Fallout's Walton Goggins Explains the Ghoul: 'He's Fonda and Newman'
The Fallout star shared how he imagined and created Cooper Howard and the Ghoul without playing the video games.
Prime Video ’s Fallout turned out to be unique in many regards, but one thing specifically catches attention: none of the show’s lead stars had played the Fallout games before acting in the adaptation. Despite that, they delivered compelling and unique performances that were on-point for the ruthless and bizarre world of the American Wasteland. Walton Goggins, in particular, spectacularly outdid himself!
Walton Goggins Didn’t Care for Fallout Lore
When he was invited to the interview with Jonathan Nolan, the Fallout writer, and even after he was already on board, Walton Goggins decided against playing the Fallout video games. He claims it was his “conscious decision” as he wanted to experience everything first-hand, without the pressure of the franchise’s sheer size and fan expectations weighing down on him.
But Goggins’ unfamiliarity with the Wasteland didn’t prevent him from crafting and portraying the most memorable and unique character of the TV show: Cooper Howard aka the Ghoul. The dedicated team of Fallout buffs, including the showrunners and writers, definitely helped him to understand the context — but the actor’s own vision also largely shaped Cooper’s character.
Walton Goggins Did His Non-Fallout Research
Recently, the Fallout star sat down with THR and spoke about all things ghoulish. According to Walton Goggins, he leaned heavily into researching the person Cooper Howard was, not the setting or the character themselves. He watched countless interviews of classic Western actors to see what kind of guy Cooper was — and what kind of person he’d become after 200 years in the radioactive Wasteland.
“I settled on Fonda and Once Upon a Time in the West and his ruthless aspect — no wasted effort whatsoever — crossed with Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; he’s a rascal. Cooper and The Ghoul are the same person. What are the things they have in common? It’s their sense of humor, their swagger and a reasonable, practical approach to life,” Goggins explained.
The most interesting part of the actor’s Fallout experience was that he effectively had to play two different characters: Cooper Howard and the Ghoul. While technically the same person, they had very little in common, and those tiny threads connecting the pre-war and post-war Coop were crucial to Goggins’s understanding of his character.
It’s safe to say that, however complex his approach was, he totally nailed the part.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter