Walton Goggins breaks down his most iconic roles from films and television, including 'Vice Principals,' 'Fallout,' 'The Shield,' 'Justified,' 'The Righteous Gemstones,' 'Django Unchained,' 'The Hateful Eight' and 'I'm a Virgo.'Fallout and I'm A Virgo are available to stream exclusively on Prime Video.Director: Robby MillerDirector of Photography: AJ YoungEditor: Jason MaliziaGuest: Walton GogginsProducer: Sam DennisLine Producer: Jen SantosProduction Manager: James PipitoneProduction Coordinator: Elizabeth HymesTalent Booker: Mica MedoffCamera Operator: Shay Eberle-GunstSound Mixer: Kari BarberProduction Assistant: Fernando BarajasPost Production Supervisor: Rachael KnightPost Production Coordinator: Ian BryantSupervising Editor: Rob LombardiAssistant Editor: Justin Symonds
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00I look back at some of the things that you've mentioned,
00:02comedies or dramas or movies or TV shows
00:06or big parts or small parts.
00:08It's the sum total of all of them that led to this moment.
00:12I am grateful to be known for all of it and none of it.
00:18Really.
00:18♪♪
00:23Vice Principles.
00:26You don't want to tussle with Lee Russell
00:28because I have the muscle.
00:31Busted, I'm busted by Lee Russell.
00:34I'm busted, busted by Lee Russell.
00:38I have been a fan of Danny McBride's
00:42going back to the foot fist way.
00:44He is the funniest person that I have ever met.
00:46But I think on camera, he is one of the funniest people
00:51that has been photographed in the last 50 years, man.
00:56The man is a genius.
00:58For which it stands, one nation, under God,
01:02indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
01:06I had an opportunity to read for him
01:07on Eastbound and Down.
01:10It didn't work out, but they called afterwards
01:12and they said, it was just a little too dangerous.
01:14You're too dangerous for what we were looking for.
01:16But we're titillated, you know,
01:20and we want to keep this conversation open.
01:21Cut to three years later,
01:23he was there in New Orleans when I was doing Django,
01:26and he sent me this script for Vice Principals.
01:29I read it and I thought, oh, this is dangerous.
01:32This is really, really dangerous.
01:34I read Lee Russell for the first time
01:36and thought, I understand this guy.
01:40I don't make these decisions.
01:41I don't believe in playing characters.
01:44I don't believe in making choices.
01:46These people just, they jump off the page.
01:50We're not partners.
01:51Fuck this partnership.
01:53I'm going to get me a new partner.
01:54Someone who will actually help me get things done.
01:58Someone who's not a fucking little pussy.
02:00A fucking little pussy.
02:01A hairy mustache pussy.
02:03That's what you think I am?
02:04These are two very, very insecure,
02:07very lonely people that are looking to be seen.
02:14You know, they just want to be seen
02:16and loved for who they are.
02:17Regardless of how funny this is,
02:19there's an underlying pain to their journey
02:23that is a part of this process.
02:26And if at the end of this, they have each other,
02:28well, what more could they want?
02:32We've got this bitch exactly where we want her.
02:35One push and she falls into the Grand Canyon.
02:38If she can fit.
02:39If she can fit, if she can fit.
02:42She's so big that there's no way she can probably fit.
02:44I got it.
02:45Yeah.
02:46I think Lee Russell and Neil Gamby
02:49is one of the great love stories
02:51I've seen in the last decade.
02:54I really do.
02:55And we had such a great time filming it.
02:58So much so that at the end of that,
03:00I knew that Danny was going to be a friend
03:03for the rest of my life.
03:04And someone, if given the invitation,
03:07that I would collaborate with forever.
03:11Fallout.
03:12["Fallout"]
03:19You wouldn't happen to be a doctor, would you?
03:22Because I happen to be looking for one.
03:24You know your kind ain't welcome here.
03:27Well, maybe not.
03:30But I'm going to make myself welcome.
03:32If I'm being honest, I'm not a gamer.
