'Fallout' star Walton Goggins walks through every detail of his intense transformation into the mysterious and iconic character known as The Ghoul. From the painstaking prosthetics and bald cap to the intricate airbrushing and final touches, Goggins shares how the makeup team brought the post-apocalyptic bounty hunter to life for the highly anticipated 'Fallout' series on Prime Video. In this video, Goggins offers insight into the physical and emotional layers of becoming The Ghoul, breaking down each phase of the makeup process—step by step. Fans of 'Fallout', character design, or special effects makeup will get a rare inside look at how one of the show’s most unforgettable characters was created.
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00:00I read this article where Jim Carrey talked about his experience on the Grinch and getting these
00:06like torture kind of experts to come in and coach him through that experience and
00:11I wish I had read that article before we did Fallout. Hello I'm Walton Goggins and this is
00:19how I was transformed into the ghoul. Look I'm an actor these are prosthetics let's be real right
00:25I mean it's not torture it took about two hours and 15 minutes. The very first requirement was to
00:36put on a bald cap. I like my hair so that was a bit shocking the first time I did it. This was
00:42the easiest time during the process. I would take my shirt off apparently and then we would have to
00:48get a bigger shirt on. We needed that room in the neck so that the flap would go over the t-shirt
00:53that we wore underneath it. The very first time that we did this when I put clothes on I couldn't
00:58feel the shoulders of the shirt that I was wearing and it freaked me out so I asked them to put this
01:03t-shirt over and cut this piece just so that it was below the the neckline and I could feel the shirt
01:09on my shoulders. The entire process consisted of nine different pieces of prosthetics that needed to be
01:19applied in a certain order. The first piece is this beautiful piece that goes to the you can see
01:25almost to here it drapes down the neck and onto the shoulders. Vincent Van Dyke the person who built it
01:33he's such an extraordinary artist. It's almost translucent it was extraordinary to understand that
01:38you could make something that thin that would hold up with the elements in the hat and the clothes.
01:43Something that was thick thicker than what we came up with would have been very very difficult to convey
01:49really other than some wild gestures what was going on inside the head of the ghoul. I don't want to
01:55think about that whenever we're we're working. First couple of days I was deeply insecure of being
02:01expressionless. After every take I would look at Jonah and I would say is any of this working
02:07and he kept saying you're fine. I see it all. I see everything buddy. Just do your thing.
02:17What did you say your name was? Lucy McClain.
02:24McClain? The idea was to build it from the ground up. He took it up to the neckline this front piece
02:32and all of those brushes are just applying glue while I eat an egg burrito. I was so fascinated
02:39by the process. Not just the glue that applies it from underneath but all of the the powder that
02:45needed to constantly be applied on the outside so that it wouldn't start sticking or folding in on
02:51itself. We've gotten the top of the head we've gotten the back of the head and we've gotten up to
02:54the neck and so now there was a separate piece for the for the chin. This is when you've got to get
03:09really calm because the piece goes up and over the bottom of your lip so the lip is loosely pried open
03:16the whole day and it feels like you're in a dentist chair and as the bottom piece holds your mouth open
03:23at the bottom the top piece holds your mouth open at the top and there's a built-in little cleft that
03:28they did to match the the little indentation that we all have but that I have a pronounced one. I am
03:34someone that can can can sit still for long periods of time yes but I am a mover. We needed to architect
03:42this in a way that allowed for me to take breaks. I didn't need very long but I did need to just go
03:49outside and collect my thoughts and just walk around for about about five ten minutes.
03:56You're a president now.
03:58Don't say why not.
04:00Well then you might want to hire a publicist.
04:03Oh this is the first time hearing about this outfit.
04:06Here's where it starts getting really interesting. This is the piece that overlaps the top of the head
04:11and then comes down to the nose and then he starts around the eyes. I'm so afraid of anyone
04:19touching any part of of my eyes. So this was a bit tricky and it was tricky for for um Jake
04:26because he's constantly moving around as you'll see he doesn't stop moving for two and a half hours.
