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Talkin' With Walton Goggins, a.k.a. 'The Shield's Shane Vendrell

It's finally here. After waiting for months to find out how Strike Team member Shane Vendrell will deal with the fallout of his season five finale murder of fellow Strike Team-er Lem, season six of "The Shield" premieres Tuesday night (10 p.m. ET) on FX, and as actor Walton Goggins previews, the complicated Mr. Vendrell is already knee deep in some serious guilt over killing the beloved Lem. And that's not all … Strike Team leader Vic (Michael Chiklis) is hot on the trail of the guy who killed his friend (remember, no one, yet, knows Shane did the deed), so Shane's got even bigger issues than guilt to deal with. I've seen the first six episodes, and let's just say there should be Emmy nominations all around, from Goggins and Chiklis, to the show's top-notch writing staff …

MSN TV BLOG: Hi Walton! Thanks so much for taking the time to talk with me today.
WALTON GOGGINS: No problem! How are you?

MSN: I'm great. I just finished watching the first few episodes of the new season. Um, wow!
WG: Yeah, right?

MSN: Yeah, I think wow is the best way to put it.
WG: It's really an emotional trainwreck, isn't it?

MSN: How would you sum up all the emotions Shane is going through right now?
WG: I think self-hatred, self-loathing, an intense amount of grief and guilt, and anger. Just out and out anger. It's acute sadness, really, isn't it?

MSN: Do you think Shane was put in an unfair position? Like Shane was sort of forced to take care of the situation as it evolved, and obviously, he wasn't solely responsible for being in that position.
WG: Yeah, I do. The measuring stick for Vic Mackey is so often not used on Shane, and they measure him by a different standard, when (Shane and Vic) have done the same thing. I mean, the original sin of the show started with the killing of Terry, the killing of a police officer. (Shane) was complicit in that, wasn't able to compartmentalize it the way that Vic was, and it reverberated, and has continued to reverberate, throughout Shane's life on the show. And now he's put in a very similar situation. And it's miscommunication! It's kind of a confederacy of miscommunication that leads to this violent act, and I don't even know if Shane was connected to the outcome of doing it. I think he could kind of see it from a distance, but he was there, and he was in it, and it's his best friend. So he did it for his family, he did it selfishly, he did it for the team, but again, I just think there was a disconnect for him, between what he did and what happened. But given what happened, he's (seen as) a bad guy, and Vic is a good guy, and I think that's unfair. Hopefully, through the course of this season, Shane will redeem himself. Because you can't … look, Lem was one of the most beloved characters on the show. And he was the moral center of the show, kinda of the moral conscience of the Strike Team. He was definitely the moral compass in a lot of ways, and for him to go was really hard. And, it's a show, but on a personal level, it was really hard to see (Kenny Johnson, who played Lem) go, too, so the whole thing just brought about all these different emotions and double meanings. You know, Lem leaving the Strike Team, and Kenny leaving my life, our lives, in the context of working on the show together day to day.

MSN: What was it like when you got that script?
WG: It was devastating, honestly, for everybody in our little family, and especially for Kenny. Kenny's the one who's leaving, but for us, it was the loss of a brother. Someone that you're used to seeing every single day, and there's this energy that happens between Kenny and (Michael Chiklis) and I, and David Snell, who plays Ronnie on the Strike Team … we feel it, anyway, hopefully it translates onto the screen.

MSN: It absolutely does.
WG: To know that that is finite, that we will never have that again, is hard to deal with, but we keep in touch all the time, and Kenny's still one of my dearest friends, and the coolest thing that has happened to this member of our cast is that his character is being treated with such reverence. It's been the central theme, and will be the central theme, really, probably for the rest of the show, but definitely for this entire season. You know, ten episodes of television will revolve around the death of this man, and the events that led up to it, and I'm just very thankful to be at the center of that.

MSN: Does the situation with Lem and the fallout from it sort of make it feel like it's the beginning of the end for the Strike Team? We know the show is ending after next season, but does Lem's death make it feel like the end is more inevitable with this group of guys, too?
WG: Yeah, yeah. It's a house of cards, and it's starting to crumble. It has been crumbling, and these people are finally reaping what they've sown. But we pay the ultimate price in losing our brother. And in some ways, it's all of our faults, and in some ways, it's Shane's fault, and in some ways, maybe it's Vic Mackey's fault. Maybe he will come to kind of realize that. Now, the rest remains to be seen, how exactly that will all play out, but yes, it is the beginning of the end. It's not the same, and it never will be the same again.

MSN: By the way, that scene in the season finale where Shane drops the grenade in Lem's lap was amazing to watch. You and Kenny played it so well. You could really see how heartbroken both guys were about what was happening.
WG: Thank you so much, darlin', That's nice to hear. It was tough. We kinda looked at each other and we cried. We cried a lot, shed a lot of tears, and then Kenny and I came around to the conclusion that if he was gonna leave the show, we would rather have it be by Shane's hand. And we held hands, and prayed about it, then looked at each other and said, 'Okay buddy, let's do this dance. Let's go.' So we were there for each other the whole episode, and we had gotten a chance to go to the Super Bowl together right before that, and spend some quality time together. So that was nice, and then filming (the finale) was very painful and very emotional, but we're very honored, being on the other side of it now, to have had the chance to play out the storyline together, that the writers wrote that for our characters. Because that kind of material … it's rare that an actor gets to play that on television. You know, they've done it on 'The Sopranos,' and they've done it on some other shows, but to be there at that time, when such a major character gets killed, and to be the one who does it, it's Shakespearean. It just doesn't happen every day on television, and I think we're both very honored to have been given the opportunity to play that out.

