Hey Gasmii, I had the chance to talk to Walton Goggins from The Shield last week. As you may or may not know the season premiere of The Shield is tonight at 10PM on FX. It's the seventh and final season and it's been a long but good road for the show. I never watched The Shield until about season 4, but once I watched I became hooked! After season 4, I went back and watched every episode from season 1 and continue to watch it. It's the cop show of all cop shows...
I want to thank Walton for taking the time to talk to me. For those of you not familiar with the show, Walton plays Detective Shane Vendrell.
Here's the interview:
Nads: I can't believe this is the last season of the show! Can you tell me how Shane's going to turn out in the end? Will he be taken out by the Armenian mob or Vic?
Walton: I can't tell you, but I can tell you this, we have been, both Michael and I, and Kenny, for that matter, have been talking about the possible ending of this show since episode two. I can assure you of that, and everything, every year that we have imagined does not happen in the ending of this show. It far exceeded anything that we could have thought up ourselves. Regardless of what happens at the ending of this show, I think for the fans of this show, the audience of this show, they want to know will the guys ultimately reap what they've sown? I guess there are varying opinions of what that penalty should be. I think that these guys get their comeuppance, for sure. It's riveting, man. It really is something so far outside of my own imagination. I've been thinking about this for seven years, and I think that Shawn honored the audience's commitment to seven years of watching this show. I think that he ended it the way that he began it, from the heart and from a place of passion.
Walton: Kenny is one of my best friends and has been. We did a movie together almost 10 years ago and were roommates on that movie. He has been a dear friend for a long time. When I found out that he was going to leave the show, I was devastated. Everybody was devastated. Really, we took it pretty hard. This was a guy that I hang out with every single day. When I found out that I was going to be the one taking him out, I was very conflicted about it for about a minute, and then I thought, no, if anybody is going to take out this beautiful character that Kenny Johnson created, I would want it to be me. I'd want to be there with my buddy to say goodbye to him. It was very cathartic for both of us. We had spent the weekend together before we shot that scene and to come back and honor his commitment to the show and what he brought to it. A long-winded answer to your question, I was ultimately elated and felt very honored to have been given that opportunity to go through that dance with Kenny.
Nads: How do you personally feel about your character Shane?
Walton: I think any actor that has spent seven years with a character feels protective of that character. Is it somebody that I would hang out with? Me, Walton, hang out with. No. The answer to that question would be no, I wouldn't. How I feel about him? It was really sad the last day of filming. Not just because the show was ending. Not just because I'm not going to get an opportunity to see all these people every day. I still see the actors and talk to the writers quite a bit and the crew quite a bit. But, I'll never get to play Shane Vendrell again. For me, it almost broke my heart when that happened because I love him very much, not from a friend standpoint. I just want to hug him. I just want to go up to him and just kind of hug him and whisper in his ear, "Buddy, you're okay. You'll be okay. If you can start from here and try to live your life differently, you'll be okay." There has been this kind of father-son figure relationship between myself as Walton and Shane. That answers your question. It's true. It's honest.
Comments (2)
This is an amazing show. If Fox had had the balls to run it on the main network instead of FX I think it would have been a huge hit. Great interview Nads.
1 of 2 | Posted by JasonR | Posted on September 3, 2008 7:20 AM
I agree w/ you. I don't think it really caught on 'till later and it's too bad b/c everything about it is good. The writing, the suspense, story, it's the whole package.
2 of 2 | Posted by Nads | Posted on September 3, 2008 9:33 AM