this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2025
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"No, I haven't sat down to play the games," said Walton Goggins, who plays pre-war movie star Cooper Howard and his post-war counterpart The Ghoul. "And I won't. I won't. I won't play the games. I'm not interested."

The reason is actually pretty simple: Goggins doesn't want to think of the world or the characters of Fallout as elements of a game.

"All of a sudden, I'm looking at this world from a very different perspective, and as something on a screen in which I am an avatar in. I don't believe that I'm an avatar. I believe The Ghoul exists in the world. I believe that Cooper Howard exists in the world." he said.

"The best way that I can serve this world and serve the fans of this game, I think, is to go to work every single day and believe the circumstances that I'm presented with," Goggins said.

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[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 hours ago

Sounds like a pretty standard Method Acting way of going about it.

[–] Ilandar@lemmy.today 8 points 7 hours ago

This thread is awful quality for this community, but I suppose I shouldn't be surprised considering the article that started it is PC Gamer ragebait. Gamers are always looking for their next moment to rise up.

[–] tgirlschierke@lemmy.blahaj.zone 30 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Makes sense to me. The Ghoul is an original character, and Goggins doesn't need to know a lot about the setting or source material.

[–] Ilandar@lemmy.today 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Was Cooper Howard a character in the games or was the entire role written for this show?

[–] Schmuppes@lemmy.today 4 points 5 hours ago

If it was a character from one of the games, it would be so minor that I missed it. I think that character was created for the TV series.

[–] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 18 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

I'm totally cool with this. He's not involved in the creative direction. He's just a damn good actor, he doesn't need to understand the whole feral, or glowing one, or whatever. Let the writers write and actors act and ffs keep the executive away from both!!!

Fallout has inconsistent lore to begin with. There's no be efit to having him know the lore.

[–] VerilyFemme@lemmy.blahaj.zone 20 points 10 hours ago

He'd be perfect for the writer's room

[–] Tikiporch@lemmy.world 6 points 8 hours ago

Considering none of the characters in the game played the game either, I don't see the controversy.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 7 points 8 hours ago

Not even just to see if the games are fun? Like, he doesn't need to take inspiration for his character from it, but if he is interested in playing video games for fun outside of relating to his acting roles, why not give them a shot?

If he said "I just have no intetest in playing video games" I'd have no follow-up questions about it.

[–] HazardousBanjo@lemmy.world 86 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

Makes perfect sense from the perspective of an actor.

They want their performance to come naturally and with the direction of the writers/directors.

Playing the games can make an actor subconsciously act how they think would fit the games rather than how would fit their specific character.

[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 11 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

I was going to make this it's own comment, but it fits well as a reply here.

I don't agree with this. I don't think he needs to play them, but the argument doesn't make sense. Would he say the same if it were a movie? I'm willing to bet not. He just doesn't want to play the games, and that's fine. The bullshit excuse of "not wanting to believe the world" is stupid. If you're making a movie set in a larger cinematic universe you don't get to act noble about refusing to engage in the rest of the media. It being a video game doesn't change anything.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Yeah, it actually also makes sense for an actor to avoid seeing other films with that character if they're going to portray an entirelly new version of that character.

In Method Acting character building is a lot about what are the motivations and drives of the "person" which is the character and "living truthfully (the character's life) under imaginary circunstances" and judging by how he talks about it he is indeed using Method Acting.

As for games, they might be an even worse influence than previous films because the emotional depth of in game characters is generally zero or close to it (except in things like cutscenes were they used actors, MOCAP and a very detailed model for expressions), akin to a woden performance.

It's valid for an actor using Method Acting not to want to be exposed to a different representation of the world their character is supposed to inhabit and of the characters in that world - Method Acting is pretty "soft and smooshy" rather than a set of iron rules and mechanisms, relying on a person's own "emotional engine" and ability to pretty much forget that they're not that "person" which is the character living those things (think of it as an actor's version of suspension of disbelief) so who knows what influences the actor might take in subconsciously which then affect their embodyment of that character, which would be a bigger concern now that they've already embodied that character (for the last season of the series) and that should not change for actor reasons rather than character reasons (i.e. the character should only change due to things that happen to the character).

No doubt some actors would think that playing the game would make no difference, but it's valid for some to think it might.

[–] MirthfulAlembic@lemmy.world 3 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

I don't think he's trying to act noble. I think he's just very aware of his own acting process and how his brain works. It'd be different if he said nobody in the cast should play the games. Or maybe he doesn't think it's a great idea for the star of a video game adaptation to say he doesn't like video games.

He also might just not have that time. My brother would loveNew Vegas but at 45 with a wife, kids, and career that isn't going to happen because he won't have the time to really play.

[–] SGG@lemmy.world 12 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Understandable, but he might never know the glory that is fisto, which makes me sad.

[–] Zorque@lemmy.world 4 points 12 hours ago

I'm sure, if he goes to them, convention goers are more than happy to let him know.

[–] kaidenshi@lemmy.world 94 points 18 hours ago (28 children)

Good for him. Actors who want to embrace their character and the world they are portrayed in shouldn’t feel pressured to consume the source material, whether that’s a video game series or a book, especially when the show or movie could wildly diverge from the source.

[–] Skyline969@lemmy.ca 87 points 18 hours ago (6 children)

Counterpoint, Henry Cavill in The Witcher. Though he left once they started diverging from the source because he knew that it would make the show subpar. And it did.

Knowing the source material can help actors understand more nuance of their character and the world the show takes place in.

[–] QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.works 15 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Pointercount, the lore in Fallout is grossly inconsistent which is not the case for The Witcher.

[–] VerilyFemme@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

The lore in Fallout is grossly inconsistent because of a lack of Henry Cavills working at Bethesda.

There's still a chance to retcon stupid shit. I really, really would prefer that outcome to "eh the lore in this RPG series doesn't matter that much.

The lore in Fallout is grossly inconsistent because of a lack of Henry Cavills working at Bethesda.

They have had staff that knew the lore the fact is they decided to change things because it made the game more fun. For example mutants and supermutants should not be in almost any part of the wasteland as the means to create them is not universally available according to lore, yet they are in every single game because they are fun enemies to fight.

Fallout chose fun gameplay over consistency.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 hour ago

You generally need a single person with the vision to maintain consistency throughout the whole series, and as far as I know that was not the case with Falout the games.

[–] jrbaconcheese@yall.theatl.social 70 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Counter-counter: Henry Cavill was playing the Witcher, the central character in the lore. Walter Goggins is playing someone not in the original lore.

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[–] GammaGames@beehaw.org 66 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I mean, it’s not like he’s the writer lol

Doesn’t seem like an issue to me

[–] Marshezezz@lemmy.blahaj.zone 26 points 16 hours ago

He finds it to be an issue subjectively for him so since he’s doing the acting, I’d say he probably knows what’s best for himself as an actor.

[–] the_q@lemmy.zip 19 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

Click bait article titles are one of the main reasons for the failure of our society.

[–] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 3 points 9 hours ago

I didn't even think it was that click baity. My initial knee jerk reaction was "ok, cool. It's not like they are making a new Vegas show. It's a new storyline with cameos."

But then I see op responding in the comments, and it's clear I am not the target audience for this article despite being a huge fan of both the show and game.

[–] Jarix@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago

It is a symptom, not a cause....

[–] ABetterTomorrow@sh.itjust.works 2 points 10 hours ago

Is he saying “this is a fallout game you don’t get to play”? Instead of making this into a game, it became a tv show?

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