03:34As I've done with even Tomb Raider
03:37or several of the other movies
03:39that I've done over the years.
03:40My job isn't to protect the player's experience.
03:44My job is to interpret these words
03:49and understand who this person is
03:53and make them as real as possible.
03:56I didn't know anything about the game.
03:58There were so many people
04:01that knew everything about the game
04:03that made that experience tactile
04:07in a way that made everything
04:10that was happening around you,
04:11the environment of all of these different spaces,
04:13it made it feel like,
04:16okay, for the player of the game
04:19who's now watching this show,
04:20you are inserted into an authentic representation
04:24of the world, right?
04:27Number one.
04:28I didn't have to think about that.
04:30And as far as the story goes,
04:33and Jonathan Nolan's approach to it
04:36in Geneva and Graham Wagner,
04:38who's also a very big fan of the game,
04:42tried not to be influenced
04:44or to be swayed by including things in the game
04:49that would get in the way of a truly authentic story
04:53in the canon of the Fallout universe.
04:56And a weapon in their arsenal was me, was the ghoul.
05:00I wasn't concerned about the player's experience at all.
05:04I'm concerned about the person that I'm playing
05:06and making it as three-dimensional and real as possible.
05:10And if you do that and you come from your heart
05:12and if you believe it and the audience believes it
05:14and everybody else is taking care of the feel,
05:17the vibe of the Fallout universe,
05:19well, then they'll go on that journey with you.
05:21And luckily for me, for all of us
05:25that participated in the making of this show,
05:27that's been the experience.
05:28["Fail Fuerte y Fumar"]
05:37There's an old Mexican eulogy.
05:40Fail fuerte y fumar.
05:42When I read these scripts for Fallout for the first time,
05:45what I realized pretty early on
05:47is that this is an extraordinary opportunity
05:50to play the same person
05:52at two very different times in their life.
05:55One, Cooper Howard,
05:58the equivalent of a retro-futuristic kind of 50s
06:01Pax Americana world.
06:03He is a Western movie star in this time
06:07and with a beautiful wife and a beautiful daughter
06:12and a family and a world that he loves.
06:19I needed to understand everything in that world
06:21as Cooper Howard to understand 219 years
06:26after the bombs fell and everything that he had lost
06:31and everything that he had seen over those 219 years.
06:34I mean, this is a man who has been walking
06:38a post-apocalyptic wasteland for 219 years
06:41and seen the absolute worst
06:46that human beings have to offer.
06:48He is cynical and beyond indignant.
06:55He is just walking and walking
07:00and trying to stay alive long enough
07:02to find out answers to questions
07:06that only he knew until we get to the end of the story
07:12and you realize it was for his family.
07:15And so it was an incredible opportunity.
07:18It was a unique opportunity to play these two people
07:24that are so similar and have them speak to each other
07:27over time, but at two very, very different points
07:31in their life.
07:32It was the extreme version of the lives
07:35that most people live.
07:39We're all very different at 19 than we are at 52
07:42or at 62 or at 72 or at 82.
07:46And his was just interrupted by the ending of the world.
07:53The Shield.
07:57Lim, I'm sorry, but I had to, right?
08:04But you know I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, man.
08:08Buddy.
08:13No one knew what it was going to become.
08:15It was just a great pilot.
08:18No one knew if it would get picked up or anything else.
08:20Michael Chiklis and Kenny Johnson and I
08:23became very, very close very, very quickly.
08:26And I'll never forget the first day of filming
08:29downtown Los Angeles.
08:30I'm a serious guy.
08:32I like to think I'm a funny guy too,
08:34but I'm a pretty earnest, serious guy
08:36and I take what we do for a living very seriously.
08:39But we were messing around downtown LA
08:43and we had our badges on and we were just bonding
08:45like that first day of work.
08:47And the badge was out and this police officer
08:51who was security on the set came up to us.
08:55He said, what the fuck are you doing?
08:59I said, I'm sorry, what do you mean what are you doing?
09:01You see that badge?
09:02It's not a joke.
09:03There's a hit out on a police officer right now.
