Happy Sad Confused - Walton Goggins

Episode Date: May 30, 2024

 Walton Goggins may not be the last guest on this podcast but he is long overdue. He joins Josh to talk about his dual roles in FALLOUT, JUSTIFIED, his collaborations with Quentin Tarantino and Danny McBride, and THE WHITE LOTUS. SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS! Storyworth -- Go to Storyworth.com/HappySad to save $10 on your first purchase! UPCOMING LIVE EVENTS ⁠⁠Julia Louis-Dreyfus June 10th in NYC -- ⁠Get tickets here⁠ Dakota Johnson June 11th in NYC -- Get tickets here Check out the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Happy Sad Confused patreon here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! We've got discount codes to live events, merch, early access, exclusive episodes, video versions of the podcast, and more! To watch episodes of Happy Sad Confused, subscribe to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Josh's youtube channel here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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I mean, we've got to take a road trip, dude. This is, this conversation is just flowing too easy. Just so you know. Walton, just so you know, I don't drive, so you're going to have to do all the driving. So that's going to be a fucking nightmare freak. Even better. I'm a control freak. So I'll drive.

Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, sad, confused begins now. I'm Josh Horowitz. And today on Happy, Sad, Confused. Look, they say the mark of a truly great actor is can they act without their nose? No one actually says that. But if they did, Walton Goggins would win all the awards. He kills it and fallout with and without said noes.

But he's also always money in the bank with work like Justified, the righteous gemstones and the hateful eight. I am so thrilled that Walton is on the podcast for the very first time. Welcome, sir. It's so, see, there you go. It's so lovely to be here. Let me contextualize that thing really quickly. I didn't even hear the bang.

I didn't even hear it. You didn't hear the Bing? I'm the only, I'm the only one hearing the Bing. Okay, fantastic. It's only me. Do we pick up where we list left off before? I'm not going to edit. This is the goal.

This is real life, man. This is real life. Okay. So unbelievable. I asked Josh for help figuring out this how to stop text coming through. And I hit Do Not Disturb. And it's still disturbing. Right.

Well. And that is disturbing. Yeah. This actually started. I just actually work at Best Buy. And Walden called me. And then I was like, well, I've got you on the line. You want to do a podcast, buddy?

And he was like, sure. Okay, now, this is what's really interesting about, a new button that I just hit, Josh. You know, I'm scared. I put it on sleep. So do you think that, does that mean, now do I go to sleep? Is that how this whole thing works? I've done it before to guests, so it wouldn't be the first time.

Look, I think that's impossible. Let's talk important stuff. A long-time fan, first-time caller, Walton. I don't know how our paths have not crossed over the years. It only took a post-apocalyptic video game adaptation to bring us together. Thank goodness for fallout. I will say, and I never do this. I really don't do this in my real life.

Like if I run into somebody that I'm a fan of, I will never start a conversation. I ran into you, and I'm sure this made a huge mark in your life. A year and a half ago, at South by Southwest, I'm in an elevator, Walton Goggins walks in. And I'm like, fuck, I just need to say something. I said, hello, you were gracious. And this is the curse, I think, of Walton Goggins is you are very approachable. And this must be a burden for you in your day-to-day life. Do you find that folks like myself just endlessly deluge you thinking that we're best friends when we're not?

We are best friends, Josh. Okay, good. We're best friends. You know, that's very kind of you say, man. I do think I'm, I do think I'm approachable. I think I'm an affable guy. I think I'm relatively open, and I like, I like meeting strangers. I like meeting people on the street.

I like it when people come up. And I don't know if that's a blessing or a curse. This is how I feel about it, to be quite honestly. I mean, I've been around for a long time, you know. And when we were doing the shield, and I had people come up to me on the street and say, oh, man, God, you did this to Lim, to Curtis. mansky, or you did this or you did this or they wanted to stop and have a conversation. To be quite honest with you, I thought, from my point of view, here we are making,

are telling a story and we're asking people what wound up to be to take 84 hours out of their life to go on this journey that we ourselves were going on. And a lot of people went on that journey for 84 hours. I'm a parent. I'm a husband. I have a job. and to take 84 hours to do anything in my life is nearly impossible, right? And so I genuinely feel that if people took that time and invested in a story that you were

trying to tell or were moved in some way by it, and they want to tell you that I am better for it, you know, that what's the least I can do is listen to what you have to say. And chances are, more often than not, I'm going to get something from it. What's the etiquette in the, in the workplace? Because you have worked with many of, many actors I would imagine you grew up being heroes of, whether it's Duval or Hopkins, et cetera. Like, at what point do you fanboy out on the folks that you grew up on? Or do you kind of keep that inner fanboy quiet?

