Emmy nominee and 'The White Lotus' star Walton Goggins chats with THR at the 2025 Emmys red carpet and talks 'The White Lotus' cultural phenomenon and connecting to his character Rick.
00:00You know what? I'm pretty much a man of my word, you know, for the most part. Don't quote me on that.
00:05I also believe that because now I know that you're not only a man of your word, you're a punctual guy.
00:11Yes, I'm a very punctual person. You know, I do. I do. I like to get to the airport early. I like to wake up early.
00:16I mean, I have a routine. I just didn't know that I would be the only person here.
00:21But in some ways, you know, I was we were the only one we got nominated for an Academy Award, my partners.
00:29And we showed up, you know, out of respect. We were the very first people there.
00:33And it was only because we were the very first people there. Nobody had anybody to talk to but us.
00:37And they heard us speak for the first time. And then the next person said, oh, you come down here.
00:41Will you come down here? Will you come down here? And we wound up winning that night.
00:44Isn't that something? Yeah. Yeah. But that was the experience.
00:49It pays to be number one on the carpet is what I'm saying.
00:53What has been the most surprising thing to you about this phenomenon of being on White Lotus?
00:57I mean, listen, you you've been doing this a minute and had some really iconic roles.
01:00What's been the biggest surprise, though, just about this how this show captures a cultural zeitgeist?
01:06You know, I mean, I think you're right. I mean, it's just you know that it's a cultural juggernaut.
01:11And and then you go through the eye of that needle.
01:13And on the other side of it, you realize in real time just how culturally relevant it is because of the conversations that you have with countless people all over the world.
01:24And I think it comes down to one thing, to be quite honest with you.
01:26I think that the characters that come forth from the imagination of Mike White, you start off just as a voyeuristic experience.
01:36At least this was my experience in season three. You can hate them.
01:40You can laugh at them. And then all of a sudden something is going to happen and you're going to see yourself in them or at least one person.
01:48And there's that moment where they touch you and maybe they change you.
01:53That was my experience with Rick Hatchett reading it for the first time.
01:57It's like, OK, oh, this guy is really messed up.
02:00This guy is really sad.
02:01And, oh, my God, I I am him.
02:04I think we're all him.
02:06You know, we've all had trauma and we've all been in an arrested state of development.
02:11And so when I think that that really touches people, they don't see themselves in every single person on every single show.
02:18They don't have the opportunity to.
02:20Are you seeing yourself now after this experience?
02:23I mean, you've you've just done such incredible work these past couple of years, nominated for Fallout, get this baby Billy, one of my favorite TV characters of the past 20 of all time.
02:34And you're really embracing this fame.
02:36I mean, magazine covers, posing in your speedo, do it, you know, like leaning into it.
02:41So how do you see yourself coming out of this?
02:43Well, you know, I take everything seriously, not so seriously.
02:47And what I mean by that is that I've never not leaned into anything in my life, like a line in a movie.
02:55I'm going to fucking lean in, you know, like showing up here to talk to all of these people.
03:01I didn't anticipate being here first, but I'm going to lean in and I spend my life that way.
03:08So when this opportunity came along in this way, I don't know how to do anything differently.
03:13And Pedro's had such a great time with it.
03:16And Coleman's having a great time with it.
03:18And I'm having a great time with it, man.
03:22Like this.
03:22You know what?
03:23I'll say this in closing.
03:25For me, it isn't about a job.
03:28It is about this evening.
03:29It is about the sum total of the experience of this life that I try to live on a daily basis.
03:38And it's ongoing.
03:40And where it goes from here, you'd ever know.
03:46It also happens.
03:50It's about the same goes from here.
03:55And you can see this – each other, you can see it's over to this one.
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