MSN: What's been your feedback from fans on Shane? It might have changed a bit after Lem's death, but still, I think people have a love/hate relationship with him. There's a lot of charm there, so people definitely seem to find it hard to dislike him, or see him as a straight up bad guy.
WG: Thank you so much for saying that, first and foremost. It's so nice to hear that from a critic and writer about television, because I think Shane is very nuanced, and I think he's very polarizing. People don't want to like him, but you just do! You wind up at the end of the day saying, 'Man, he made me laugh," or 'Why is he doing the things he's doing?' He's a necessary kind of guilty pleasure in a lot of ways, for a lot of people. Hopefully, if I've done my job, and the writers have done their job, this season, he will have committed the ultimate betrayal, that has hurt a lot of people – and I've seen that from fans, heard it from them on the street, and read it on the message boards – and hopefully, over the course of this season, people will see the effect that all of this has had on Shane, on a real deep level. And he will be forgiven in a real significant way in people's eyes, because he is not a villain. He just isn't. He's a complex guy, as is every character on the show. They're so wonderfully drawn and painted with so many colors, you know?

MSN: That is a huge part of what makes the show so great. There's not a lot of black and white.
WG: Exactly. It is a show of ambiguity. We all assume our audience is intelligent, and they can think for themselves, and decide for themselves what's right and what's wrong. And maybe there is no answer to that question sometimes. That's the interesting thing. And that's an interesting thing about Lem's death. Given the misinformation, the information that we both had at the time, and the inability to speak, in a way that was forthright and honest … as honest as we were trying to be, we just missed the signals! So, I think you're right, I don't think people think Shane is a villain, but they're conflicted about how they should feel about him.

MSN: And that's probably going to intensify this season. But do you also think fans maybe sympathize with Shane because he, and the other characters, often have to juggle the fallout of what Vic does, sometimes more than Vic himself?
WG: Yes, I agree with that. Very much so.

MSN: Walton, I love your name. Do you prefer to be called Walton, or Walt? And is it a family name?
WG: Walton. And yes, it's a family name. When I moved to Los Angeles … I used to go by Walt growing up, but when I first moved here, people called me Walter, and that's not my name. No disrespect to people named Walter, but Walter's not name. My name is Walton. So when I moved here, about a month after I settled in, I started going by my real name, Walton, and it felt good. It felt like it described me. Walt's a good name, but Walton just felt right. It felt good, and it just felt like it really coincided with me becoming a man, and making the move out here at 19 years old, leaving behind a scholarship at a smaller college in Georgia and coming out here with a dream of being an actor.

MSN: So how would you set up the season for fans?
WG: Okay, the first episode sets the tone for what's happening with Shane. Episodes two and three are really more about other characters that are coming into the mix. But four, five and six … oh my God, you're gonna see what it's like to experience guilt on a real primordial, deep, deep level, and you're gonna see the unraveling of Shane, and of him having to come to terms with what he's done, and if he's going to be able to make it. Because, if he doesn't, he's going to die. And you're going to see, if he IS able to do that, what happens when he gets to the other side of this grief, and Vic finds out. -- Kim, MSN TV Blog

***

New York Post, 4/1/2007

Cop Killer

Get ready for the season of Shane.
That would be Shane Vendrell, the rogue L.A. cop played by Walton Goggins, who's carrying a secret - and a load of guilt - as "The Shield" starts its sixth season.
When the fifth season ended last March, Shane had killed one of his best friends, Det. Curtis "Lem" Lemansky (Kenneth Johnson), because he feared Lem would testify against him and Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) in an ongoing Internal Affairs investigation led by the dogged John Kavanagh (Forest Whitaker).
Now Shane is struggling with this question: Should he tell Vic what he did, knowing that the always-combustible Vic, who was also a friend of Lem's, just might turn around and kill him?
"It really is the central theme to this season," said Goggins, 35, on the phone from Los Angeles. "And I've been given an opportunity to be the central figure by killing off this person who was so loved by so many."
It is a moment Goggins has waited a long time for. As a member of Mackey's "Strike Team" - a unit of plain-clothes detectives who battle the toughest of L.A.'s gangs (when they're not in business with them) - Shane has been a major character on "The Shield" since the beginning.
He is the only other character who was in the room when Vic murdered an undercover cop, who was sent to spy on the Strike Team, in the very first episode of the show - an incident referred to by the cast and crew of "The Shield" as The Original Sin.
But this season, with Shane having committed a big sin of his own, Goggins is stepping into the limelight. "You see this guy really going through this self-hatred and self-loathing and this sincere, honest grief," he said. "He's crying out for help and hopefully redeems himself."
As long-time fans of "The Shield" know well, the odds don't favor redemption. Still, Goggins is hoping his new higher profile on "The Shield" this season will raise his own profile in Hollywood.
Goggins, a native of Lithia Springs, Ga. (pop. 2000) - located about 17 miles west of Atlanta - has been acting in movies and TV shows since at least 1990. Before "The Shield," his best-known credit was a role in "The Apostle" (1997), directed by and starring Robert Duvall.
He has made two movies with his friend, Billy Bob Thornton ("Daddy and Them" in 2001 and "Chrystal" in 2004).
In 2001, a 35-minute movie, "The Accountant," produced by his production company - Ginny Mule Pictures - won an Oscar for Best Short Film (live action).
Under Oscar rules, only two statuettes were awarded - one to Ray McKinnon, director and writer of the movie, and Lisa Blount, executive producer. Since Blount and McKinnon are married, they turned over Blount's Oscar to Goggins, who starred in and also has a producer's credit on the film.
"Our short film kind of led to this incredible experience of winning an Academy Award and going on stage right after Sidney Poitier [who won a lifetime achievement award that year]," Goggins recalled. "It did what we hoped it would and that was provide us a calling card for us as filmmakers and our sense of humor."
A southern boy at heart, Goggins displays the Oscar in his home next to the only other trophy he possesses - first prize in a hog-calling contest he won at age 10. -- Adam Buckman

*****

TV Squad, 3/27/2007

The Shield's Walton Goggins: The TV Squad Interview

I'll be the first to admit it. I was a latecomer to The Shield. I'd never watched a minute of it until right before the fourth season started and a buddy of mine let me borrow the first three seasons on DVD. He told me it was the best cop show ever. Wait a second. Better than NYPD Blue or The Wire? Yes. So I watched the three seasons... in one weekend. The phrase "glued to my seat" does not begin to do justice to how mesmerized I was by this show. I mean, damn!
So naturally, when I was approached about speaking with Walton Goggins, I practically blew up with anticipation. However, I'm not the only Shield fan here at TV Squad. Our fearless leader Keith is a die-hard too. So we decided to do something different for this interview -- the first ever TV Squad Tag Team. Walton didn't know what he was stepping into... that is, if he could crack through all the codes to get into our elaborate virtual phone-in conference room. I can't say that I blame him. I got confused too.

