Prime Video’s Fallout series has now been released, which means we can dive deep into the show and its mysteries. But even before fans knew anything at all about this Fallout adaptation, one character attracted a lot of attention. And that character is Walton Goggins’ The Ghoul. Losing his nose and ears and gaining a whole lot of weathering, Walton Goggins becomes unrecognizable as he steps into Fallout‘s world. Incredibly, the Fallout series used practical effects and makeup to alter Goggins’ appearance completely. To help us fully appreciate what went into this change, the actor shared a timelapse of the process, and it’s really stunning. You can watch Walton Goggins transform into The Ghoul in the video below.
In Fallout, ghouls are human creatures who are transformed by radiation. The radiation their bodies absorb allows them to survive for a long time in the wasteland of Fallout‘s universe. However, it also completely transforms their appearance. In the Fallout series, we can really see the impact of ghoulifcation clearly thanks to Walton Goggins’ portrayal of both The Ghoul and his former self, Cooper Howard. When playing Cooper Howard in flashbacks, Goggins looks like his normal charming self. But when we visit with The Ghoul in the Wasteland, we see a different figure altogether.
Goggins shared that the practical transformation into The Ghoul was both an aesthetic and emotional experience. He noted, “The thing I was most surprised about, other than actually seeing it come to life whenever we got to these sets, I didn’t anticipate how lonely it would be for me as the Ghoul… It was a process. When I first walked out of the trailer, people either couldn’t take their eyes off you or didn’t want to look at you at all. I felt very closed in that experience. I was just alone inside of this guy’s head.”
While that sounds like a tough spot to be in, the literal act of transforming into The Ghoul seems to have helped Goggins to embody the character. This also reminds us just how much each part of a production contributes to the story of its finished product. Additionally, it speaks to the incredible level of skill the FX makeup team on Fallout possesses. Goggins shared that makeup artist Jake Garber managed to reduce the process of becoming The Ghoul from five hours to under two. Watching the timelapse video, two hours seems like a wildly short time to bring The Ghoul to life.
Maybe someday, the Fallout series will present The Ghoul with a ghoulification cure that will allow him to transform back into a human. For now, we’ll just play Walton Goggins’ timelapse transformation video backward and imagine what it’ll be like for The Ghoul to have a nose again.
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