It's a great question. No one has asked me that question. I think set etiquette is something. God, what a privilege to learn it, right? That means that that means that you're working and you have an opportunity to observe these people, like you said, that you respect and admire. The one thing that I learned very early in my career

is that whenever you're working with people that you consider to be the best more than not, they are there to play, meaning that they show up to work, to play. It isn't a social gathering, not that that's not an element to it or a part of it, but they're focused and they're there to tell this story. And so that's what I picked up on very early in my life. And I still have that with me today.

I don't really sit around other people. I'm a bit of a mover. I like to move around. And I'm pretty quiet when I'm working. That being said, with Deval, for instance, who is. is my hero. That's my guy. And I'm 24 years old when we did The Apostle.

He asked, he invited me to go to dinner. And when I fanboid out, my version of fanboy was a teacher that I studied with that changed my life. And I studied with a better part of 10 years, a man by the name of Harry Mastro, George, here in Los Angeles. He mentioned, you know, three people in class. and Bob Duvall and Tony Hopkins and Jessica Tandy really were who he kept referring to. And so what I did say, other than I want you to know how important you are to me, but I also want you to ask you, my teacher says that you do this, this, and this, are they true? And I think because of how earnest I asked the question I genuinely wanted to know,

Bobby said, yeah, you know, it's a child's game. I turn myself over to an imaginary set of circumstances. And I asked, you know, Tony the same thing. And because of the way I approached it, it wasn't Machiavelli. And I didn't, I wasn't looking to be friends with either one of these men. But Tony took the time. And he just took me on a walk. And we just talked about the art of storytelling every day.

He never got tired of the questions that I had. and maybe because I didn't, wasn't, I wasn't bombarding him with these questions. And they just opened themselves up to me kind of in that way. And I would say the same thing about another one of my heroes who happens to be one of my best friends, Sam Rockwell. You know, and when I worked with Sam, it was, okay, yeah, I'm going to, I want to do this with Sam. And when we got to work, there he is. And just Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford and all these other amazing people. And I go the opposite.

I just shut down. I don't say a word. Right. Nothing. And so I said nothing to Sam at all. And then he, one day when we were sitting on the right, he was on the back of a horse, and I was on the side, getting ready to do my stuff. And he looked to me and he said, I love the apostle.

I love it, man. And I thought, oh, that's cool. That's really cool. Okay. All right. And then the conversation kind of begins in earnest. And I will say this. And then we'll move on.

I get a little loquacious, right? Like we're asking these things because I love what we do, man, and I love talking about it. And I love these stories. I love listening to stories. And I think you listen before you give yourself permission to tell stories, right? And I've been listening for a long time. And now I'm at a position in my life where a younger-

You got the stories. Yeah. You get some stories. So there was this one day, right? Again, Harrison Ford, hero. There it is. And very quiet. Don't say anything to Harrison.

and then one day we start kind of talking and it's just a lovely conversation. Cut to a couple of months into the project or a month into the project, I get a knock on my trailer door. And I say, yeah, yeah, yeah, who is it? The end of the day, you know, putting my clothes on. He said, it's Harrison.

I said, Harrison, who? He said, Ford. Harrison? Oh, my God. I know 10 Harrison. It could be anybody. Yeah, I opened the trailer. He's like, hey, man, you want to ride home in my helicopter? Come on.

And I said, oh, my God, wow, I would love to ride home in your helicopter, Harrison. But I drove here today. So I think I need to drive my car back. And he said, they'll take care of your car. I know a guy. I'm Harrison Ford. I got a guy. Yeah.

And we went up and we, you know, I got, you know, I got strapped in. to his helicopter with a couple of other people and he flew us back home and uh and once we lay in on the tarmac we jumped in his car and he said you want to go have dinner and i'd love to go have dinner and uh we sat and then he opened up his whole world and let me ask him any question i wanted to ask and uh so i think it's it's not it's not avoiding being a fan boy it's just being extremely respectful of people's spaces and having an open heart and eventually they'll come to you or they won't right right what a privilege i was going to bring up rockwell later because he's one of my three favorite human beings on the planet there's nobody that makes me laugh

at more who um loves talking about acting as much as him like he loves it he lives and breathes the stuff um do you do a sam rockwell impression first of all justin long is preeminent perhaps but are you up there no justin can i think he can impersonate anyone he's i can't i can't even impersonate me Like, I have, you do a pretty good, you do a solid Walton Coggins. You do it, yeah. Depending what, what I'm, what I'm, what I'm not insecure. I don't have a Sam, I mean, I don't have a Sam Rockwell. This is, this is the easy Sam Rock Row.

