Why Cooper Howard/The Ghoul From Prime Video's Fallout TV Series Looks So Familiar

The world is a dangerous, barren wasteland in Amazon's new series, "Fallout," and the video game-inspired show will introduce us to a wild band of characters who are all trying to live their lives after the world has gone to heck. In addition to recently surfaced Vault-dweller Lucy (Ella Purnell) and soldier-in-the-making Maximus (Aaron Moten), a character almost guaranteed to steal the show is Cooper Howard, who now goes by the name of the Ghoul. While he may be virtually unrecognizable under the grotesque combination of makeup and CG effects, actor Walton Goggins brings the gunslinger to life in the anticipated adaptation.

Having seen how the world has descended into madness for the last two centuries, the Ghoul is a gun for hire with a history that predates when the bombs were dropped and whose entire presentation reveals something that he's still clinging onto. It's a character that comes with a similar emotional heft to his previous work and demands the signature Goggins charm that he's brought to everything from a Tarantino Western to a joke-riddled show about televangelists. But it was starring alongside Michael Chiklis in a corrupt cop drama where Goggins first truly made a name for himself.

Throwing his weight and a badge around for seven seasons on "The Shield," Walton Goggins plays police detective Shane Vendrell, a primary member of the immensely corrupt Strike Team led by Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis). Surprisingly, extra effort had to be exerted to keep the actor in the role when the studio failed to see the promise he'd inevitably make for the entire show. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Goggins revealed how he had a very close call with being booted off the series, requiring the show's creator, Shawn Ryan, to fight for him to remain as Shane, a role that ultimately set the actor's career on an incredible trajectory.

"Little did I know, after that pilot, the executives wanted to fire me. Shawn didn't tell me until the end of Season 1 during a DVD commentary recording, and I said, 'How?! I had two lines!'" Goggins recalled. "[Ryan] said to them, 'I know what this guy's capable of, let me prove it,' and he focused the second episode on Shane. I'm glad he didn't tell me because I may have f*****d that up." In the end, Goggins' corrupt but charming character gave us a taste of another performance that would soon follow and become just as beloved as a result.

After Shawn Ryan fought to keep him on "The Shield," Walton Goggins took on a role that was entirely on the wrong side of the law in "Justified" and played the character far longer than was originally intended. Opposite Timothy Olyphant's iconic lawman Raylan Givens, Goggins' performance as Boyd Crowder was so powerful that it extended the role's planned one-off appearance in the pilot episode to the point where the character became the primary thorn that Raylan was unable to get out of his side for six seasons. As if that wasn't enough, the show's sequel series, "Justified: City Primeval," ended on the perfect cliffhanger that shows Crowder breaking out from prison.

The star kept his "Primeval" appearance a secret, shooting the scenes between his time working on "Fallout." Speaking with The Daily Beast about the Boyd-shaped bombshell that exploded at the show's end, Goggins acknowledged that he wants to spend more time back as his iconic villain. "I think everyone wants to do it, and we hope we get the opportunity to do it," he expressed. "It's a matter of it making sense for FX, and I know in their hearts they want to do it, and it's also about timing. Hopefully, that will happen."

Amidst the absolute carnage that was Kurt Sutter's Shakespearian biker gang saga, "Sons of Anarchy," Walton Goggins took on a standout guest role as transgender prostitute Venus Van Dam. An ally to Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam) and the rest of the SAMCRO crew, Goggins gave it his all for the role while addressing the importance of what kind of message he and Sutter sent the audience. Speaking to TV Guide about how critical it was to him to play Venus respectfully, Goggins said, "She was so three-dimensional. We both agreed, let's speak to this community, let's honor this community with this three-dimensional, incredibly charismatic woman and what she would mean in this world."

Representation has progressed a great deal in film and television in the years since Goggins portrayed Venus, with transgender characters now being played almost exclusively by transgender actors. And while it can be argued that the role should have gone to someone whose life more closely mirrors the character's experiences, Goggins did his best to imbue Venus with real humanity. "When you stop labeling people and you just see them as a person in the world without religion, without politics, without gender, but just as a person struggling in the world, then I think universally, we can all have empathy for them," he said of how he approached playing Venus. "And maybe that's what happened. I'd like to think so."

When ranking every Quentin Tarantino film from worst to best, "The Hateful Eight" may show up lower on the list than some might expect. Even so, it put Walton Goggins in a room with some of the best actors Hollywood has to offer. As Sheriff Chris Mannix, Goggins is one of the last characters left standing among a cast that includes Christoph Waltz, Kurt Russell, Samuel L. Jackson, and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Like any actor wanting to leave a mark on their career, Goggins eagerly took the call from Tarantino and was happy to discuss what it was like to be able to put his name on a project from such a respected director.

Speaking with Vulture about the film, Goggins said, "It's just sitting down at one the best restaurants in the world and then masticating to the point of sickness because you can't get enough of the food. It's like that with [Tarantino's] words." The star described the role as a refreshing jolt to his career, saying, "When you've been in the desert for a very long time, and you come across an oasis like Quentin Tarantino and his words, you just want to drink it, man. It just tastes that sweet." Playing like a swear-laden stage play, "The Hateful Eight" might be a divisive entry for Tarantino fans, but Goggins' performance in the film simply can't be ignored.

Walton Goggins massively-coiffed Baby Billy Freeman is a shining star in Danny McBride's glistening God-fearing comedy, "The Righteous Gemstones." Debuting in Season 1, Episode 3, "They Are Weak, But He Is Strong," this role marks Goggins' second comedic collaboration with McBride, following their work together on another HBO project, "Vice Principals." The actor has dipped in and out of the evangelist-skewering show's three-season run as an equally comedic and tragic former child star who fights tooth and nail to hold onto his fame.

In an interview with GQ, Goggins broke down the necessary elements to bring the host of "Baby Billy's Bible Bonkers" to life. "I looked at Baby Billy as a person who had just never had the opportunity to reach his full potential, and therefore, he's deeply insecure about his place in the world," Goggins said of "The Righteous Gemstones'" scene-stealing religious scam artist character. "So he has a lot of bravado. I didn't really think about him as a preacher, I didn't think about him as anything other than a man who is supremely flawed. And once you turn yourself over to an imaginary set of circumstances, and you put on a wig and makeup that makes you look 72 years old, it's pretty easy to kind of slip into him."