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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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[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 15 points 1 day ago

Fair. It's not like his character is in them.

[–] handsoffmydata@lemmy.zip 13 points 1 day ago

Walton Goggins apparently

[–] tgirlschierke@lemmy.blahaj.zone 52 points 2 days ago (3 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.

[–] CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yeah I mean, I assume he knows all the relevant details about the show from reading the scripts, and the show is probably designed so a viewer can get into it without knowing the games well, so there's really no need to know all the lore stuff from games that isn't in the show anyway.

Plus TBH the dude is a movie star, he's probably got movie star shit to do rather than putting a few hundred hours into a bunch of RPGs lol.

[–] MBech@feddit.dk 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think people have gotten some unrealistic expectations from Henry Cavill. For all I know, Walton Goggins has absolutely nothing to do with the writing, so why would he care much about the source material? I can respect him for just wanting to do his job, listening to how his boss wants him to do it.

It's the director and the writers people should expect to care about the source material, not the actors.

Actors are creative people too. Several of Harrison Ford's most iconic moments were ad libs. Famously, in Raiders of the Lost Ark he was supposed to have a whip vs sword fight during the Marian is kidnapped sequence. But he wasn't feeling well, so he pulled his pistol and shot the swordsman instead, and then they rebuilt the scene around that. Also, Han Solo's "I love you!" "I know." moment was Ford.

"The writer writes, the director directs, the actor acts" is how you get the sludge Hollywood makes today.

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[–] HazardousBanjo@lemmy.world 108 points 3 days ago (3 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 15 points 2 days ago (4 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.

[–] MirthfulAlembic@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago (2 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.

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[–] SGG@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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

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[–] CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 days ago

And also I assume it'd take probably a few hundred hours to go through every single game which like... I don't think anyone would expect him to do ~200 hours of research for his character in White Lotus, so I don't see why this should be any different really.

[–] kaidenshi@lemmy.world 115 points 3 days ago (27 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 111 points 3 days 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.

[–] jrbaconcheese@yall.theatl.social 87 points 3 days ago (3 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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[–] QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.works 23 points 2 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] VerilyFemme@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 2 days ago (4 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.

[–] Mnemnosyne@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

Yeah, people shouldn't be allowed to be involved with things that they don't care about enough to know all that came before. Whether it's a movie, a book, a game, a tv series, it should always be done by people who genuinely care and are fans of it.

The difference is like night and day when everyone cares. The Lord of the Rings is probably one of the best examples. The vast majority of people on that knew the source material well, and that let them work towards the same vision, each contributing in their own way. The things that were changed were never because nobody gave a shit. I don't agree with all of them, but I can't say they did them without consideration.

When everyone cares, that's when something amazing is made.

[–] QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 days ago (3 children)

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.

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[–] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 days ago

especially when the show or movie could wildly diverge from the source.

Which is very relevant in this case.

[–] BananaIsABerry@lemmy.zip 16 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Sure, but if everyone later complains that the show was too different from the source material, they'll look back to things like this.

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[–] araneae@beehaw.org 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

My mind's eye flashes to something like The Master and I'm bummed that's considered "gamey" by great actors. Not that I expect actors to go fucking play Fallout 1 with a Small Gun Crit/Speech build and go collect the Brotherhood's data and confront the Master in a battle of words... but if someone would like to show Goggins on their phone that kind of thing is in the games, that the games themselves strived very hard to make living, colorful worlds, I think it certainly wouldn't hurt the show. Hell if someone wants to show that scene to anyone currently at Bethesda I think it could positively impact the next game.

[–] VerilyFemme@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 2 days ago

Spot on. People in this thread are incorrectly assuming that we want him to play them for "the lore" and not so he can see the tone of some of the performances.

But I do respect the actor wanting to take notes only from the director, it's just I don't trust this particular show's direction.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 2 days ago

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

[–] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 39 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days 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!!!

[–] QuoVadisHomines@sh.itjust.works 14 points 2 days ago

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

[–] GammaGames@beehaw.org 74 points 3 days 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 31 points 3 days 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.

[–] Kaput@lemmy.world -2 points 1 day ago

in which I am an avatar in. I don't believe that I'm an avatar

He's not an avatar, he's an NPC. I cool one one, if not the coolest, but an NPC nonetheless. His costar is playable character.

[–] VerilyFemme@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

He'd be perfect for the writer's room

EDIT: Jokes aside, I respect his decision as an actor, but I also don't have faith in the direction they're giving him. Fans want him to play the games because they don't have faith, either, and they'd like someone on set pushing for something closer in tone to the West Coast games than the East Coast games. He's easily the best part of the show.

[–] Ilandar@lemmy.today 13 points 2 days ago (2 children)

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.

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[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 1 points 1 day ago (2 children)

the way he says it, it just comes off as ignorant and condescending.

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[–] Tikiporch@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago

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

[–] the_q@lemmy.zip 19 points 3 days ago (2 children)

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

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[–] halfsalesman@piefed.social 17 points 3 days ago (2 children)

If he is dedicated to the world and his character, that's sufficient. Hes a fantastic actor. buuuut...

I would suspect that him playing the games would not make him "think of the world or the characters of Fallout as elements of a game." but I'm not Walter Goggins. Realistically, hes just not into video games with major story campaigns and doesn't understand they're just a different form of story telling media. He's thinking of video games as exclusively as an avenue of competition, mastery, or challenge.

So I think hes wrong, but I don't know that it matters that materially.

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[–] SabinStargem@lemmy.today 2 points 2 days ago

I disagree with this approach. People are shaped by the world they live in, and so too would characters. Short of an isekai or total insanity, it doesn't make sense for someone to be disconnected from their reality.

It would be like playing an Earthling Star Trek character in Starfleet, while having no idea about Klingons, Vulcans, or Wolf 359.

[–] gustofwind@lemmy.world 12 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It’s not like his character has a special meta understanding of the fallout games or universe

He’s acting the character like he’s a professional actor because he is and a good one too

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