Uh, impersonation. Hey, man. Yeah. Yeah. Hey. Hey. Hey. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. It works. It works. Pretty simple. But I do that. Right. And I think I picked it up from him.

Right. So I think that's how I. kind of walk through life that's fair all right let's let's let before we get any further i want to give some love to fallout which um i love this show i jona did the podcast i just fell for this show i'm not a gamer i know you're not either but it just so so worked on me man it's just like such a big swing a bold kind of blend of satire and comedy and drama and and it just it just works man at home. Or a protein latte at Tim's. No powders, no blenders, no shakers. Starting at 17 grams per medium latte, Tim's new protein lattes, protein without all the work at participating restaurants in

Canada. Oh, hi, buddy. Who's the best? You are. I wish I could spend all day with you instead. Uh, Dave, you're off mute. Hey, happens to the best of us. Enjoy some goldfish cheddar crackers. Goldfish have short memories. Be like goldfish. You've been in a lot of different projects

and a lot of them with high expectations and some of them work and some of them don't work. Are you surprised at the end of the day when something like actually works? When you see the finished product, are you like, oh, yeah. sexually did as well or better than I thought it would be. Yeah, I think if any person is really being honest with themselves,

you're surprised every time. Sometimes you're surprised by the failures, right? Sometimes you're, really, that didn't work? Right. But for something like Fallout, you know, I had an idea when we were, when we were, you know, putting it together, I thought, If this makes sense to anyone, you know, what a strange world. I don't know, you know, hopefully the fans will show up if we can, if we can get it, get it right.

And the fact that it's kind of gone beyond that and beyond the fan base that was built into the following that this video game has has been just a, what a pleasant, wonderful surprise. And for me, I'm not a gamer. And when I saw the first two episodes, when we were in Brazil, I know that I was converted. And maybe for very different reasons than other people. And look, I'm not comparing fallout to Star Wars, but I'm not comparing it to Raiders of the Lost Ark by any stretch to the imagination. But what I am saying, for me, it was a world that was built from the ground up,

even though it existed in a video game, For those of us that are not gamers, I didn't know about this world. And I haven't seen something like that that isn't a property that's been in the world for a while. And I just wanted to be in this world. I wanted to see who these people were and look at a post-apocalyptic experience with absurd, subversive humor. And that's what I felt like we had watching it before it kind of came out. And I am pleasantly surprised, and all of us are so humbled by the response that it's received. You're working with some really talented folks that have made great television before.

Like, well, that being said, look, anytime you talk about heavy makeup, a character like the ghoul, there's got to be a little trepidation, I would imagine. Like, I mean, and I know you started the shoot in full on ghoul before you went into the Cooper aspect of the character. Like on day five of the ghoul, are you like, oh, fuck, get my team on the lawn? Like, what did I do? This is exactly my worst nightmare. I'm going to be in this makeup forever. I mean, did you have those moments?

You know, I not on day five, day one, really. But I'm not the person who would ever say, you know, get my, my team on the phone. I'm just, I'm not that guy. Right. You bought the ticket, so you take the ride, right? but there was uh and i and i've said this in other interviews the the first day that we did it it was like 106 degrees in new york um with um you know the heat index and uh and i was in this makeup we walked up for the first time knowing that we're going to work right this is this is it i'm going

on camera and and i have all of the stuff on and i have all of this stuff on with all of the clothing on for the first time, the very first time where everything was on all at once. And I'm walking and I know how to walk with spurs, man. But I can't, I can't really see my peripheral vision is compromise. And I'm just kind of making my way down and kind of understanding like, I don't even know, this is, oh my God, I'm going to fail. I'm going to fail these people who believed in me. I don't know how to do this.

And then we got right before we were going on, my buddy, Jay Garber, who did my makeup and is a very, very, very dear friend of mine. And one of the best visual makeup artists in the business handed me the last piece of equipment that I needed to do in order to go on camera, right? And it was these two, not braces, but these two retainers that can go over my teeth.

And I realized I'd never even tried to talk with these things in my mouth. And I'd certainly not tried to talk. There's two pieces of, you know, prosthetic that are holding your lips apart and you get no saliva in your mouth and your eyes are kind of open and there's no moisture in your eyes other than the sweat that's pouring out underneath the piece. So it was kind of all of it. And we did the first couple of takes, and there was a break in between it. And I was so hot.

I sat down on this log that was there. And again, Josh, I've said this in other interviews, but I did genuinely say, I don't know if I can, I can do this. I don't think I can. And you're standing. This is day one. And you're looking at Mount Everest. And it's like, I didn't bring the right shoes.

