Spoilers for the fourth episode of Fallout Season 2, “The Demon in the Snow” lie ahead, so you’ve warned.
There are plenty of reasons as to why Fallout is not only an impressive video game adaptation but a great show in general. Compelling characters and awesome set pieces abound, with the latter making the series feel tangible. There’s also a lot of incredible makeup work that’s done, and the prosthetics utilized for Walton Goggins’ the Ghoul is just one example of that. Well, as CinemaBlend recently learned there’s at least one actor who apparently sits in the chair a little longer than Goggins, and I’m surprised.
While promoting Fallout, Walton Goggins has been candid about his transformation into the Ghoul (and how it nearly affected his signature southern drawl). Goggins, of course, is far from the only actor on the show that has to go through such a process. For Season 2, Johnny Pemberton – who plays the now-ghoulified Thaddeus – needed prosthetics. I spoke to Pemberton about wearing the Brotherhood of Steel’s armor amid filming and, while discussing his relief over not having to be locked into the armor, he discussed makeup:
I've already got all this makeup on me. That takes three hours to get on, and it's not so bad to get it on. It's just having it on, but then to be locked in a suit as well that I have to, like, give people warning. ‘I gotta go to the bathroom.’ ‘Oh great, now, we got to unscrew them and stuff like that.’ I was relieved to not have to do that, but I was also really excited to be in the armor too, because it's such an honor to be a part of that. To be like, you're in the armor, you got to be in that crazy power arm. It's so cool.
Although it sounds like Pemberton didn’t mind having to sit in the chair to have his makeup applied, three hours is still a long time. Walton Goggins previously explained that, at this point, the team has gotten his makeup process down to two hours and 15 minutes. Of course, that time was cut down from the original five-hour period. Nevertheless, it’s still surprising to me that Pemberton’s time still comes in a little longer.
Johnny Pemberton seemed to enjoy his time working on Fallout Season 2, though, and he definitely got to try new things for this season. On that note, the Superstore alum had the opportunity to don an armor worn by a member of the Brotherhood’s armor. Within the show, Thaddeus did so in order to impersonate Paladin Xander Harkness, who Brotherhood member Maximus killed at the end of Episode 3. When talking about wearing the armor, Pemberton explained why he was a bit “nervous”:
Well, I was nervous a little bit, because I'm kind of claustrophobic with stuff like that. Because, when you wear the armor, if you can see the person's face, and when they have the shield up, and you're in the suit, you're kind of locked in there. They literally have, like, a screw, they like, they drill you into it. It’s also incredibly heavy. I'm the least strong person of all the — the shrimp of the production, basically, at least, compared to [Maximus actor] Aaron [Moten]. So I was a little nervous about that.
I can definitely understand his trepidation about the prospect of being locked in, especially given the fact that he would’ve been in a tight space and covered in ghoul makeup. So Pemberton was quite relieved over how everything panned out on set:
Nothing we filmed had the visor up, except for a few moments. There's stuff where we film, where it's inside the visor, sort of like that. You know, when you see whoever's in the power armor. You see, like, basically the cameras inside the thing there, [with] all the little gadgets and stuff, all the heads up display stuff. So we did that, but that doesn't involve having to be locked inside the armor. So I was relieved for that reason.
It seems that for a number of Fallout actors, there isn’t exactly a dull day. Johnny Pemberton, like Walton Goggins and others, is a true champ in the way in which they handle extensive makeup, armor and more. And, of course, the craftspeople who put together the prosthetics and armor deserve their flowers as well. See the cast and crew’s work in action by grabbing a Prime Video subscription and streaming new episodes of Fallout, which drop on Wednesdays at 3 a.m. ET/12 p.m. PT amid the 2026 TV schedule.
