On the eve of shooting, most actors like to prepare for their roles by going over the script and their research and making sure that they’re internally ready to delve into the character.
Walton Goggins goes through the same process. But during my recent discussion with the beloved actor, and all round American national treasure, Goggins admitted that in order to play “Tomb Raider” villain Mathias Vogel he required one more step.
Getting drunk in a tent by himself in South Africa.
“Working in South Africa, and the mystical qualities of that place was just so special. I actually made one request when I got there, after we had talked a lot about the script.”
“I wanted to spend one night alone in Vogel’s tent with a bottle of whisky and watch the sun go down, and let the place wash over me.”
“It was an imaginary exercise that allowed me to get into the character and the setting, and access what that meant to my story and what that means to the whole human race. It was profound. It really was. I felt isolated in the best way.”
Goggins is clearly very happy with his life at the moment, because later on in our discussion the 46-year-old talked about just how surprised he was to be offered such a prominent role in a huge blockbuster movie, and how he is just trying to do the best that he can every day.
“At this point in my career, and in my life, I can just exhale and find stuff that really matters to me and where I know that I can be of service to a director. To be able to do this on a bigger scale in tent pole movies has been really cool. I didn’t know that was going to happen.”
“With this film, as with all the good roads that we go down in our lives, as well as the bad ones, the opportunities present themselves. I took a right when I could have taken a left, and you just walk that road until something tells you to take a different direction.”
Hear, hear!
You can see Walton Goggins working his magic in “Tomb Raider” opposite Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft when the action adventure film is released on March 16.