I can't make it up this hell. But then, you know, you just relax into it, don't you? And you don't complain and you just keep your head down one foot in front of the other. And that's one of the greatest lessons. I wonder if you feel that way about an interview. You know, as an interview, like the first time you interviewed somebody, it's like, okay, that question was good. This question was good. I was listening here.

But now what else do I have to say? 100%. That's how I feel about every job. It's like, okay, all I got to do is focus on the next step in front of me. Talk to me a little bit about, in this, spoiler warning, folks, if you haven't seen the show, I'm about to spill some stuff. But by the end of the season, we find out sort of what's been motivating this man, this former man, the ghoul, and this kind of maybe poolhardy or not quest to find his family. Can you talk to me a little bit about how that knowledge informed the ghoul and your approach to the ghoul throughout the season? Meaning understanding where we were headed ultimately.

Yeah, where you were headed and what was driving him? What was like, even if it wasn't revealed till the end of the first season? Right, for the audience. Yeah. And I took it, I took this approach in that I felt I needed to understand who Cooper Howard was, even though I didn't start with him. We started with the ghoul, but I needed to fully understand who Cooper Howard was, at least in my imagination. nation and to understand the life that he led, to understand his occupation, to understand his group of friends, to understand the relationship that he had with his wife and his daughter,

and he was an older gentleman when he had a baby, and what that means, to understand the world and the circles in which he ran in to fully... understand everything that the ghoul had lost, right? And then and then through, you know, thinking about, okay, well, what is it like, you know, walking a post-apocalyptic wasteland for 200 years? What's it really like? I mean, there's something to say, yeah, I've been walking around for 200 years in a post-law, like, really have you? Have you really been walking around that long? Man, I mean, really, Have you, is that, I mean, if you look at it, it's like, that's absurd, right?

I mean, you can't really hold anger or sadness for that long. Turns out you can, really, if you want something bad enough. And I really started with, okay, well, what was day one like? What was it like? What happened? Just break it down. Yeah, let's not look. It's hard to like thinking that macro, like, that's inconceivable.

But, like, no, literally, what happened? It is, it seems like, yeah, of course. It's like, okay, this is a book. That's not, it's fiction. That's not reality. But, yeah, by breaking it down and thinking about how long he went without eating for the first time, how, how was he injured? Like, what were the injuries that he suffered? Was his daughter injured?

You know, all of those things, which are personal to me. Like, I answered all of those questions. And the first time, the first time he saw someone killed. right the the bodies that he that he witnessed the people that he tried to help and that's a part of it i'm sure i'm sure he did the people that tried to help him you know who's the first person who tried to kill him who's the first person that i killed and why did i kill them right and how long was he this person before he would have died for sure had he not been infected or uh by uh radiation and what did that look like and physically how was that how did he sleep where did he sleep was it up in a tree was it on the ground was it underground like in a little cave what was it and so once i kind of began to fill in all those details and all of a sudden it made sense that i could have lived for 200 years

and because i didn't die and because i think human beings by their very nature their instinct is to survive right and uh And then to understand, again, what he lost, but who's responsible? You know, as he says, there's always somebody behind the will. And revenge is a big motivator just like sadness is a big motivator of pain. And so it's a lot. It's complicated. But that's how I approached it or else it just would have been a fucking, you know, here we are.

is two years later, I'm still walking. Yeah. It's, the good news is that the numbers are insane. Like, people are loving this both critically and just like, just in sheer numbers. So we're going to get another season, hopefully more than that. How much do you know? How much have you, have they charted out sort of like what the next year, couple of years progression of this character is? I think that we, in the conversations that we've had, we knew that that if we were to get in a second season,

that the first season really unpacked very little and there was really very little explored even though it feels it feels big there um because the the game itself is you know hundreds a thousand hours um but in this fictionalized version uh of the fall a fallout story that fits in the canon of fallout for this, the story that we're telling, there are so many questions kind of left unanswered. And, and yeah, they have, they have an idea of where they want to go and they've, you know, asked for my input. I've had seats at tables now for a long time in that world. But they know, they know exactly what they're doing. And so, yeah, I think they have this second part of the journey really kind of beat it out. For me, it all goes down

the specificity, right? I mean, there is something that is going to happen the next day or two days later or whatever. Whatever they decide to pick this story up, I haven't read it, after the finale. And there is a version of this that I see that I, you know, there is humor and there's camaraderie and there is antagonism between these possible scenarios that I would like to see kind of played out because we have to earn every emotional moment that we have just like the same thing with the humor, right? It's all situational. I've had those conversations,

and yeah, I think they see far into the future. Would you recommend this coming Halloween season someone to dress in the George Jetsons-like garb of Cooper or full-on ghoul makeup? What's your what's your recommendation? Oh, wow. That's picking sides. I mean, if you decide to dress up as one of these two characters. What else would you possibly do then dress up like a Walton Goggins character? Come on, dress like.