Keith: Hey man, thanks for joining us.
Walton: (laughing) I'm in the inner sanctum of some imaginary corporate office right now.

Jonathan: I know, it's crazy! You have to push buttons and number sequences and then some computerized voice announces your name.
Walton: No shit, we have to do these... you have to wonder, it's crazy. Like, where are these calls being hosted, by what website or whatever and you bring all these people together. We do this with my production company because it's easier sometimes and we're all on different coasts. I guess my point is that I do these often and I've never had a voice announce my name. You guys are a little more sophisticated than we are at Ginny Mule Pictures. (laughing) So how ya doin'?

Keith: Well, I'm Keith McDuffee, the editor of TV Squad and Jonathan is one of our writers.
Jonathan: Hi Walton, thanks for speaking with us.
Walton: Not a problem guys. I actually looked at your site. It's quite extensive. You got a lot of content to generate brother.

Keith: Well some of that includes The Shield. Jonathan and myself will both be writing episode reviews once the show starts back up again. It was actually just me last season, but he begged me enough to let him in on it.
Jonathan: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Walton, where exactly are you guys in the filming of the new season?
Walton: Actually we're finished. We got all the episodes in the can, believe it or not, back in September. We did season five and then only took off six weeks. Then we immediately went into season six.

Jonathan: Well wasn't it supposed to be one big season initially?
Walton: Kind of, yeah. You know, they weren't sure what was going to happen. We didn't know if six was going to be our last or not. Then the way season five ended with a bang... so to speak. All this stuff needed to be explored. But Michael [Chiklis] was doing Fantastic Four 2 and he had a deadline and the rest of us were like, "Yeah buddy, that's your movie. You gotta do it." So we went right back into production. So it was really, for the first time, like doing a regular season of television. And it's just different world.

Jonathan: Right, because you're going from the normal 13 or so episodes and now you're doing 21.
Walton: Exactly. With The Shield and the subject matter we deal with and to do that to keep up the content and the quality, it's hard. It's taxing. Emotionally, it's really kind of hard to go through.

Jonathan: Well what about that final season then? Is there a timetable for when you go back into production?
Walton: Yeah we do. We're gonna go back some time in late May while the new season is still airing.

Jonathan: Oh wow, that soon? That's awesome. Alright, well I suppose we should dive into some of these questions because I know Keith and myself have a boatload of them. You mentioned that season five ended with bang. That's an understatement. You're going along, filming season five, and one day you pick up the season finale script and read that Shane is going to kill Lem. I mean, how'd you react to that?
Walton: You know... it was, I mean just couldn't believe it. It took me a long time to wrap my head around it. You have to understand that Kenny Johnson was a dear friend of mine three years before this show even started. We shared a house together when we did Major League: Back to the Minors. I'm like, the homerun hitter and he played the third baseman. So when I saw him walk in the trailer [for The Shield], I thought, "Oh my god. If this goes, I'm gonna have this incredible life experience with you." So to see that script come across my desk was... I was speechless. Very emotional. We knew about it before it was coming. It's such a touchy thing, losing someone. Because you really are losing someone in this case. You're not gonna be laughing with them every single day anymore. So I had a really good heart-to-heart with Kenny, and with Michael, and with Shawn [Ryan], and we came around to the thinking that this is Shakespearean and this move will elevate this show. It was the right thing to do. He is the one character who would make the most impact and if he was going to go off of the show, then I would want it to be by my hands. I would want to be trusted with that and bear the responsibility and scorn that has come from it. So we all approached it very seriously.

Keith: You know if Kenny has anymore involvement with flashbacks like the mini-episode? I mean obviously you do know since you're wrapped, but anything else?
Walton: (laughing) I don't want to tell you guys! Not even gonna touch that with a ten-foot pole. Shawn and the writers, they surprise everybody. They're not ones to do what other people do. They try not to repeat. Just wait and see buddy. It's really good.

Jonathan: Well regardless of whether or not we will see Lem again, what was it like doing that prequel episode and getting to work with Kenny on The Shield for one of the last times?
Walton: They had that idea much earlier on than I think people realize and we filmed it in the middle of the season. And the energy was back. It was right there. There's this synergistic kind of quality of The Strike Team when we're together and we've been very good friends for a very long time now. So to have that dynamic again was something that I can't put words to. It was bittersweet, but it was sweet. And we tasted it and we had the best time that we possibly could in the two days that we had to shoot that.

Jonathan: That's so cool. Alright, here's the big mind bending question that I really want to ask to kind of wrap up my thoughts on Lem. The impression we've been left with is that Vic is absolutely 100% against whoever killed Lem. We know he's going to find out that Shane did it at some point this season. But it's a huge double standard if you think about it because how is what Shane did to Lem any different than what Vic did to Terry in the pilot episode?
Walton: Can I just say something? You just asked and made that statement and to me it just speaks to your level of intelligence...

Jonathan: (laughing hysterically) Well, thank you.
Walton: No really, you have that understanding of the psyche behind the show.

Jonathan: It's one of the most psychological shows on TV if you ask me. Every episode tests your moral being and makes you question everything.
Walton: That's exactly right and anyone who would feel another way about what happened would just be a hypocrite. Granted, we didn't know Terry very well and we got five years to know Lem. But the sin is the same and maybe Vic is just reaping what he's sown. Plus, Shane after the original sin of this show, was the moral center. He was the conscience after Terry's death because no one knew. He had the problem with it at the time. That violent act that he willingly participated in defined his moral compass. Or screwed it up because it brought up the question, "If I can do that then what can't I do?" That's why he acted out for as long as he did. So when this situation arose, he couldn't do it as cold-heartedly as Mike was in that pilot.

Jonathan: All Shane could do was apologize and cry as he did it.
Walton: Exactly. I think some would say that that's even more cowardly, to not do it face to face. I don't know the answer to that question. But I'm sure he knew exactly what he was doing. Shane had the grenade in his car but I think it was all very confusing and not necessarily pre-meditated. I think he was a little disconnected from what he did. But after the explosion, the realization hit Shane very fast. Who wouldn't wish to take something like that back?

