water, shot with dogs. It was explosive. It was one crazy thing after another, so we really did it.”
Prime Video’s “Fallout” TV series is set to premiere on April 12, 2024.
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