Yes, absolutely. Well, you know, it all depends, man. I mean, Cooper Howard only took me about five minutes in the chair. But if you want to start getting ready on October 30th with a cocktail, put in the dedication. Definitely do the school. You're going to make friends and influence people either way. This is true.

This is true. You're going to make an impression. There will be stories about you. Hey, that guy that showed up at the party? What was his deal? Another treat this past year, I had Timothy Oliphant on the podcast not so long ago for the latest justified season. And the fans were so excited to see you pop in. And I heard you talk very openly and not many people would say this, I think, but like that you and Timothy kind of went through it.

And you maybe at a certain point weren't vibing and that you've kind of like come back around. Was it, did this kind of help heal the relationship, the fact that you kind of came back for this appearance on the latest season of justified? No, we were, we were, yeah, we had gotten over that little thing, you know, a years before that. And, and, and, and, and, but the, you know, it was, it was such, there is really no story there, right? It's no different than a band that's been playing together for seven years. And then all of a sudden, it's like, well, you know what? I want to play this song.

Well, it's not on the playlist, man. Like, this is the song we're playing. Yeah, but I want to play this song this way tonight. Well, there's not a guitar or there's not a steel drum in that song. Hotel California doesn't have a steel drum in it, man. Well, you know what? I brought some steel drums and I'd like to play it. so you know it was it was a it was two people that were extremely passionate about the people that

they were playing and and it was really really nothing more than that and it was exhaustion and I think Tim said it better than anybody in a rebuttal to a story that was kind of blown out of proportion but you can read these headlines and see these articles and for me I was kind of laughing and talking to Tim hey man this is exactly what I said to my my friend Peter who was a writer and it was over a dinner party you know it's like it was tough you know it was an honest conversation and he asked could I include that in the book I said you can include these three lines you know because I don't I don't think that would be offensive to Tim and so we did and then people blew it out of proportion but it really was yeah can I just say

this really quickly what Tim and maybe he said this to you but he said this in an interview that I I read from Thailand, and he said, sometimes people have very peculiar ways of saying goodbye. And I think that's true, you know, whether that was a part of it or not, you know, I don't know. But I think as the ending of a significant experience in a person's life. Protecting yourself in a way from like the hurts of like a separation. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.

you need to say goodbye before the actual goodbye happens in order to get through and process to goodbye. I want to talk about a couple of other important collaborators in your life. Tarantino, I mean, what a privilege to be, like, counted on as like among the troop, a repeat Tarantino performer, obviously in Django and then Hateful Eight. Is he still like, like, is he a part of your life? I mean, do you talk to, you know, that's hard to say, like, is he a part of my life? I think you'll more, I'll say this, I'm a part of his life.

Right. I mean, he's got a lot of people in his life. And he's a very, very, very busy man. You know, we don't talk all the time. It's been a while since I've spoken to him. But I think anyone that has had the golden ticket. And what I mean by that is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory sort of way, when you open that candy bar and you get an invitation from Q to come and play,

Well, then that's the greatest invitation you can possibly receive. And once you're in that family, you're in that family for life with him and with all of the other people, both in front of and behind the camera that have gone through that journey with you. You could go a year without speaking to Q and then all of a sudden, you know, your phone rings. And it's like, oh, that's Quentin. Hey, man, what's going on? Yeah. Hey, what's going on? Yeah.

And so, you know, whether, yeah, I think I'm still looking at life. I think I'm still in his life, for sure. And I think every person that hasn't spoken to him and a year are still in his life. This is a people, people move in this business, right? Sure. The time between conversations and quality evenings and our business, time is measured in a very different way. Right. And some of my best friends that I talk to all the time, I won't see them for, and I haven't seen them.

for and I haven't seen them for eight months and I won't see them probably for a year. But the connection and the love is always there. Well, because those experiences are so concentrated, right? Like you're in that crazy circus for four to six months and

at times it feels like, oh, I'm never going to not speak to this person. And then like life happens and the circus moves to another town and it comes back around. That's right. And then it always comes back around. Yeah. I mean, I've gotten to a place in my life. I wonder if you feel this.

Who haven't you interviewed? I'm your last interview. This is it. This is the last episode of Happy Sanctuary. Everybody else. Walton. It's like, no, no, no. I'm not going to interview him.