Keith: It almost made me angry that the writers decided to not let the grenade just kill Lem. But he was alive for a bit to torture Shane even more. But do you think, I mean as seasons have gone on, his family life with Mara. That's affected his decision making too?
Walton: Well you know that's interesting, let's talk about that for a second. You've got this guy, adrift, untethered. He was a part of a very violent act and violent acts beget violent acts. For some people, once you go down that road, it's very hard to turn around. Vic, the whole team really, is a master at compartmentalization, but sometimes the water spills over. That's what was happening to Shane. He met a woman and people have hated her, but for what? For wanting to get her husband out of a situation that was really not good for him? Really detrimental to his character? He was straddling a fence, but she tethered him and gave him this structure that he had never had in his life. But the way Vic has protected his family, Shane now has to protect his. There's a difference though because Vic never turns to his wife and Shane did. Granted he still fucks around (laughing), and gets his stuff on the side. But he's honest with her about a lot of things.

Jonathan: Well I guess now is as good a time as any to ask the obligatory "What's in store for the new season?" question.
Walton: It's a big deal. I think what you're gonna get to see, and I hope the critics feels this way when they see it because it's what I've certainly been crowing about. More often than not, in television shows, you experience grief in a three episode arc. Maybe, at the most. This is not a procedural show. It's all about the characters. Given what happened, grief, and pain, and Lemonhead's death, is the central theme to these ten episodes. It's going to be at the core of conflict for the rest of this show. The life of it. You're going to see Shane unravel in a deep, sick, self-loathing, sadistic kind of way. Looking for ways to pay for what he did without telling what he did. It's painful to watch and I'm just so grateful for the opportunity to have been given this role and to play that level of grief and sadness. But a lot has changed. The Strike Team as we know and love doesn't really exist anymore. There are some new people. That in itself is sad because it's been so long since the four of us, the four horseman, were rolling up in Mexico. I mean, the baddest mother fuckers on television! You knew if the four of us were walking down the street, somebody's ass was gonna get kicked! You can't help but watch that and want to be on that team because it looks like they're having so much fun and we were. But to go from that extreme to where we are now. It's just no longer existing like that.

Keith: The beginning of the end.
Walton: Yeah. Everything is unraveling. But Vic will find out and Shane is going to have to forgive himself to move on. It'll be interesting to see how the audience picks up on that.

Keith: What else do you have coming up besides the show? Any other projects?
Walton: Well I'm talking to other showrunners since we know seven is going to be the last season. I'm actually in the midst of developing a show and I'm really excited about it. It's not sometime I set out to do but an idea just came to me over a glass of wine one night and I don't think we've seen anything like it before. But I'm continuing to make movies with my partners too. Our first short film actually won an Academy Award.

Jonathan: I saw that, The Accountant right?
Walton: Yeah and that led to our second film, which was a hillbilly art film with Billy Bob Thornton. And we actually just finished up our latest film called Randy and the Mob. It's a southern suburban comedy about a guy who gets in trouble with the mob and has to turn to his identical twin gay brother for help.

Jonathan: That's a crazy premise. I love it. But I think I've actually exhausted all the questions I wanted to ask. It's just so great to talk to someone who's so invested in their work and that's definitely you.
Keith: Seriously. Thanks for this Walton.
Walton: Thank you fellas. Um, you said invested and that's funny because we really feel that what we're doing is more than just a television show. We really like to look at it as being a part of the best little independent film on television every week." -- Jonathan Toomey and Keith McDuffee

***

Associated Press, 3/23/2007 Walton Goggins feels heat for misdeeds of his bad cop on 'The Shield'

It might have been the single ghastliest moment on a drama last season: On the finale of "The Shield," detective Shane Vendrell executed his partner, detective Curtis Lemansky, with a hand grenade.
Not that Shane didn't have his reasons. He was scared Lem would fold under pressure to spill secrets about their L.A.P.D. Strike Team, sordid secrets that could land all those renegade lawmen in the slammer. Clearly, Lem needed to be saved from betraying his comrades.
But that doesn't mean Shane isn't bummed out about his evil deed. At the same time, his status among fans of this gritty FX drama has plummeted from vigilante hero to TV's biggest skunk.
"The most hated character on television?" chortles Walton Goggins, who plays Shane. "I like to think he's the most misunderstood."
Either way, viewers will be riveted as "The Shield" begins its sixth season April 3, with Strike Team leader detective Vic Mackey vowing to identify and pay back Lem's killer - little dreaming it's his closest compadre.
"We need the truth," growls Mackey (series star Michael Chiklis) to Shane, adding, "This thing's gonna get a lot uglier before it gets better."
Now imagine how lousy Shane feels! He sacrificed one friend while another, Mackey, furiously searches for the culprit. Shane has not only done something monstrous, he's also forced to confront it, and shrink from it, with every breath.
This is a juicy story arc for Goggins, who, as the season unfolds, will get to play grief, self-loathing, even a death wish. "Part of Shane wants to get caught and pay for everything he did," Goggins says.
Meeting with a reporter in New York not long ago, Goggins displays Shane's expansive grin and wiry frame. Notably absent: Shane's hotheaded, hot-dogging personality.
The 35-year-old Goggins is a warm, easygoing chap, who grew up outside Atlanta and excelled in competitive hog-calling and, as a child teamed with his mother, was a state clog-dancing champ.
He calls his childhood happy. Still, "I was this kid with a lot of emotion who didn't quite understand how to deal with it," he recalls, "and being in front of people expressing it publicly somehow made sense - and felt really good."
As a youngster he landed film work in Atlanta, then, at 19, made the leap to Los Angeles.
Since then, he has appeared in features including "The Apostle," "The Bourne Identity" and "The World's Fastest Indian."
With his partners at Ginny Mule Pictures, he shared a 2001 Academy Award for the short film, "The Accountant," which he produced and starred in.
In 2004, his company made "Chrystal," which starred Billy Bob Thornton, with Goggins co-starring. This intensely personal Southern drama was shown at the Sundance Film Festival.
Goggins wants to keep making films.
"Storytelling is what I love," he says. "To be responsible for the whole, instead of a part - literally and figuratively - feels absolutely right."
Meanwhile, "The Shield" (already renewed for a seventh season) will keep him on the run - literally and figuratively.
Boiling in its murky moral climate, this Peabody Award-winning drama has a raw, kinetic narrative style that never sits still, and seldom gives its actors a break.
Goggins marvels at the show's on-the-fly shooting regimen, often on some of L.A.'s meanest streets.
"Most actors are concerned with hitting their marks. We're concerned with not getting hit by cars," he says. "Except for just a few extras put in here and there, what happens on those locations for the most part is real. We don't always know what's gonna happen."
One thing Goggins didn't know would happen: the extreme reaction to Shane's assassinating poor Lem. Goggins has taken plenty of heat for it, and not just from viewers.
"It was so weird showing back up to shoot this season," he says. "Maybe I was kind of projecting on the situation, but people on the set were treating me differently! The craft service guy didn't make me a damn coffee. Everybody else got a coffee, 'cept for Walton!
"And everybody's going, 'Oh, there's the guy responsible for Kenny not being here.'"
"Kenny" is Kenneth Johnson, who had played Lem since the series began in 2002.
But here it gets weirder: In real life, Goggins and Johnson are best friends. They met filming "Major League: Back to the Minors" a decade ago.
Weirder still: they filmed last season's killing scene just days after getting back from a weekend in Detroit at the 2006 Super Bowl. Johnson had scored a couple of tickets and invited Goggins along.
"We had the best time!" says Goggins. "But it was also bittersweet. We did all these interviews and people kept asking, 'What's gonna happen?' And we couldn't say a word."
Goggins is likewise tightlipped about this upcoming season, and whether Shane will end up facing the music.
"If Vic does find out that Shane did it - which I won't tell you - just imagine what might happen!" says Goggins, grinning at the thought. Then, unwittingly, he echoes Vic Mackey's sentiment: "It wouldn't be pretty." -- Frazier Moore