09:05Take that fucking thing off and put it in your pocket
09:08until they call action.
09:10And it was in that moment that I realized
09:12this is for real, you know.
09:16That's the culture of this show.
09:21It's the tenor of this city.
09:22And that's how we're gonna approach this.
09:27Lock and load, baby.
09:30This is not gonna be any beauty pageant, ladies.
09:32He's got steel-enforced doors,
09:33which means we gotta go through a window
09:35and we gotta be fast before he starts flushing.
09:37Knock, knock, who's there?
09:38Strike team, Mr. Drug Dealer.
09:41It was all said and done.
09:42We all became very, very close and that was it.
09:45We waited.
09:48Two months later, 9-11 happened.
09:49America changed, the world changed.
09:52And we're sitting on this powder keg
09:56of a visual experience that vilifies police officers
10:01at a time where police officers were running up those stairs
10:05to save people at 9-11.
10:07It was sacrilegious to even contemplate
10:11telling a story like this.
10:14And the decision had to be made sometime in December,
10:18I think, by the higher-ups at FX.
10:22And they decided that, yes, this is the time.
10:27You made that decision on your own?
10:29He wouldn't go to Mexico.
10:31I told him about the goat farm, about the way out.
10:35About the money that we were gonna send him.
10:38He said that if he wouldn't take the ride to Mexico,
10:40that we would know that he turned.
10:41He didn't turn!
10:42Well, I know that now!
10:43I did 84 episodes of The Shield.
10:47That had never been done before, right?
10:50No actor had ever had the opportunity
10:53to play a linear story
10:57and over that extended period of time
11:00and explore every facet of a person's
11:04psychological condition
11:06and have that psychological condition evolve over time.
11:09No one had ever done that.
11:11And we were kind of the test pilots in that way.
11:14And I'm very proud of and very grateful
11:18for that opportunity.
11:19So no one knew.
11:20I didn't know that it was going to go that long.
11:22I didn't know that it was going to become
11:24that nuanced and that complicated.
11:26Not only did I not get bored by that experience,
11:31it was riveting daily
11:35and remained that way up until the last cut
11:39that we heard on the series finale.
11:41An opportunity that I have never taken for granted.
11:44No one took it for granted.
11:46And everybody understood how special this opportunity was.
11:51I was just lucky enough to get to do it again.
11:57Justified.
12:00You gonna shoot to stop me?
12:02Maybe.
12:03I'm pretty sure you're empty.
12:06You gonna bet your life on that?
12:08No, Rylan, I'm gonna bet my life
12:10on you being the only friend I have left in this world.
12:13When I was offered the role of Boyd Crowder in Justified,
12:18it was just to be in the pilot episode, right?
12:21I read it.
12:23It's extremely well-written.
12:25It's Elmore Leonard as a source material.
12:27You can't really go wrong with anything
12:30that Elmore Leonard has written.
12:31And Graham Yost and Michael Denner and Tim Olyphant,
12:36they all did such a great job
12:37of putting his words on the page.
12:40I turned it down twice because of a speech
12:45that Boyd Crowder made in the middle of the show.
12:50And just a feeling that they're just selling
12:55Southern culture down the river.
12:57This is just a one-dimensional interpretation
13:01or perpetuating a stereotype, if you will,
13:05of a Southern character that I no longer needed to play.
13:10And I don't believe in that.
13:12I've never believed in that.
13:13The South is way more complicated
13:16than it has been depicted in movies and TV.
13:21And I didn't wanna participate
13:24in selling out my culture anymore.
13:28The most interesting people I've ever met in my life
13:30are from the South.
13:32And the funniest people I've ever met in my life
13:34are from the South.
13:35And after the second,
13:38thank you so much for the opportunity,
13:40but no, I can't play this, I'm sorry.
13:44Tim Olyphant gave me a call.
13:46And he said, listen, I think it could be special.
13:49You know, and I think that we could be special together.
13:51What do you need in order for it to be a yes?
13:56And I think I talked to him and Graham
13:58and I said, two things.