Nope, I'm not going to interview him. Josh, there's no one else. There's no one else that you can't interview. All right. Fucking call Goggins, man. Here's someone that. Here's someone that I probably talk to for every single project of his career that I maintain is maybe the funniest man on the planet.

I think you might agree with me, Mr. Danny McBride. Let's give it up for Danny McBride. I mean, you've witnessed this firsthand. I was privileged in my own limited way. I went on the set. I told this story recently. I was on the set for this is the end. And that is a group of like amazing comedians.

And I will never forget this, watching this group together. And McBride was the guy. McRye was like so on another level. Like, you're like, how is this man able to be this funny? In that company. In that group. funny people. He's the man. Is there, I must feel like a new skill set has been unlocked for these recent collaborations

the last half a dozen years with Danny. Is that fair to say? I mean, a new skill set for me. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, God. I mean, I hope so. You know, I suppose, yeah, I suppose it was unlocked. I've been wanting to play in his sandbox for a very, very long time. And I've gotten to, once I kind of put my mind on something. thing, you know, whether we can manifest things in our life or not, I'll leave it up to the person watching this or you to decide that for yourself. I have been able to, in my life, somehow, however the stars aligned and the face has conspired, to put me in a room with the people that I really wanted to work with. The Danny was high, high on that list going back to

Footfist Way. And, and I, uh, eastbound, I, I went in and, and, I went in and, and, and, I went in and read for him one day. And it was me in five comics, and Sue Dacus got the role. But I had these braces on at the time. And I walked in, and I said, you know what's missing in your life? Danger.

Or something like some bullshit thing like that. But we just had a really great time. And I did think, God, you know, if I ever get the opportunity to work with him, I think something special could come from it. Maybe not for other people, but for me, you know. And that's exactly what happened. Did he open up something in me?

I'm sure, of course, whether it's conscious or unconscious. I think he would do that for anyone. I remember the first, when he sent me the scripts for vice principals, we were doing the hateful aid at the time. And I read them for the first time and to get the, to get the opportunity to read a Danny McBride script after he spouted down. You're like, oh, my God, I'm sitting on gold here. And we got on the phone, and it was an offer.

But I knew instinctually, I just need to read some of these lines for him, just so at least she was comfortable. You know, it's a lot to ask somebody to come in something written. And so, you know, I kind of did that and gauging his reaction. I thought, oh, okay, yeah, I'm kind of on to something. And it was these early conversations that we had where I think he really respected my opinion. And what I mean by that is I said, you know, these people are lonely. And they're deeply insecure, but they're just lonely people who want to be seen.

And all of these shenanigans are coming from a profoundly wounded place in both of them. and if we if we tell this story the way that you want to tell it what you've written then there's going to be a friendship that is going to be hard won and something that I think will land with people and Danny that's how he thought about it as well and that's exactly what happened man you know between on camera between Lee Russell

and Neil Gamby and between the two of us He's, I'm proud to say that I'm one of his best friends. He's a dear, dear friend of mine. Hit pause on whatever you're listening to and hit play on your next adventure. This fall get double points on every qualified stay. Life's the trip. Make the most of it at Best Western. Visit bestwestern.com for complete terms and conditions.

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you've been in part of so many cool projects i mean you've been part of products that have a lot of secrecy around them you would think that like marvel is probably the most secret project you've ever been a part of but i would guess white lotus has more secrecy around it maybe even than the mc u what a privilege to join this is like this is by the way the show to a man that every actor wants in on the last two or three years it's like mike white's writing exotic locale amazing company of actors sign me up so congratulations on that golden ticket of being part of the White Lotus. Thank you very, very much.

And not to mention full circle talking about Sam. You get to work with his partner, Leslie, who I'm sure you're tight with. She's like my sister. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So talk to me. Can you say anything?

Does your character have a nose in White Lotus? What can you say? What can you reveal? I actually play the ghoul and the White Lotus. It was like, you know what? No, typecasting. They're not going to kill one person. They're going to kill everyone.

That's the fucking reveal. The ghoul kills everyone in the White Lotus. No. Not my spoiler. Thanks, buddy. What can I say? You know, you say these things are so secretive. The way that they deliver these scripts these days for an analog person living in a digital world, it was a technopode, deeply insecure about erasing an irrelevant text, you know, I'm that

hypersensitive to it. I couldn't even open the scripts. I couldn't even get them. So eventually they had to get them to me a different way. And it blew my fucking mind, man. You know, I had expectations as one does when, if you get the opportunity to read a Mike White script. But I couldn't, I didn't see where it was going.