***

IGN, 1/12/2007

IGN Interview: The Shield's Walton Goggins

IGN TV: What was your reaction when you read the script and found out you were going to kill Lem?
Walton Goggins: I didn't want to do it! I had a long conversation with Kenny about it, and [Executive Producer] Shawn Ryan and Michael. And we all talked about it. And then I came around to thinking if my best friend was going to leave this show, I didn't want it to be by anybody's hand but mine. And we looked at it as a place of love, and a journey, and a unique experience in our evolution as artists and the evolution of this show; to do something that for the fans of this show will go down, arguably, as one of the most surprising moments that they've ever experienced. And we tried to bring that love and passion to it, and I hope we accomplished it.

IGN TV: The fans certainly loved Lem, but still, not letting Shane off the hook, you saw how horrible it was for him.
Goggins: Well, to pull that off is a feat, because people have such an interesting reaction to Shane. He polarizes people. You either f**king love him and you get him, or you just don't get him at all and he is egregious and everything that comes out of his mouth is repulsive. But a lot of people see his pessimistic sense of humor and his view on life, and if they're smart, they see his moral corruption by Vic Mackey. And he is certainly in the wake of Vic Mackey's transgressions. And it's interesting to encounter people. It's been interesting for the last year of my life to see people and how they react to me. And I can't wait until this season is out, and having experienced the pain that Shane goes through, to see if people have a little more love in their heart for him, and see him in a way that they've never seen him before.

IGN TV: We saw in a flashback episode that Vic took Shane down this road. However, for whatever reasons, a lot of viewers seem to be able to still support and defend Vic.
Goggins: It's a double standard! You have to have a hero, and Shane is to the left of Vic. Shane does things that Vic wouldn't do, if Vic would not do anything. And so you have to have that dynamic. And Lem is to the right of Vic. He is the moral conscience of this Strike Team; of this fictitious loyalty that we have, that we ascribe to and where we try to get every single week. But it's fascinating, because people say that, and I look at them and I say, "Vic is an awful person!" Vic's an awful guy. And what has Shane done that he hasn't done? But Shane has killed one of the most lovable characters on the show. And for that, it remains to be seen if people can forgive him. I don't think he's looking for redemption. I think he's looking for clarity. And I think that if getting some perspective on one's self leads to a redemption in some people's eyes, well then, that's a good thing.

IGN TV: What is Shane up to as the season begins, considering Vic is determined to find the person who killed Lem?
Goggins: Determined for Vic to not find the person who killed Lem! [Laughs] But I don't think that it's so much about that. I think that he really wants to… When he finds out what really this was all about, and what Lem's intentions were, he has such a level of remorse and guilt, that I think people will ultimately understand where he is in his head, you know? And I just think that he's trying to hide it long enough to get some understanding. And once he gets that, then he doesn't care who knows. Because he wants to tell Vic, because he wants Vic to say it's okay and to understand, but I don't know if Vic will or not. But the interesting thing is, if he doesn't [understand], Shane understood taking out Terry, so how is that different? It's not because the audience saw and got to live with Lem in a way that they never got to with Terry. That can't be what it's about, because the act is the same, ultimately. And you're a hypocrite if you think otherwise. But that'll be the interesting thing to see; how people react.

IGN TV: And what is the dynamic with Alex O'Loughlin's new character, who has been placed on the Strike Team as a potential new leader?
Goggins: Well Alex is ultimately going to become another pawn in this family feud, and we'll see kind of where he goes with the show. But Vic will never let anyone else be the leader, and hubris will be his downfall I think. And I don't know that the Strike Team will ever be the same. I don't even know if there even is a Strike Team anymore. I don't know what that means. And as an actor, having lived this life so closely with these three other people -- including Dave Snell, who plays Ronnie -- and to see that split in a way that it's never split before, is bittersweet. It's sweet, because I know what that will lead to story wise, but it's bitter because these are my brothers. And I don't get to see them every day, and we don't get to f**kin' have fun, man. The way that we did in Mexico. You know, that's gone, and that was another time, and we're in another season. I think that hopefully, if we've done our job, then the audience will be riveted.