14:00I need for Boyd Crowder
14:02to be the smartest person in the room.
14:04That's the only way that I would play him.
14:06And I need whenever he's going on this racial rant,
14:11I need you to say to me
14:14that I know you don't believe half the shit
14:16that's coming out of your mouth,
14:19that it's performative.
14:21See, I'm giving you the benefit.
14:23You weren't mental.
14:25No, you're not stupid enough
14:26to believe that mud people story.
14:28Well, you think you know me?
14:31Well, I know you, Deputy Marshall Allen Gibbons.
14:33The chemistry between Tim and I was just palpable,
14:38you know, from the first day that we worked together.
14:40And I just fell in love with the guy,
14:42to be quite honest with you.
14:44I loved the creators and what they were doing,
14:45but that was it, just walked away from it.
14:49And John Landgraf and the people at FX,
14:51obviously I'm like family to them
14:54and they're my family because of the shield.
14:56They came back and after testing the show
15:00and the audience said,
15:01oh, that guy, you can't kill that guy.
15:03See, we gotta have that guy around.
15:06And so they came back and offered me the opportunity to stay.
15:12And to be quite honest with you, much like the audience,
15:15I just wanted to see where this relationship could go.
15:19And so I decided to stay.
15:21There is one thing I wonder back to you.
15:27We dug coal together.
15:33That's right.
15:35I'm 52 years old, right?
15:36I've been around for a while.
15:38And I have met many different people
15:43over the course of the life that I have chosen to live,
15:46that I've been given an opportunity to live.
15:49And even now meeting new people and my new milieu
15:54is so special.
15:56I have more in common with them
15:58than I do with the people that I grew up with in Georgia,
16:01certainly now.
16:03But the one thing that I will never have with them
16:06that I have with the people that I grew up with
16:08is history and struggle and experience, time.
16:14Time is something you can't get back.
16:16The stars align and you are with the group of people
16:20that you're with in the early years of your life.
16:23And if you are lucky enough to hold on to those friendships
16:26and they evolve over time,
16:29nothing and no one can replace that, nothing.
16:33And the same thing applied for me
16:37in the telling of the story, Justify.
16:40And it's something that we all talked about ad nauseum
16:42was that regardless of how different they are,
16:46regardless of how similar they are,
16:48regardless of their life choices,
16:51they dug coal together and they struggled together
16:54and they had that history together.
16:56So that was present in every conversation
17:02between Tim and I.
17:04It was antagonistic in each other's company
17:08but the antagonism had an underlying love to it
17:12and a respect and an appreciation.
17:13I like to think that Rylan Gibbons is an asshole
17:19but he's my asshole, you know.
17:25The Righteous Gemstones.
17:27This place that used to be a Sears,
17:30a place you could buy slacks,
17:33awesome power tools for all you men out there
17:35but now you can buy Jesus, amen.
17:37You can buy Jesus, amen.
17:39Amen.
17:41But you can't put him on layaway.
17:45This part wasn't written, you know.
17:48And what I mean by that is Danny,
17:50in a conversation we were having
17:52at the end of the vice principal's press tour,
17:56he said, I'm working on something.
17:58I got something in my head.
17:59I think I know what I wanna do next
18:01and I want you to be in it.
18:04And I want you to play a 67-year-old man.
18:10And I said, of course you do.
18:19Uncle Baby Billy, we see you.
18:21Ain't nobody here named Baby Old Billy.
18:24Dude, we see half your body right now.
18:28We talk all the time.
18:30So he went off and he wrote it
18:32and he kind of came back with this idea.
18:37And we said, okay, well let's do like a proof of concept
18:40and let's see kind of what this is.
18:42And there were scenes kind of written
18:44but they were just kind of a general outline
18:47of who this person was.
18:49And I flew down to Charleston and we made him up.
18:54We came up with, okay, this is Baby Billy
18:56and they pulled out this wig
18:57and we just put it on, this turtleneck and this suit
19:03and I just kind of walked out and Danny filmed it.
19:06And I just started doing this monologue
19:08and it's like this and that.