04:31Oh I got a little stretch in there. I always keep it loose and this was one of the most important pieces
04:36of the entire prosthetic is the one that transitions over the top of the head over the eyebrows and then
04:43down through the top of your your eyelids and you'll see what he does at the end you see all these ridges
04:50that are along all of these pieces and right now he's applying this material that allows him to cut
04:55the the pieces without using a knife it just dissolves. These things don't go on seamlessly right
05:01there is a scene and and and every single piece and where they meet they overlap but he then has
05:07to go at the end of this experience and blend it all and the first time I went to use my phone
05:13as I always do with face id it was as if the phone was gonna blow up it was like this is definitely not
05:20you I don't know who this is but there's no way I'm letting this dude into your information so thank you
05:27Apple it works
05:39come on let's go find the rest of them I'm having a panic attack watching this video these are the
05:45biggest most important pieces of the entire process both sides of the face once he has it up this is so
05:51cool the whole thing is so cool he has to get it exactly right on the top of the head and in order for
05:57it to just drape down once he once he gets that in place the rest of it is pretty easy for him
06:02because it doesn't move the left and the right side overlap the top they overlap the bottom and they
06:09overlap the two pieces that have already been applied to the upper lip and the lower lip I have I didn't
06:15develop any tools to to cope with it to be quite honest with you I'm claustrophobic by nature and
06:21um became a scuba diver in order to kind of deal with that and that teaches you a lot about patience
06:27and meditation you have no choice as you'll see right here uh when the piece is being applied and
06:33your mouth is open you got to keep it open because he has to glue the parts around the mouth to match
06:40these two pieces above and below the mouth so if there is a coping mechanism it's just to know that that
06:46this is the reality that you're experiencing right now and to lean into it we would get to this point
06:52where we are right now when these pieces were all on before he began blending everything together and
06:58he gave me a big break which is about 15 or 20 minutes just to exhale and um and to begin thinking
07:06about what we were going to shoot that day there's always some new little facts right there brand new
07:21team of believers with their own dumb ass ideas about how they're going to save the world we've only got
07:26about maybe 20 minutes left at this point and he brings out the airbrush everything gets very very calm
07:33and your eyes are closed you can't breathe because it's a lot of spraying kind of going around to
07:38blend the entire piece it's interesting because when when he's spraying all of this it's it's it's it's
07:46actually comforting maybe like a horse going back to the barn i knew that my time in the chair was almost
07:52over i'm going to be working in about 45 minutes from now and it's game time and he applies white dots
07:58um to the nose so that the special effects people eight months from now can track the nose wherever
08:06it is so now i'm done and double thumbs up because hey i'm the vault boy the thing that no one has asked
08:14me about is removing the makeup for the last scene of the day jonah would shoot me out first because by
08:21this point in the day at the end of the day the the piece was having a hard time sticking because it was
08:26so hot in there so i would take my hands very carefully and start ripping off
08:35pieces that were hanging the first time i did it jake garber ran over and he said stop and i said i
08:40got to get it off man i have to get it off he said stop i have to do it with you because you can't
08:46pull it from your eyes if you pull it from your eyes and all the skin comes off we won't be able to
08:52apply it for a week because the skin is so thin around your eyes that was a big lesson the pieces
08:59that i wasn't able to rip off by the end of the day the process is holding up the piece and jake would
09:05do half of my face and then i would do the other half and i would just hold the piece up and and
09:10underneath with a brush just apply this uh thing that dissolved the the glue that was holding it
09:16together a wrap party for this all right we go for a couple of hours we shake a few hands it's at our
09:24house the thing that i was most surprised about was the first day that i played cooper howard and i
09:31was only in the chair for five minutes but when i walked out all of a sudden i felt like i didn't
09:37have my superhero costume on and i felt very vulnerable to be quite honest with you because you
09:44got used to this barrier between yourself and the world and it was very easy to be in the head
09:49of the ghoul and once that came off i found it difficult initially to just be a civilian