IGN TV: How much of a role is Kavanaugh playing in all this?
Goggins: I don't think I'm at liberty to say, but he's definitely back.

IGN TV: We know there will be one last season after this upcoming one. Did filming Season Six sort of feel like the beginning of the end?
Goggins: Certainly, yeah. I think that was the intention of the creator, Shawn Ryan. I don't think you can go through something like that and then wrap this season up in ten episodes. That would be false and stunted in a way. So for Shawn to decide to do 13 more, for the network to give us that opportunity, I think that we're going to be able to explore really what happened in a way that other shows have not been able to do. And that's exciting, brother. I'm so ready -- Eric Goldman

***

FOX TCA's, 7/2006

Walton Goggins Interview For 'The Shield'

Question: What a season you guys had last year. It's my favorite show on television.
Goggins: Thank you. It's not without a lot of work that happens. What's on the screen is really there. Everyone shows up with their A game every single day and we expect and will not accept anything less.

Question: What's going on with your character this year? Is there a bit of a death wish going on?
Goggins: Well, I don't know that it's just an overt death wish. I think that it's just an insane amount of grief having done what he did and the inability to compartmentalize it the way that Vic is able to compartmentalize his transgressions. Shane can't do that. He has been able to do that in the past to a certain extent, but he's committed an act that he will have a very, very hard time forgiving himself for.

Question: He's hard wired to his emotions in a way that Vic is not.
Goggins: That's right.

Question: As a coworker of Kenny [Johnson] was it easy to tap into those emotions because you guys have been through all the shows together?
Goggins: Well, he's been a friend of mine for a long time and when we began that journey together and saw it in black and white, I just said to him, 'I would want no one to have this honor, but me.' It is an honor to say goodbye to someone who has been so, so important to me as an actor and to the success of this show. So oddly enough as cheeky as this may sound we held hands and we said, 'Lets do this, man.' It was at four o'clock in the morning and I remember kind of holding his hand before every take and after the grenade went off, and everything that kind of happened from there forward. It was very, very painful, but we went through it as brothers and as friends and we're still very, very good friends today.

Question: And you guys have had him back, right?
Goggins: Yeah. He's been back several times. I saw him last night actually, and we're still very, very good friends, and it is, I mean, as sad as we all were about the writers making that decision ultimately I think that we all saw the genius and the brilliance and Shakespearean quality of what this really meant. It is betrayal. It can be argued that it was a lot of different things. Maybe it was betrayal. Maybe it was seeing what your life was ultimately going to be like and getting you out of that, letting you out of that. But you know an actor can justify anything [Laughs]. But at the end of the day it was very, very painful thing for everyone involved. But it has propelled this show forward in a way that will see us through and will sustain us for the next two years and so we're very, very thankful for the opportunity.

Question: Is [Michael] Chiklis sort of the captain of the team as far as the actors on the show go? Is he the sort of quarter back?
Goggins: He is the quarter back. He sets the tone for the show and you can't run a show like this and do the amount of scenes that we do with the content that we have in the amount of time that we have without a Clydesdale sort of pulling you through it. He is our Clydesdale for sure. I think that he's lucky, and I think that we're all lucky, to have a very deep bench. You can throw the ball to anyone on our team on any given day and they're going to hit a homerun or they're going to score a touchdown, man. They're going to hit a homerun. I think that we all respect each other's work so much, and Michael respects all of us so much that we enable him to take charge. He knows that he has this great group of people behind him.

Question: In the cast, who would you like to have more scenes with and mix it up a little bit more with?
Goggins: Jay Karnes. He's my favorite actor on the show. Jay Karnes is my favorite actor on the show. I mean, we've had a couple of things together a while back in the show, and we have become good friends, but I like the dynamic of Shane and Dutch. It's very different and that's an energy that I don't come into contact with very often. So that'd be fun.

Question: The vultures are circling around the strike team at this point on the show. Do you see the series, rather than trying to push it beyond seven seasons or ten seasons because it's a show that has ratings, having a finite ending?
Goggins: The seventh season will be it. That'll be it for the show.

Question: Do you have any inkling on where it's going to go? Have they filled you in at all?
Goggins: No. I don't. I really don't. And we've talked about it. [David Rees] Snell and I talked about it two days ago. I don't know where it's going to go from week to week, to be quite honest with you. Just when I think that I have it figured out, just when I think, 'Okay, this is what I'm going to be doing next week.' I get the script and open that present and it's completely different than I ever thought that it was going to be. What do you think? What's your take?

Question: I think that if I were in charge and looked ahead, I would love to see Claudette be the one to take down the strike team because she is the most honest cop there. She is the most noble cop there.
Goggins: She is.

Question: I see Vic going to prison. I see Shane going into witness protection and I see Ronnie getting out totally unscathed.
Goggins: Completely. He was the smart one.

Question: He was the quiet one. He will make the smart deal and will get out of it.
Goggins: Yeah. With more money than all of us.

Question: But I do see that Vic will pay some kind of price whether it's prison or death.
Goggins: Yeah. But I would argue that I think with the killing of Lem that we have already paid the ultimate price, and that's what this season is about, and it's really about – on other shows if someone dies it's dealt with in one episodes or two episodes, and in this fictional world that we've created and have tried to maintain, this reverberates throughout the entire season and will reverberate throughout the rest of the show because that's the reality of it all. That's exciting and that has been so exciting for me as an actor.

Question: Will we see Lem in flashbacks or will we see him in dream sequences?
Goggins: I'm not going to tell you.

Question: Okay. I'll take that as a maybe.
Goggins: And I'll tell you that, and I'll say that Shawn [Ryan] does things that other people don't, that other people do not do. So you'll be surprised.

Question: What do you hear from cops when you run into real life cops? What do they say to you?
Goggins: They love the show. Cops love the show. I think that more than anything else they see it for it's entertainment value. It's not something that they can do or would do, but they get a laugh out of us having the license to do those kinds of things. So it really is, for me, no longer about Rampart or about the Los Angeles Police Department and there are no parallels or comparisons to be made at this point. 'The Shield' is a world in and of it's own, and I think that they, like so many people, get this sense of anxiety and rush and exhaustion through one hour of their life during the week that they don't get from other outlets. I think that we provide a form of entertainment for them that they enjoy.