I didn't see how all the pieces in this puzzle were going to fit together. And when I fully understood the totality of what Mike was trying to say in this third season of this cultural juggernaut, I was overcome with emotion and laughed throughout it. And it's been yet again another experience of a lifetime. You talk about Leslie Bibb. She's my sister, Michelle Monaghan. I've known her for a while,

but I've gotten to really, really know her and her husband, and her kids and because my family was down there at the same time and I and I just adore her Parker Posey lives 15 minutes for me now in the Hudson Valley and you know over the last year we've become good friends as this crazy story that kind of I told the other day on the talk Patrick Schwarzenegger never met him but I met his dad on the day he was born and I didn't even know it until we were at dinner. And I told a story about his father who came in to buy cowboy boots for his kids on the day that his kid was born. Amazing. From me at this, where I was working at Thieves Market in Wilshire Boulevard down at Santa Monica. And I put two

and two together in that moment. Wait a minute. You were the baby. It's Patrick. It's you. You're the baby. Yeah, yeah. So that was pretty cool. Everybody's so good. Everyone's so good. You know the thing about my point? I don't know, I don't know, first and foremost, how he writes this all himself from this many points. So I have no idea how he pulls it off. In fact, I didn't even believe it. I thought, come on, man, you've got a small.

Where's the secret writer's room? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, you got like two people to hang out. Nope, it's just me. So he writes it, he directs it. But more importantly, whether the people that he hires become the, the. the people that they've asked him to play or whether they always were

the people that he was writing about. I don't know because everybody kind of is the person that they're playing in the show. And it's, I'm having such a good time, man. It tickles me to no one because like when I was like coming of age and like falling in love with movies,

like I think it was in college when I first saw the movie Chuck and Buck. And the fact that this guy who made such weird fucking movies these like esoteric strange art house movies is now like at the center of culture it's just it makes me so happy um we were talking a little bit about manifesting how can i what can i manifest for you today walton is there a filmmaker you've been circling is there a franchise you want want in on what can we secret out into the universe for you today buddy god yeah oh oh wow this is a lot of pressure right i know uh Can you fit into, can Walton Goggins, can Walton Goggins fit into anything?

Like, here's my question. So you've been in the MCU. I'm about your city's Ben's campaign. I'm just, I'm not. What is my endorsement deal? You can give me a Rolex, Chad? No, I'm thinking. No, I'm thinking, look, you, on MCU, do you want, like, can Walton Goggins find a place in Star Wars in a fast and Furious movie in the Mad Max universe. Where do you want to be as a fan? You know, I've already,

I don't, I don't dictate the flow of this river, you know, honestly. I feel like, and I genuinely mean that. I feel like the experiences that are laying out there for me in the next day, and the next week, in the next month, in the next year, in the next two or three years, whatever that is, they were meant to be. And they're going to, they're going to come my way. We all ebb and we all flow in life professionally and personally. We expand and we contract. And this is a season for expansion. And I feel the right situation will come along.

There is, I mean, I can, you know, name like a hundred filmmakers that I would love to work with in this moment. But I feel like that those stars will align if they're meant to be. Does that make sense? It does. And it makes sense for sound. And I'm not being obtuse. I'm not. No, no, no, no. I totally get it because you've been doing this a while. And this I feel like is the wisdom of somebody that's had like the ups and downs, particularly maybe in early in a career. And then now is like, you know, is the overnight sensation three different times at different points in his career. And now has kind of like the perspective on what a career can be. So yeah, it's like it's a fool's errand to say, I'm going to do this and that. Like I'm going to. Okay. For instance, right. If you just. said if you said this and i could say to talk about anything what if i had said i wonder if i could meet uh amortoles right the writer of gentleman from moscow love i love his writing so much so on instagram uh whatever a month ago or seven whatever it was a couple months ago i posted something on instagram and my wife said oh my god did you see your

Your comments, Amortals commented on your picture. And I said, get the fuck out of here. No, he didn't. And she said, no, he did. And it's really him. And I went on. And I do, I like to respond to people. You know, I post whenever I post, I don't post a lot, but I don't post, you know,

a very little either. And there he was. And it's Amort's holds. And I replied back to him. And I said, is this really you, man? I'm a huge fan. You said something nice. Thank you very, very much.

I'm a huge fan and, you know, read the Lincoln Highway this past summer. He just gave me to my son. And then it was him. And he said, you know, I said, could you send me your new book? Because I'm in Thailand. I can't get it. I need something to read. He said, yeah, I can do that.

