I’ve finally gotten Walton Goggins. I’m finally in the proverbial boat with the guy. Before absorbing his White Lotus performance as Rick Hatchett, the sweaty, greasy-haired, anxiety-ridden dude who’s looking to confront a man who killed his father…before watching Goggins dig into Hatchett, I had never been stirred by his acting. I had never felt what he had…never let him in. But now I’m a convert.
Hatchett is some kind of lost soul or blank slate or whatever. Nothing about him is settled, much less serene. Who decides to free a bunch of venomous snakes and let them just slither away? That’s a fairly moronic thing to do. People could get bitten. And yet Hatchett is oddly relatable.
I haven’t seen Goggins work all that much, but my impression is that before The White Lotus he’s mainly played secondary or scumbag roles in crap-level features and whatnot. Hatchett may be his first really well-written role. Is it?
