One of the biggest video game adaptations not just for the 2024 TV schedule, but for of all time, Fallout is set to take everyone with Amazon Prime subscriptions into the vaults for a post-apocalyptic tale like no other, at least not in live-action. Justified vet Walton Goggins is one of the liveliest actors working today, and is bringing his talents to the role of The Ghoul, a mean ol’ sumbitch who just won’t die. And as seen in the video above, he gave CinemaBlend his thoughts about playing another A+ TV villain, even if he might not view the character as such.
Goggins has tackled a plethora of different fictional personas across his career of 30+ years, from Billy “Downtown” Anderson (Major League: Back to the Minors) to Venus Van Dam (Sons of Anarchy), but I dare say many would agree that Justified’s Boyd Crowder is the ultimate Alabama jam, given how long he portrayed the loquacious, bomb-friendly criminal. When I asked him about playing what could very well be another career-best villain with The Ghoul, here’s what he told me:
You know, I guess I didn’t really think about that when we were doing it. I never really think about the villains I’ve played as only villains, right? I think about them as the perpetrator of violence, and the victim of violence, simultaneously. Maybe it’s just to make the day’s funner, I don’t know. But I knew on the page that this was a great opportunity, and this was a very, very complicated guy. It was a great opportunity to explore a person in two very different parts of their life and states of the world, if you will.
Now, there are always two sides to every coin, and no characters should ever be painted as completely black or white, morally speaking. But Fallout fans are well aware that the gaming universe’s ghouls are the results of heaping radiation poisoning, with some able to hold onto their humanity, while others are more rabid and nasty. (Which is why Goggins’ old AF creature is missing his entire nose.) I don’t think anyone is expecting this leather-faced outlaw to be wearing a hero’s crown by the end, though stranger things have happened, I suppose.
He continued:
And so I just set out to understand his humor, and how that bridges time, and understand his pain, and how that also bridges time. So you know, I’ll let you say if it’s the best villain or not. [Laughs.] I don’t know. I just know that it was a very gratifying experience and I hope we get to do it again.
Perhaps more important than knowing just how evil The Ghoul will be is knowing that Walton Goggins was able to do in Fallout what he does so well in everything else: be intimidating as shit in the most darkly comedic way possible. I don’t know if I’ve ever been afraid of someone the way I inherently fear his Vice Principals character Lee Russell at his most unhinged. That’s not the vibe The Ghoul is bringing, but it’s not altogether more soothing, because all that pain that Goggins talked about comes from a real place, so The Ghoul isn’t a rootin’-tootin’ jerk for no reason.
Fans are no doubt gonna go bananas when Fallout arrives on Prime Video, especially considering the huge response Walton Goggins’ SXSW appearance got after the first Fallout trailer debuted. In case anyone missed it the first time around, check the trailer out below:
Fallout will bring its unique blend of survival sci-fi, video game lore and sardonic comedy to Prime Video when all eight Season 1 episodes premiere on Friday, April 12.