Walton Goggins Recounts Auditioning for Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained

Walton Goggins not only dug coal with Timothy Olyphant on Justified, but the Critics Choice Award winner (Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series | Vice Principals), Walton Goggins, also played in filmmaker Quentin Tarantino’s eclectic, cinematic sandbox over the years. Goggins portrayed “The Sheriff” in The Hateful Eight (2015), but it was Goggin’s audition for his first Tarantino movie, Django Unchained (2012), that the actor credits as “the beginning of two of the greatest experiences of my life.” Goggins recounted the whole story while breaking down his most iconic characters for GQ:

“[Tarantino] said,
‘You know the script. Pick one of these four or five roles, whatever speaks to you, and come in next week.’
I said, ‘Okay, great.’
And I read it again and again and again and again… and I came in with these four roles.
And I did these four roles. He said,
‘That was fantastic, man. Is there one you kind of gravitate to more than the other?’”

Goggins continued:

“I said, ‘Well this is really interesting.’ And he said, ‘Well that one might not be available, but what about…’ And I said, ‘Oh this is really interesting.’
And he said, ‘Okay, man, all right. This was a great time. Thank you so much for coming in.’
And I said,
‘But I’m not leaving.’
He said, ‘What do you mean?’ I said,
‘No, I wanna play all of these roles. I want to read all of these roles.’”

Walton Goggins Read Every Role for Quentin Tarantino

Certainly, Billy Crash represents one of Walton Goggins’ best performances, but the actor says landing the role was “irrelevant to me.” Goggins was so in awe of Quentin Tarantino that the actor didn’t really believe he’d win the part in Django Unchained. But Goggins went above and beyond — truly intriguing Tarantino — when he insisted on reading different roles from the script with the filmmaker. Goggins further explained the exhilarating audition during the same interview:

“He [Tarantino] said, ‘What are you talking about?’
I said, ‘I wanna read
Leo’s [DiCaprio] role, I wanna read Sam’s [L. Jackson] role,
I wanna read all of them.
Because I don’t care if I get this job, like that’s irrelevant to me.
The only thing that I care about is having the opportunity to say Quentin Tarantino’s words in front of Quentin Tarantino.’

And he said, ‘Are you serious?’
And I said, ‘Yeah.’
And he said, ‘Yeah, let’s f—ing do it!’
And he sat there with me in that room for another
45 minutes, maybe an hour, and we just read through his script.
And I read Sam’s role.
And he read every other role as if he was filming it.”

Goggins compared working in both Tarantino’s Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight as having won the Golden Ticket twice, whereas Charlie Bucket only found it once in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971). Goggins continued telling his story (below):

“And I read Leo’s role, and he read every other role as if we were filming it.
And it was one of the greatest days of my life as an artist.
And at the end of it, I think I hugged him. But I just said, ‘Thank you, that was a dream come true.
And good luck with your movie. I can’t wait to watch it, man.’ Couple of months go by, I get a call that he wants me to come and play with him.
And that was the beginning of two of the greatest experiences of my life.”

2:05

Related

Best Quentin Tarantino Movies, Ranked

From Reservoir Dogs to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, these are our rankings for the best Quentin Tarantino movies.

Goggins’ most recent work in Fallout is available on Prime Video right now. And his appearances in Tarantino’s movies can also be streamed online, at the time of this writing. Django Unchained is showing on STARZ, and The Hateful Eight can be seen with a premium subscription on Hulu, Paramount+ and Prime Video.