[Editor’s note: The following contains some spoilers for Fallout.]

The Big Picture

Based on the popular video game series, Prime Video’s ‘Fallout’ follows a Vault 33 dweller named Lucy on a quest for her father.
The series features a mysterious bounty hunter known as The Ghoul, who changed drastically after the Great War.
Actor Walton Goggins discusses the process of creating and embodying The Ghoul, emphasizing the character’s evolution and unique traits.

From executive producers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, along with co-showrunners Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner, the eight-episode Prime Video series Fallout is based on the popular video game series that’s set 200 years after the apocalypse, in a world where those who have more reside in luxury fallout shelters and those who do not reside in the Wasteland. When a Vault 33 dweller named Lucy (Ella Purnell) leaves her insulated life behind to venture out in search of the father (Kyle MacLachlan) she believes is out there somewhere, among all manner of human villain, creature, and Ghoul.

The mysterious bounty hunter known as The Ghoul (Walton Goggins) actually started out as an actor named Cooper Howard, until everything changed with the thermonuclear Great War. Exposure to radiation and more than 200 years have definitely changed him, inside and out, making The Ghoul someone better to avoid than try to team up with.

In this one-on-one interview with Collider, Goggins talked about how grateful he is for the incredible opportunities he’s had in his career, how Cooper Howard informed The Ghoul, which of Goggins’ previous characters The Ghoul would team up with, what made them decide against using contacts as part of the character’s look, why The Ghoul needed to be sexy, and what made the series a once in a lifetime experience.

You can watch the full interview in the video above, or you can read the transcript below.

Fallout In a future, post-apocalyptic Los Angeles brought about by nuclear decimation, citizens must live in underground bunkers to protect themselves from radiation, mutants and bandits.Release Date April 11, 2024 Seasons 1 Streaming Service(s) Prime Video

Collider: So good to see you, with your nose and everything. I very much appreciate that.

WALTON GOGGINS: You know what? I appreciate it, too. I was gonna take it off for you, but I didn’t want you to end this interview after one question.

The Ghoul in ‘Fallout’ Is the Latest Addition to Walton Goggins’ List of Memorable Characters
Image via Prime Video

I love that you’ve amassed this collection of characters that are not only iconic, but you also remember the names of, from Shane Vendrell to Boyd Crowder to Baby Billy Freeman. You’ve essentially set the bar pretty high for yourself. What was the most important part in preparing to play The Ghoul and helping him rise to meet that level?

GOGGINS: Well, first and foremost, thank you very much for saying that. That’s very kind. I’ve known you for a very long time now. I guess the answer to your question, really with the utmost humility, is that I just don’t think about it in those terms. I really don’t. I’m just so grateful to have had the opportunities that I’ve had, over the course of my career. This was an amazing opportunity. I don’t set myself up with the bar in that way. This is a complicated guy and it was so compelling to me, his life before the bombs dropped and the person that he is 250 years later. One story informed the other, and it was just an opportunity to participate in a world that I enjoy reading, I enjoy watching, and that I certainly enjoy participating in.

Related ‘Fallout’s Walton Goggins Reveals Which Classic Westerns Inspired The Ghoul Goggins turned to Clint Eastwood and John Wayne to build out his 200-year-old wasteland dweller.

If The Ghoul had to put together a team or pick a sidekick, and only had your past characters to choose from, who do you think he would be compatible with or even be able to tolerate, or would he just want to kill them all?

GOGGINS: I think he would love Venus. I think he would enjoy her immensely. I think Boyd Crowder would be his drinking buddy. I think he would kill Lee Russell straight away. I think Shane Vendrell would be somebody that he would employ. He could walk the desert with Baby Billy. You always need somebody to make you laugh. The thing about all these people is that most of them are loners. I’m a loner, in my own way, and [The Ghoul] likes to spend time alone, I think.

That was an excellent answer that I now want to watch as a TV show, so thank you for that.

GOGGINS: I walk with all [of the characters] in my head. I just wanna do one episode with one shot of all of them walking across the post-apocalyptic Wasteland.

The Ghoul in ‘Fallout’ Needed to Look Like Walton Goggins

There are some very gross looking creatures in the series that make The Ghoul look downright sexy. Did The Ghoul always look how we see him now? Were there things that really needed to be tweaked? It feels important to make sure that we still see you in the makeup, so that we also still see the original person that The Ghoul came from. So, what were the things that really needed to be tweaked?

GOGGINS: There were multiple conversations, over a long period of time, and there were drawings and renderings of this guy that were, in my memory, very, very, very different. They were in the world, but they were not what we ultimately ended up with. For all of us, it was very important that you see me and that the pieces would be thin enough where I could not think about conveying feeling or thoughts to another person. At one point, we were gonna use contact lenses, and we did on the very first day, much to my dismay because those things freak me out. I put them in and stood up, and I couldn’t really see with them.

I thought, “Oh, my God, there’s no way I can do this with these on. But okay, I’ll figure it out.” And Jonah [Nolan] immediately said, “No, that makes you a different person. I have to see your eyes. It’s in your eyes. Everything is in your eyes.” And so, we took those out, and we worked on it. We did three tests. The first one, I’m gonna say, was 70% there. And then, it was like, “No, that’s a little too severe. No, that’s not severe enough, actually.” We went back and forth with that. And then, we started inserting nicks in his ear and battle scars, and started a road map of where he’s been for the last 200 years. It was a real process, but I’m really happy with how it turned out. And we wanted him to be sexy, on whatever level, in a ghoulish way. Goggins Ghoul. I don’t know.

What Made ‘Fallout’ a Once in a Lifetime Experience for Walton Goggins?
Image via Prime Video

What is your favorite moment this season, and does it involve The Ghoul or does it involve Cooper Howard?

GOGGINS: Great question. I obviously can’t tell you what the moment is. Right out of the gate, getting the opportunity to see the world end and being given the privilege of experiencing that for the rest of us, was an incredible experience for me, but they all were. There are moments with The Ghoul seeing himself 200 years earlier in a movie that he made that was a deeply visceral experience for me. It goes back and forth. There isn’t just one scene. There are many over the course of this show. I really had a great time. It was a truly a once in a lifetime experience.

Every time I think there’s no way you can top the last character, then another one comes up that does, and I greatly appreciate that.

GOGGINS: It’s always a joy to talk to you, man. It’s really good to see you, and I hope to see you in person soon.

Fallout is available to stream on Prime Video. Check out the trailer:

Watch on Prime Video