Walton Goggins’ The Ghoul in the upcoming Fallout TV show is already a hot topic, and for good reason. It’s not just his acting that’s getting people excited, but also the way they came up with his distinctive macabre look.
In a recent interview, Goggins talked about how he worked closely with the show’s team to make sure his Ghoul makeup wouldn’t scare people away. Instead, he wanted to make them want to know more about his character.
Goggins Didn’t Want The Ghoul To “Repulse” Audiences
Speaking with Screen Rant, Goggins said the production team started talking about The Ghoul’s design “about nine or 10 months” before filming even began. The core focus of the team was to avoid a design that would gross viewers out:
One of the first takeaways was, “Okay, in crafting this person, we want to take this opportunity to create something that doesn’t repulse an audience, but makes them lean in to this experience and want to look at his face, and to study his face, because it is, in and of itself, a roadmap of his life for the last 219 years since the bombs dropped.”
At first, they thought about using special contact lenses for his eyes to make him look even creepier. But after they tried them out with all the other makeup, Goggins and director Jonathan Nolan, realized it wasn’t right.
Goggins said it made him look too scary for people to connect with him anymore. They both saw how important eyes are for showing feelings, even when the rest of your face is messed up and lacks a nose.
The Fallout Actor Spent Hours In Ghoul Makeup
Goggins also shed light on the makeup process for The Ghoul:
So, that was that, and then it was just a combination of — we did it three times, the makeup test. And by the last one, we had it, we had it nailed down to kind of what it was going to be.
Goggins even went outside with all the makeup on and spent a few hours thinking about the character. Portraying The Ghoul accurately on screen was one of Goggins’ top priorities.
The final touch to bring The Ghoul to life was picking out clothes for the character. They tried out three different outfits and went with the third one. All this attention to detail, both with the makeup and the clothes, shows how much the team cares about bringing the world of Fallout to TV screens.
Thanks to Walton Goggins’ fastidious acting and the production team’s meticulous design process for The Ghoul, the Fallout series is shaping up to be a fresh yet satisfyingly faithful adaptation of the beloved post-apocalyptic franchise.