19:10Oh, how does he, oh, oh wow.
19:12I didn't know he had a limp.
19:14Where did that come from?
19:15I didn't know any of these things.
19:16And that was enough to convince us both
19:19that yeah, Uncle Baby Billy, he needs to live
19:22and there's a place for him in this world.
19:24And then Danny opened that up
19:26and kind of included him in that way.
19:29And the rest is history for the people
19:33that watch the show or like what we do.
19:34It's exactly family feuds.
19:36There ain't no family feud.
19:38This is Baby Billy's bobble bonkers.
19:40Bobble bonkers.
19:41Baby Billy's bobble bonkers.
19:43Baby Billy bobble bonkers.
19:44Baby Billy bobble bonkers.
19:45Bobble bonkers.
19:46Bobble bonkers.
19:47Baby Billy bobble bonkers.
19:48Yeah, roll that around your mouth.
19:50That's fun, ain't it?
19:50I don't believe in playing dramas or comedies.
19:53I see them the same.
19:55I mean, I think there's a different tonality
19:57to all of it, right?
19:58But any person that I've been given the opportunity to play
20:02has to be rooted in life.
20:06I have to exist in the world in my mind.
20:09I'm not playing an idea of someone, right?
20:12That would be antithetical to my belief system.
20:16So, even though the Righteous Gemstones
20:19and Vice Principles is very funny,
20:21when it lands, there are real consequences, right?
20:23Even though the shield is very serious,
20:26there are some really fucking funny moments in there.
20:30The same with Justified.
20:33So, I don't believe that I've transitioned at all.
20:35I believe that one has always informed the other.
20:38Sometimes, I guess, comedy, to use your word,
20:41is accentuated, right?
20:43And sometimes the drama is accentuated.
20:46But all of us, those two realities exist
20:50in every human being in the world.
20:53Whether you're around to hear someone tell a joke or not.
20:56Chances are, most people in life are funny
20:59at some point of the day, right?
21:02Depends on whether or not you want to photograph that.
21:04Jango Unchained.
21:09Like everyone that reads Quentin Tarantino's script,
21:11I was in awe of what this experience was
21:15and what it was saying.
21:16I couldn't, it blew my fucking mind.
21:19I called a friend of mine,
21:21a director by the name of Robert Rodriguez,
21:23who I had worked with and who I deeply respect and admire.
21:28I knew he was friends with Quentin.
21:31And I just texted him.
21:33And I said, Robert, I just read Jango Unchained.
21:37I know Quentin is your boy.
21:39Please, brother, I've never asked you for anything
21:42and I'm not the guy to ever ask anyone anything like this
21:45in my life, ever.
21:46I'm not that guy.
21:47I said, but would you please text Mr. Tarantino
21:52and just tell him, ask him if I could read
21:57or if I could just talk to him
22:00or just tell him that I read it and I just love it,
22:03if nothing else.
22:04He probably has no idea who the fuck I am,
22:07but would you please do that?
22:10And Robert, to his credit, said, I got you, Goggins.
22:13Not a problem.
22:14Five minutes later, he texted me back
22:17with a quote from Quentin who said,
22:22absolutely love Walton Goggins.
22:24Yeah, that would be great.
22:27And it blew my fucking mind.
22:29I started jumping up and down and screaming,
22:30oh my God, Quentin Tarantino knows my name.
22:32What, are you kidding me?
22:34Robert, are you fucking with me?
22:37But he wasn't.
22:38And then as fate would have it, we got a phone call,
22:41a dear friend of my wife who used to work for Quentin.
22:43And she said, Walton, I just finished reading
22:46Jango Unchained and you're perfect for this, man.
22:50Like you gotta, I gotta hook you up with Quentin.
22:53Like I'm gonna, we gotta have a dinner together with him.
22:57So we did have this dinner, five days later
23:00from a completely different source.
23:03And we met at her house and we had this incredible evening
23:09and this long kind of winding conversation
23:13about art and politics and obviously cinema
23:18and all the rest of it.