Question: Have you ever done ride alongs with real cops?
Goggins: I have. Yeah.

Question: What was that like for you? I was in Beverly Hills when I did it and so it wasn't too scary.
Goggins: Yeah. I mean, I have the utmost respect for these guys. I mean, I've been out with them three or four nights and nothing major happened. Well, a shooting happened which was a pretty major event, but no one was injured. It was like shots were fired, but to see the tactical approach these guys had and to see how well oiled this machine is fascinating because the situation is never the same. However, they're communicating based on their experience about what this potential map could be and how they're going to approach it. For us, we take that into our work, and that's the thing that I think, in addition to everything else, that we're most proud of on the show. They're very, very particular, police officers that I've encountered and they've had nothing, but praise on the procedural kind of aspects to the show and kind of how we do our approaches. I don't think that anyone does it better on television.

Question: Has it ever gotten you out of any speeding tickets?
Goggins: No! And I've used it. I've used it. I've tried to. I'm like, 'You know, I'm on "The Shield."' I've gotten out of one. I've gotten out of one speeding ticket in New Mexico, but for the most part they say, 'Yeah, buddy, but still you ran a stop sign.' So that's funny.

Question: What has the show done for your career? Do you get a lot of offers and do you try and balance things with your commitments to the show?
Goggins: I do, yeah. I mean, my partners and I have had a production company for a long time. I've done twenty five movies. I've done a lot of film before 'The Shield' and so what this has done for me is allow people to connect the dots. 'Oh my God, that's him in "The Apostle." That's Shane in "High Noon" and him in this and that and this and that.' So it's allowing people to kind of make that connection, but my partners and I have a production company and we've won an Academy Award for our short film, and our first feature went to Sundance and we just finished our second feature this past summer. So we're mixing it now and hopefully it'll be out in the spring. So it's allowed me, this notoriety, to kind of do the things that I wanted to do as a filmmaker.

Question: Now the serious fans are about as passionate as they come?
Goggins: Yes.

Question: What do you hear from the fans when they recognize you on the street?
Goggins: You know what, I've heard some funny shit. This is honest to God the best story in the world. I was walking down the street in New York and you get the look in people's eyes, and I was in a place where I didn't want to speak to anyone so I walk right past them and walk into a store. I come out and a guy comes up to me and says, 'Speak! Speak!' I said, 'Get out of my face!' He said, 'No. I'm sorry. I've only heard you in Italian. I've never heard your English voice.' I said, 'Oh my God. Hey, how are you doing?' And we've had the best conversation, and I've been to Morocco. I've all over Europe. I just got back from Panama, South America and at a bizarre in Morocco, in Marrakech someone says, '"The Shield."' I mean, it such a universal thing now because it's just such a big show in other countries. I mean, we have our following here, but other countries seem to like it too. It's really been an incredible experience.

Question: Can you talk about how Forrest Whitaker was this explosion on the last season and brought the show to even extra heights?
Goggins: Yeah. I mean, for us and for everyone on the show in particular, press is not a fiduciary responsibility, but way to get our message out which is that we're actors, man. And for us it's about showing up every week and Forrest Whitaker, are you kidding me? He started that. He is for his generation arguably one of the best actors working today and we all have such reverence and respect for him that when he showed up with his A game we all get nervous. When Glenn [Close] came on and then when Forrest came on, when all of these other kind of actors come on we get nervous and have to raise our game even more. So it's just been an incredible experience for us all.

Question: Anyone coming on the show this season that is that kind of name?
Goggins: Well, no, but Franka Potenta and all of my stuff is with her. She is a delightful actor, wonderful actor. So we've had an incredible experience, man. It's been six years of bliss -- From The Shield Rap Board (Interviewer unknown)

*****

Entertainment Weekly, 2/20/2004

News + Notes/The 5-Year Plan

WHY HIM He gives bad cops a good name on the FX drama The Shield.

WHY NOW We're psyched for season 3 in March.

"I was raised by five women," says Walton Goggins. "I'm a lover, not a fighter." But you wouldn't know it from The Shield. Goggins is damn frightening as Vic Mackey's ruthless sidekick Shane on the corrupt-cop drama. And you sure can't tell by Chrystal, the death-and-drug-tinged drama Goggins produced (starring Billy Bob Thornton) and recently took to Sundance. "I'm able to pay my bills and do something I love," says the multitasker, who won an Academy Award for producing 2001's short film The Accountant.

Not that his passions are restricted to Hollywood. Five years from now, Goggins wouldn't mind trading spaces with a designer. "I think bad lighting and overpriced furniture have become epidemic in America," he says. "It took nice lighting to get me to realize how much it affected my mood and who I was as a person. In five years, I'd like to be designing interior spaces and making it affordable for Joe Schmo." --Lynette Rice

*****

The Palm Beach Post, 9/7/2003

Which classic TV sitcom would you have loved to have been on and why?

Walton Goggins (The Shield): "Sanford and Son and I would be Lamont's cousin from Atlanta. They all make me laugh. Grady makes me laugh!" -- Kevin D. Thompson

*****

The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, 3/26/2002

Accounting for Oscar

OK, we'll admit it --- our peepers got a little fogged up Sunday night when local boys Walton Goggins, Ray McKinnon and McKinnon's wife, Lisa Blount, ascended the stage to accept the best live-action short Oscar for their locally shot film "The Accountant." As the trio humbly left the microphone, Goggins had a split second to thank "our mamas and our daddies." The threesome had a star-studded evening. They were grilled by Joan Rivers on the red carpet (where Walton thanked all the folks back in Atlanta), sat "two seats behind (the real-life focus of "A Beautiful Mind") John Nash and got to chat with fellow hometown girl Julia Roberts about their days at Campbell High School (Goggins attended his freshman year there). Meanwhile, CNN had their cameras trained on them for a piece that played continuously on Monday. Said Goggins: "All I kept saying was 'Please God, don't let me trip!' " The actor now featured on the F/X cop series "The Shield" will return to Georgia this weekend to accept congratulations and to play godfather to a local friend's newborn at a scheduled baptism. -- Richard L. Eldredge

