LOS ANGELES — In preparation for his role in Amazon Studios’ Fallout adaptation, actor Walton Goggins has gone to great lengths to get into the skin of his character by spending several hours meticulously contorting and morphing his facial features.
“This is the most challenging as well as the most engaging role I’ve ever had,” said Goggins, standing in front of a bathroom window and repeatedly stretching and shortening his nose like a chimp playing with Silly Putty. “Other parts, you might do some reading, or talk to some folks that have done your character’s job. But how many gigs let you spend inordinate amounts of time cycling through like, 15 sick-ass face tattoos instead of taking action and engaging with the story? It’s true artistic freedom.”
While confident in the casting of Goggins, showrunners Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner are running short on patience for the actor’s exploratory research.
“It’s a fucking nightmare,” said Robertson-Dworet. “We haven’t shot one page. He was a full three hours late to his call time this morning because he was ‘this close to looking just like Mel Gibson’ and it would be ‘mad fucking tight’ if he got it right.”
“Yesterday we walked in on him giggling, just pushing his eyes to the edges of his face with a picture of the sloth from Ice Age open on his phone for reference,” Wagner added. “He’s one of this industry’s finest talents but for fuck’s sake, we have hundreds of hours and dozens of storylines to get into, and he’s more invested in eyebrow scars than an entire nuclear wasteland.”
Executive producer and Bethesda director Todd Howard, however, remains fully confident in Goggins’ extraneous methods.
“I’m comfortable leaving Mr. Goggins to his devices. He understands the importance of thorough preparedness, and if there’s one thing I know, it’s the importance of taking all the time necessary to ensure something is fully functioning and free of any faults or problems before you even think about showing it to the public,” Howard said candidly. “Which is why on behalf of both myself and Bethesda, we are proud to announce that the first season of Fallout will be available next week.”
The series was later delayed after Goggins decided he’d rather go for a melee build, requiring Amazon to start the production over from the beginning.