So if you had asked me that and I said, if Amor Tolls would send me his book to Thailand, that would have been fucking crazy. Like, that never would have happened two months ago in my life. Yeah, you don't want to tempt fate. It happened. don't tempt fate. No, no, no, because if I did tell you, maybe it wouldn't come true. All right.

I know, I know we're at time. You have like two more minutes. I want to wrap up. We're at time? We're time? Are you serious? Two more things. Let me do the happy second piece of profoundly random questionnaire for the one and

only. Okay, but really quickly, Josh, okay, you could do that. But you and me, we've got to take a road trip, dude. This is this conversation is just flowing too easy. We wouldn't even bite over the radio. Walton, just so you know, I don't drive. So you're going to have to do all the driving. So that's going to be a fucking nightmare for you.

Even better. I'm a control freak, so I'll drive. Okay, go ahead. All right. What do you collect, Walton? Oh, what do I collect? Okay. May not be very popular, but I collect ashtrays. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And I've been, I travel all over the world and I fall my own for myself. And I spend time with other cultures and kind of far-flung places. And these beautiful, as they go through time from different places, I just collect them. and the history and the conversation is kind of around them. But I collect many times. I love antiques and I love objects, if you would, that have meant something to people over time.

And I have a lot of that in my home. This might be challenging for an admitted Luddite like yourself. But do you have a wallpaper on your phone? Have you figured out what the wallpaper can and should be on your phone? I turned my phone off because I didn't want. wanted to go off. And I do have a wallpaper on my phone. And I did figure that out. It's pretty simple the way that they've made it now. I had the same one on my phone for a decade. I didn't really think about changing it. But as my son has gotten older, I changed it. And it's a photo

of the two of us. Love it. The last actor you were mistaken for? honest actor with a face like this i mean Brad Pitt I don't know yeah of course brad George Clooney of course it is no no I've never been mistaken for anyone other than

I'm sorry who are you or hey you're that guy or hey Walton what's going on this is not a face that you can you can you can be mistaken for anyone else what's the worst note a director has ever given you faster see i've heard i've talked to some actors that don't mind that kind of like very like direct it's not about the content it's just like faster or slower but that's that's not not your speed i just i don't i don't think people in life

uh i mean i have no problem speaking fast but because the situation kind of calls for it but that note seems very lazy to me right no it seems like oh you just want, this is taking too long for you and you just want not paste up. Paste up is different. Like I think I think the conversation, okay this is the better version of that. I think this

conversation is made exponentially better by people speaking over each other or right to each other. Not faster. To me that's like, who the fuck are you talking to? Are we just trying to hit a run time license? Order some fucking food, dude,

from McDonald's. you know i'm not that guy in the spirit of happy second fuse who's an actor that always makes you happy you see them on screen oh god um sam rockwell hey man

yeah yeah hey man Sam always makes me happy a movie that makes you sad oh I love being sad I'm a guy who enjoys that emotion very very much and music, but a movie that makes me sad. I'm going to go back to places in art, Robert Benton.

Yeah. Yeah. And a food that makes you confused. A food that makes me confused. You don't get it. What's up with that? Why do people like that? Yes, exactly.

Why do people not like that? Oh, man, I don't even know that this is a part of the segment here. I would have kind of thought about this beforehand. a food that makes me oh god I don't know the answer to this question like I can't oh yeah okay dragon fruit

because I'm eating it in Thailand I'm sorry what the fuck is up with that fruit man and I have no problem with fruit I love fruit of all shapes and sizes I'll eat anything I will eat anything Is it the look the taste No it's fucking all of it

like it's the it's the it's the it's you know it's beautiful actually it's extremely exotic it's really pretty but and it looks appealing kind of from the outside and it's white with the little black seeds in it and then you taste it and you're like who decided this was a good idea this is this is bullshit really this is bullshit nothing against no no the fruit that served in any country but you know you might not like an avocado I would say the fuck are you from but dragon fruit is uh yeah i don't i don't get it i don't get anything about it i look forward to your 45 minutes stand-up set on what's up with dragon fruit what is what is going what are people with um the laugh factory yeah there you go come and hoggins dragon fruit walden goggins uh consummate

actor he kills it in fall as he always does dragon fruit hater future mercedes ben's um dealer seller um endorse her bring it on folks he can do anything um thank you so much for doing this today man as you can tell i'm such a fan and hopefully we'll we'll catch up in person one of these days thank you so so much for having me buddy it was a pleasure to be here josh and so ends another edition of happy sad confused remember to review rate and subscribe to this show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts i'm a big podcast person i'm daisy ridley and i definitely wasn't pressure to do this by josh Hey Michael

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