Walton Goggins Says He Had 3 Hours Of Sleep and Came Directly From ‘The White Lotus’ Premiere to Film ‘Fallout’ Season 2 Episode 5 : “I Just Had Nothing Left In The Tank, It Was Exactly Where I Needed to Be For That Day”

It’s no secret that being an actor means making yourself emotionally vulnerable and going to great lengths to bring out the best performance. For Walton Goggins in Fallout Season 2, that meant feeling the exhaustion and deprivation that his character is experiencing.

Chatting with DECIDER for the second season of Prime Video‘s epic adaptation of the massively popular video game, the Emmy-nominated actor shared that when he filmed a certain scene from Episode 5, “The Wrangler,” he was in a deeply emotional and deeply spent state after months of filming Season 3 of The White Lotus, the final season of The Righteous Gemstones, and then Fallout.

“There’s a moment in Episode 5 where Cooper Howard has nothing left, he realizes that he has absolutely no control over his environment and doesn’t understand what’s happening in the world in real time. And I personally felt the same way,” Goggins explained. “We filmed that day the morning after the premiere of The White Lotus, I had about three hours of sleep. I just had nothing left in the tank; it was exactly where I needed to be for that day.”

Throughout almost the entire fifth episode, Goggins’ character is experiencing a general sense of defeat, both in flashbacks of Cooper meeting Robert House (Justin Theroux) in Las Vegas, and in the present-day wasteland as he prepares to hand over Lucy (Ella Purnell) to her father. Goggins told DECIDER that, in general, he found the exhaustion tied to that episode “auspicious,” especially as his character exhibited a similar uncanny display of humanity.

“I was depleted after White Lotus, as anyone on that journey was. I had the good fortune of going straight to The Righteous Gemstones; it’s not easy being Baby Billy, and I left that just crawling across the finish line to arrive here. And in some ways, I think it’s the best thing that could happen to me, because then I was just splayed open emotionally,” he explained, “That’s what was required of both Cooper Howard and The Ghoul this season.”

What’s more, Goggins explained that there’s another moment from Season 2 where The Ghoul — a.k.a. the post-nuclear version of Goggins’ role — is “deeply missing his child,” and it came at exactly the right time to hit him emotionally. The scene ultimately ended up breaking him wide open, perhaps to the point where things might have gotten a little awkward behind the scenes.

“It happened to be filmed, again, on a day that I felt such shame over being away from my child for so long,” he said. Goggins — whose character in the show lost his own daughter during the nuclear apocalypse that kicks off the series — shares a teenage son, Augustus, with his wife of 15 years, Nadia Conners. “Through this irradiated cowboy, I just got to let it all out in front of all these people, and I didn’t anticipate it and see it coming, and it made everybody really uncomfortable, and it made me uncomfortable, but it was cathartic,” the actor said.

Goggins added, “And that’s the life of a storyteller, you know, we get to experience these things publicly.”

The first five episodes of Fallout Season 2 are now streaming. New episodes premiere Wednesdays on Prime Video.

If you aren’t a Prime Video subscriber yet, you can get started with a 30-day Amazon Prime free trial, including Prime perks like the Prime Video streaming service, free two-day shipping, exclusive deals, and more. After the free trial, Amazon Prime costs $14.99/month or $139/year.

All 18- to 24-year-olds, regardless of student status, are eligible for a discounted Prime for Young Adults membership as well, with age verification. After a six-month free trial, you’ll pay 50% off the standard Prime monthly price of $14.99/month — just $7.49/month — for up to six years and get all the perks.