BTS Footage of Walton Goggins’ 5 Hours Long Transformation into Ghoul Looks Absolutely Painful

Continuing the trend of bringing video games to life, Prime Video recently released the live-action adaptation of one of the most popular video games out there – Fallout. Upon its release, the namesake television series was welcomed with critical acclaim and flaunts a 93% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Actor Walton Goggins was given the responsibility of portraying The Ghoul and boy did he do a fantastic job!

However, transforming into a post-human being was not an easy task. It took hours out of Walton Goggins’ day for him to perfectly put on the prosthetics and makeup needed to look like the video game character. In a behind-the-scenes video shared online, you can see the tiresome process taking place right in front of your eyes.

Walton Goggins’ Tedious Transformation into The Ghoul

Makeup artists are extremely important when it comes to bringing characters like The Ghoul to life. Luckily, Walton Goggins was blessed with a makeup artist who knew what he was doing. Just look at him in Fallout, the man is barely recognizable!

Perfection of this caliber comes at a significant cost of time and Goggins can certainly vouch for this. In order for him to turn into the post-human Cooper Howard, he had to sit in the makeup chair for five hours. In a behind-the-scenes video, fans get to take a glimpse into everything that went into creating the look, and let’s just say that the transformation looked extremely tedious!

Take a look at the video below:

Walton Goggins behind the scenes in the makeup chair for ‘FALLOUT’ pic.twitter.com/7fQ81O5X4v

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) April 16, 2024

While appearing on Deadline’s Contenders Television panel, Goggins admitted that the transformation process was “extremely anxiety-provoking.” He even revealed that it was difficult for him to talk thanks to the retainers they put in his mouth.

“When I put in the retainers, these things that kind of covered these pearly white teeth, I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t get the words out. I couldn’t get the words out.”

In fact, the first time Goggins sat down in the chair to transform into The Ghoul, it took him and the makeup artist five hours to come up with the final product.

Walton Goggins Talks about the Transformation Process

As per The Wrap, it took three different attempts to figure out the final look for The Ghoul, and the first time they sat down for business, it took makeup artist Jake Garber five hours to complete the look. However, once he got the hang of it, the time was reduced to almost two hours.

Goggins stated,

“I couldn’t close my eyes. I had to sit in one place the whole time. So I just would put on a Western and just did research. He got so good at it that I said, ‘Man, you need to take a little more time’ because some of these movies we were watching were like two and a half hours long.”

Not only was the transformation process difficult, but filming the scenes with all the makeup on proved to be even more frustrating for Goggins. Talking to Variety, the Tomb Raider actor revealed that the harsh weather conditions didn’t make it any easier for him to work in his costume.

“It was an incredible experience, but exhausting at the end of every day. It was f–king hot. The very first day I put [the costume] on in New York, I think the heat index was like 104 or 105, and we went down and started shooting. At one point, Jonah looked over at me said, ‘I know it’s an emotional scene, but are you crying?’ I said, ‘No, man, I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ He reached up and poked my eye and water just came gushing out underneath this prosthetic.”

The team of Fallout left no stone unturned to perfectly capture the post-nuclear wasteland from the video game. They traveled through New York, New Jersey, Utah, and the Skeleton Coast in Namibia to get the perfect shots. Talk about dedication, right?

You can stream Fallout on Prime Video.