23:19At the end of this dinner with this friend,
23:22he said, you know the script?
23:24Pick one of these four or five roles,
23:28whatever speaks to you, and come in next week.
23:31I said, okay, great.
23:32And I read it again and again and again and again
23:35and again and again and again.
23:37And I came in with these five roles or four roles
23:40and it was like, oh yeah, really good to see you again,
23:44Walton, so good to see you too, Quentin
23:46and all the rest of it.
23:47And I did these four roles.
23:51And he said, that was fantastic, man.
23:53Is there one you kind of gravitate to more than other?
23:56I said, well, this is really interesting.
23:58You know, and he said, well, that one
23:58might not be available, but what about,
24:00and I said, oh, this is really interesting.
24:03And he said, okay, man, all right, this was a great time.
24:06He said, you know, thank you so much for coming in.
24:08And I said, but I'm not leaving.
24:12He said, what do you mean?
24:13I said, no, I'm gonna play all,
24:15I wanna play all of these roles.
24:17Like, I wanna read all of these roles.
24:18He said, what are you talking about?
24:19I said, I wanna read Leo's role.
24:21I wanna read Sam's role.
24:23I wanna read all of them
24:26because I don't care if I get this job.
24:27Like, that's irrelevant to me.
24:29The only thing that I care about
24:31is having the opportunity to say Quentin Tarantino's words
24:34in front of Quentin Tarantino.
24:36Getting the job is irrelevant to me.
24:38And he said, are you serious?
24:40And I said, yeah.
24:40And he said, yeah, let's fucking do it.
24:42And he sat there with me in that room
24:45for another 45 minutes, maybe an hour.
24:49And we just read through his script.
24:51And I read, like, Sam's role.
24:53And he read every other role as if he was filming it.
24:57And then I read Leo's role.
24:59And he read every other role as if we were filming it.
25:02And it was one of the greatest days of my life as an artist.
25:06And at the end of it, I mean, I think I hugged him
25:09and I just said, thank you.
25:10You know, that was a dream come true.
25:12And good luck with your movie.
25:14I can't wait to watch it, man.
25:18Couple of months go by, a month goes by,
25:20and I get a call that he wants me to come and play with him.
25:25And that was the beginning of, you know,
25:30two of the greatest experiences of my life.
25:32Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!
25:41The giant goat!
25:43I think anyone would be lying
25:45if they said they had any real influence
25:48in developing a character in a Tarantino movie.
25:51What I mean by that, let me qualify it.
25:54Quentin has said this,
25:55and I think it's one of the reason why he is who he is.
25:59And a number of the great directors I've worked with
26:04over the years have said the same thing.
26:06They hire an actor that will give them 90%
26:09of what they're looking for, without conditions.
26:12They just know whatever they bring to the table,
26:1590% of it they're gonna love.
26:18And the other 10% is just nudging them
26:20in certain directions.
26:22So you don't deviate from the words
26:26in a Quentin Tarantino script,
26:28the commas or the periods or the semicolons
26:32or anything else.
26:34It is word for word, the uh, the duh, the and,
26:38the it, all of it.
26:39It's perfection.
26:42It is like the best meal you've ever sat down to eat.
26:46You just don't wanna stop eating it.
26:50But that being said, you bring what you have to the table,
26:54and he looks and he sees it.
26:57And that's why he casts the people that he casts,
27:01because of Django and my time there
27:05with all of those amazing artists.
27:08All of those days and everything that kinda happened
27:13in those days.
27:13And it's even, there are things that happen
27:15that you don't know about that I still can't talk about.
27:18But it was a surreal experience,
27:21but that's what led to The Hateful Eight.
27:25The Hateful Eight.
27:28You got business in Red Rock?
27:29Yes, I do.
27:30What?
27:31I'm the new sheriff.
27:33Oh, shit.
27:34Pray not.
27:35Where's your star?
27:36I ain't the sheriff yet.
27:38Once I get there, they swear me in,
27:40but that ain't happened yet.
27:42And that's when you get your star.