*****

The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, 3/19/2002

Punting on 'Prairie'

Lithia Springs High School grad Walton Goggins was in Los Angeles on Sunday night, thousands of miles from WGCL-TV's airwaves here, but he knew straightaway that the Atlanta CBS affiliate had pre-empted the broadcast of his new TV movie, "Beyond the Prairie II: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder Continues." ''About 20 people from home called to ask what happened," Goggins told Buzz on Monday, laughing. "They were poised with their popcorn, ready to go." WGCL opted to run "Prairie" at 3 a.m. Monday and instead aired the Kevin Bacon flick "He Said/She Said" at 9 p.m. Sunday. "We had never planned to air the movie," Patti Cohen, WGCL's director of research and programming, told us Monday. "The decision was made weeks ago. . . . People have been calling all day. I feel terrible." Cohen told Buzz that she didn't realize "Prairie" was a sequel but thought it was a re-airing of the highly rated 1999 original. WGCL doesn't have the rights to air the sequel again until CBS runs a repeat.

Regardless of the snafu, Goggins' mama, Janet Long, was loyal to her son: She got up at 3 a.m. to watch the film.-- Richard L. Eldredge

*****

The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, 3/12/2002

Actor stars on big, small screens

If he were back home, Oscar-nominated actor and producer Walton Goggins (below) knows exactly where he'd go shopping for his tuxedo for the Academy Awards on March 24. "I had a lot of luck at the Lithia Springs High School prom due to the Gingiss shop at Cumberland Mall," the Los Angeles-based actor tells Buzz. "If the shop was in Los Angeles, I'd go back there in a second!"

Ginny Mule Productions, a film production company Goggins runs with fellow Southerners Ray McKinnon and Lisa Blount, has netted an Oscar nomination for "The Accountant" as best live-action film short.

TV viewers will be seeing a lot of Goggins this month. In addition to the Oscars telecast, Goggins is a series regular, playing Detective Vendrell on the gritty new cop drama "The Shield," debuting at 10 tonight on FX. The biggest challenge Goggins has faced on the set, aside from seemingly endless scenes of running through questionable Los Angeles neighborhoods? "In one upcoming scene, I have a perp down on the ground and I, um, commence urinating on him. And no, I'm not gonna tell you how we filmed that."

At 9 p.m. Sunday, Goggins reprises his role as real-life pioneer Almanzo Wilder in a sequel to the ratings-grabbing, 1999 CBS movie, "Beyond the Prairie II: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder Continues." The 30-year-old actor says doing the time-period role was educational for him. "We're so whimsical about love and our relationships now. . . . Laura and Almanzo didn't have the luxury of options when they were struggling to feed themselves and find shelter."-- Richard L. Eldredge

The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, 12/30/1999

One Busy Guy

Lithia Springs High grad Walton Goggins called from the Left Coast on Wednesday to fill us in on his latest projects, and his phone bill should be a whopper.

The actor, who played opposite Robert Duvall in "The Apostle," has been working nonstop. First up is "Beyond the Prairie: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder," airing at 9 p.m. Sunday on CBS. Goggins plays Almanzo Wilder, Laura's heroic hubby in the flick. The film also stars Richard Thomas and "Dawson's Creek" actress Meredith Monroe. The 28-year-old says just playing a good guy can be a tough job. "We shot in Utah in zero-degree weather," Goggins says. "We had to film this one scene at night when Almanzo comes back to town to be reunited with Laura. My lips were so cold I could barely get my lines out --- and we're supposed to be in love, looking into each other's eyes and all that!" Goggins' character also gets to save everyone in the flick when he braves a blizzard to retrieve food for the starving town.

Also in the can is Goggins' psychotic turn in Billy Bob Thornton's upcoming "Daddy and Them"; a lead role in Jackie Chan's action flick for next summer, "Shanghai Noon"; and a role in the Harry Connick Jr. film "Letters From a Wayward Son," which was shot here earlier this year. In between scenes, Goggins has formed a production company, Ginny Mule Productions, with fellow Southerners Ray McKinnon and Lisa Blount and recently finished shooting the company's first film, "The Accountant," in Covington.-- Richard L. Eldredge

*****

The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, 2/8/1998

A Shipload of Oscar Selections: Waggishly or not, celebrity moviegoers weigh in with their choices

"Stacy Edwards gave an incredible performance in `In the Company of Men.' She's a pretty good friend of mine. And I'm in awe of the fact that Robert Duvall didn't get nominated for a Golden Globe. He without a doubt deserves a nomination for an Academy Award. That's my unbiased opinion, too." ---Walton Goggins, Atlanta native and co-star of Duvall's "The Apostle" -- Richard L. Eldredge

*****

The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, 2/5/1998

Biscuits lure Georgian home

He's been living in Los Angeles for seven years, since the age of 19. Still, says Atlanta native Walton Goggins (below left, with Robert Duvall), "I'm a Georgia boy, tried and true.

"My roots are in the South, and that's where my soul is," says Goggins, Duvall's co-star in "The Apostle."

"My biggest adjustment to L.A. was biscuits. They don't have biscuits out here, and that makes me kind of go insane." And that's one reason he comes home every three or four months.

Goggins went to Lithia Springs High School, and his family remains in the area: dad Walton Goggins Sr., mom Janet Long and 11-year-old brother Sandy.

Goggins won the role of Sam, right-hand man of the preacher played by Duvall, when a casting director sent the Oscar-winning actor a video of Goggins' audition. "It was very intimidating," Goggins says. "My manager said, `Bobby's gonna be calling you on the telephone.' And I said, `OK, let me change this message on my machine real quick.'"

On the set in Louisiana, Goggins found that Duvall was a breeze to work with. "His direction makes you feel so comfortable. You get to play pretend with one of the masters, and he didn't give a lot of direction. He was very honest and very simple."

That was in the fall of 1996. More recently, Goggins spent some time closer to home, in Charleston, S.C., while shooting the baseball comedy "Major League 3," slated for a spring release. It turned out to be more than just another gig: On the set, he met his fiancee, camera assistant Kris Brewer. -- Richard L. Eldredge

*****

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