I made “everyone is hot for Walton Goggins in The White Lotus” into the lead link recently, thinking that everyone would agree that yes, he’s really hot in The White Lotus. Of course he is! That’s why people on the internet were going feral for him. But nope – people did not agree. To be fair, I’m an old-school Goggins-is-hot fan, back when I first saw him in Justified. He’s wonderful in Justified (as is Timothy Olyphant), and they let him play around with his inherent weird/quirky/dirtbag sexiness. Anyway, love him or hate him, Walton Goggins is here and working on back-to-back projects in film and television. After he wrapped on The White Lotus, he went straight to work on the latest season of The Righteous Gemstones, and then after that, he went to work on the second season of Fallout. He’s booked and busy (and sexy). He recently spoke to GQ about his life, his work and why he’s such an oddity in Hollywood in this era.

He keeps things simple: “I smoke and I drink coffee and I drink cocktails and I fast almost every day for 14 hours”—from dinner until the next afternoon, when he’ll usually reach for a couple of boiled eggs.

An unconventional leading man: “I don’t think people truly knew what to do with me. I’m not Brad Pitt. I’m never going to be Brad Pitt. But I am Walton Goggins, and very few people fit in my lane.” But he agrees that—once upon a time—it was probably easier for a Walton Goggins–esque actor to make it as a big-screen sex symbol. “There is no space left. Like, Scott Glenn—where are those actors? Who is sexy right now? Who doesn’t speak to your heart, but speaks to your loins? Where is Bill Holden? Where’s Warren Oates? Where’s Bruce Dern? I mean, where’s f–king Nicholson, man?”

He think Jeremy Allen White is unconventionally hot too: “I mean, Jeremy Allen White. He’s not conventionally good-looking. But he’s got f–kin’ game. He’s got swagger. He’s got rizz. And he’s become sexy because he’s authentic. And if people look at me that way, I hope it’s because of what I find sexy in other people, and that is a life well lived. It’s a life dedicated to experiences, and the accumulation of that wisdom. I don’t have a ton of lines on my face, but I have a ton of lines on my heart. And I’ve seen a lot of things in my life.”

Growing up in Georgia, being raised by a single mom: “It’s served me well. But I also spent a lot of time alone. In the sense that I don’t know if I ever slept in the same bed for more than six days in a row until I left home. I had a lot of babysitters along the way and would stay at a lot of different people’s houses. I feel like I was always waiting on someone to pick me up, you know what I mean? Being ferried around and not in control of your own environment, and all the rest of it—I think all I ever wanted to do was be in control of my own environment and just get out and do my own thing.”

It’s crazy that he’s lived this life: “When I say my life is improbable, there is no bookie in f–king Vegas that would take this bet—[that I] would ever, ever, ever have the life that I’ve led. And I don’t take it for granted, man. If my life ends tomorrow, don’t weep for me, man, because God, whoever she is, has always been looking out for me. And protecting me. I was alone, so often, in my life. I was a latchkey kid once I convinced my mom that I didn’t need a babysitter anymore. I was eight when I convinced my mom, like, ‘Hey, I got this.’ And she’s like, ‘Yeah, okay, just call me when you get home.’”

More on his mother: “And my mother worked for the employment department, finding people jobs. And it’s just, like, one of those things. Where your mother makes $12,000 a year, for years, until the day that she’s laid off. And then she’s not able to provide anything for you other than heat—which was questionable—and a whole lot of love. And I guess the ability to kind of believe in yourself, whenever she wasn’t around. But she did give me that. And I—and I—y’know, the first time that I made”—his voice breaks on the last word—“more money in a day than my mother made in a year of work was the greatest and the worst day of my life. What do I do, really? I just tell stories. And some people like them. And then this woman is working every day, to provide for this child that she doesn’t even get an opportunity to really see.”

[From GQ]

Are we going to discuss the fact that he name-checked William Holden as an unconventionally hot guy?? William Holden was HOT, no qualifiers needed. He was a good-looking man who could also act his ass off. But I do agree with the general sentiment that Hollywood is full of varnished pretty boys and there’s a real dearth of gritty, unconventionally-attractive men. The conversation about his crazy backstory and his “unconventional look” reminds me of Jeremy Renner. This is Renner’s thing too – having an offbeat sexiness and an absolutely bonkers backstory.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red & HBO.