27:43When Quentin reached out to me
27:46about this movie called The Hateful Eight,
27:49it wasn't to do the movie,
27:50because the movie wasn't going to be made at that point.
27:52It was to do a stage reading
27:55of the script that he had written.
27:57He was going to do the rehearsals
28:00in this space in Los Angeles.
28:04I was out in New Orleans working at the time,
28:08and he called and said,
28:09okay, I need you to get here on these days.
28:12There's this character I want you to read,
28:14but I need you to come in and read with everybody
28:20before we put this thing up.
28:22I know as well as anybody else
28:23that he didn't ask me to audition.
28:26He offered me the opportunity to come in and read.
28:29But any actor worth their weight in salt knows
28:31that when a director of that stature
28:33is asking you to read their words,
28:35with or without admitting it, it is an audition.
28:38And it's an audition for everybody in the room.
28:41Either you're going to get it
28:42if this movie ever gets made, or you're not.
28:46And I had been working all night the night before.
28:49I got on a plane.
28:50I flew into Los Angeles.
28:51I got there at 9.15 in the morning.
28:54I had to be in this room at 10 a.m., no matter what.
29:00And I made it, got the taxi, got there in time.
29:04I was running up the stairs, and it was so quick
29:07that I didn't let myself get fearful
29:10until right before I was about to knock on the door
29:13to go in.
29:15It wasn't some fancy space, man.
29:16I think it might have been on Santa Monica or something.
29:19And I ran up the steps, I ran up the steps,
29:21and then I was going to knock on the door, and I stopped.
29:24And then my heart started beating really quickly
29:28because I thought, on the other side of this door
29:30is Tim Roth, Kurt Russell, Sam Jackson,
29:35and Michael Madsen.
29:37These are my fucking heroes, man.
29:40These are my heroes.
29:41And I just, I started having a panic attack,
29:45and I just said, if you get really quiet,
29:47no, it's okay, just walk in there
29:50and come from your heart, man.
29:52I walked in, Quentin's like, hey, you know,
29:54hey, Walton, come on in, take a seat.
29:55You know, sit down, sit down.
29:57We've been reading a lot of other things
29:58because you weren't here, you know,
30:00so now we're going to start with you.
30:02How do you feel about that?
30:03You know, and I said, well, catching my breath.
30:06And Sam, who's one of my dearest friends now,
30:10he leaned over to me and he said, you got this shit?
30:13And then we started,
30:16and we just picked up with Chris Mannix scenes.
30:19And it was like I'd been saying those words my whole life.
30:23You know, that's how good Quentin's dialogue is.
30:27Oh boy, did my daddy talk about you.
30:32I heard you gave those blue bellies sweet hell.
30:36Before you know it, we did two days of rehearsals.
30:39This thing is just coming alive in the hearts and minds
30:43of everybody that's there to read.
30:45We did the reading downtown at the Ace Hotel,
30:48packed house and brought the house down, you know,
30:53the way that a Tarantino experience always does.
30:56And it was euphoric.
30:58And that was it.
30:59We all walked off stage and it was like,
31:01God, man, it was so lovely to meet you.
31:03What a great experience.
31:05What a high, unbelievable.
31:08And never thinking that we would get the opportunity
31:11to actually play these people.
31:13And then I suppose a couple of months later,
31:16however long it took Quentin to make his decision,
31:19he decided, you know what?
31:21It's worth telling the story.
31:23And so he did.
31:26And I got the invitation, the golden ticket yet again.
31:30You know, like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, really.
31:34And you know, you opened the bar and there it is.
31:37It's two golden tickets in one lifetime.
31:39Are you fucking kidding me?
31:41And then we set out and I had, again,
31:47one of the best experiences of my life.
31:49Abraham Lincoln, the president of the United States?
31:53Yes.
31:54Of America?
31:55Yes.
31:57Wrote you a letter personally.
32:00Yes.
32:01Personally as in dear Major Warren?
32:04No, personally as in dear Marquess.
32:06Dear Marquess, Abraham Lincoln,
32:08the president of the United States of America.
32:10It was eight people who went through that experience
32:14together with so much love and respect
32:17and admiration of the other.
32:19And daily, if it was one person in the scene,
32:22if it was two or if it was three,
32:25the rest of us, depending on who was up,
32:27you could be on camera,
32:30but the rest of us stayed there in the cold
32:34and watched every one of these masterclasses.
32:38Watched Quentin do his thing and Bob do his thing.
32:40His whole crew do his thing.
32:42And these actors do their thing.
32:45Everybody supported everyone.
32:49And it shows in the movie.
32:53So I guess it must be time for bed.
32:59Respectfully, Abraham Lincoln.
33:07Oh, Mary Todd, that's a nice touch.
33:12Yeah.
33:15Thanks.
33:18Am I the sheriff of Red Rock?
33:21You know,
33:24I asked Quentin that question.
33:26I said, that's for you to decide
33:28and I don't want to know your answer.
33:30And so I did decide and no one will ever know my answer.
33:36I'm a Virgo.
33:38So I did this show, I'm a Virgo, with Boots Riley.
33:43Like so many people, after Sorry to Bother You,
33:46I was blown away by that experience.
33:50And he reached out and he said,
33:53I have this thing that I'm working on,
33:54this character that I want you to play,
33:56this person I want you to play.
33:57And he is the owner of this comic book kind of empire,
34:03this kind of global media empire, if you will.
34:07And he eventually sent me the pages and I was reading it
34:11and I was like, oh my God, this is,
34:15people are going to lose their mind.
34:17A 13 foot black man walking the streets of Oakland
34:21and everything that this show is saying,
34:24it's so of its time and timeless simultaneously.
34:28And so we began talking about this person, Jay Whittle.
34:31I looked at it as him being a superhero
34:35going through a midlife crisis.
34:37I had a real specific idea of who this person was
34:41just because I'd been reading it for so long.
34:43When I showed up to go to work
34:48for the very first day to do a camera test, if you will,
34:51I walked into the makeup trailer
34:55and was getting some makeup applied
34:57and looked over at this like crazy long wig
35:00with a gray streak in it.
35:02And I thought, that's a fucking crazy wig.
35:06Like who's wearing that?
35:09And the woman said, what do you mean?
35:12I said, the wig, who's wearing that wig?
35:14And she said, boots didn't tell you?
35:17Tell me what?
35:18That's your wig.
35:20And I said, what?
35:22She said, yeah, he wants you to wear that wig.
35:24So I put the wig on, walked on stage,
35:27met Boots in person for the very first time,
35:30and without even saying hello, he just said,
35:33so what do you think about the wig?
35:35And I said, I don't know who this person is.
35:38I have no idea who this person is,
35:41but I'll wear it if you go on this journey with me
35:46and we find out tomorrow when I start work
35:49who this person is together.
35:51Because you can't control it,
35:53and I can't control it either.
35:55This wig is going to inform this entire experience.
35:59And he said, bet, let's do that.
36:03And then I showed up the next day
36:05and it was off to the races.
36:06And something about a superhero,
36:11something about a person with means
36:14going through an existential crisis
36:16who knows that the system that he is propping up is corrupt,
36:21that he is suffering under the weight of carrying the mantle
36:27or supporting a system that, in his heart,
36:31knows isn't sustainable and is unfair
36:35and fundamentally has to change.
36:38But like an alcoholic who, the closer he gets to sobriety,
36:44drinks more and more and more and more
36:45and more and more and more, the same with Jay Whittle.
36:49He can't change his universe, his way of thinking,
36:54because the world only makes sense
36:57if there is structure and law and order.
37:00And he is incapable of making the leap
37:03from this way of thinking, even though in his heart
37:06he knows it's wrong, to this way of thinking.
37:08And again, that's what Boots did for Jay Whittle
37:14and what he did for me and hopefully for people
37:16that watch the show, was fundamentally challenge
37:19the way that you think and give you an opportunity
37:22to evolve as a person and see some of these things
37:26for what they really are.