Walton Goggins’ rise to prominence wasn’t instant in the showbiz.

Everyone loves a good rags-to-riches story, and showbiz is full of such examples, with the most notable ones involving the likes of Sylvester Stallone, Demi Moore, Jim Carrey, etc. Walton Goggins, known for leaning into playing morally ambiguous characters, whose recent work involves the Fallout show, shares a similar story, as it took him a while to find his footing in Hollywood.

While Goggins eventually rose to prominence in the 2000s, he didn’t have the smoothest of starts, as during his arrival to LA at the age of 19, he only had a mere $300 under his belt.

Despite his rise being gradual, it turned out to be fruitful.

Walton Goggins Reflects on His Humble Beginnings in LA

Walton Goggins | Fallout (Amazon MGM Studios)
Coming from humble beginnings, Walton Goggins arrived in LA with only $300 under his belt, which was only enough to get him through one month. Fortunately, things didn’t worsen for the actor, as he landed a job at a health club during his first morning in LA. From that point on, Goggins gradually kept on climbing the ladders by starting his own valet parking company to becoming a personal trainer, while also taking small acting gigs on the side.

As a result, by the time The Hateful Eight actor decided to totally devote himself to acting, Goggins had enough to hire a manager, eventually leading him to be cast in The Apostle.

“So I actually continued to have side jobs for five years past the point of needing those jobs. I took all the money I was making from storytelling and just put that in the bank. I lived off what I was making on these side gigs. That’s how I structured my money. And when I finally made the decision to go with acting as the sole income, by then I had my manager. It was when I got the role in ‘The Apostle.’ That’s when I decided I felt confident enough that I had enough cushion to really go for it.”

Despite not being the lead in Robert Duvall‘s acclaimed historical drama, Goggins’ scene-stealing role in the film would pave the way for his eventual rise to prominence with The Shield.

The Higher-Ups at FX Didn’t Initially Want Walton Goggins in The Shield

Goggins recounted that the higher-ups at FX weren’t exactly enthralled to have him, and wanted to fire him right away. Fortunately, Shawn Ryan, one of the writers on The Shield, was familiar with his performance in The Apostle and decided to craft the second episode with his character, Shane Vendrell, in the center. This eventually led to the FX execs changing their stance on the actor.
The Shield | FX
He recalled:

“Well, the very first episode they wanted to fire me — the higher-ups. Shawn Ryan, the creator of the show, said, ‘I just saw this kid in ‘The Apostle,’ let me write an episode for him.’ And so episode number two was really kind of about my character. And [then] the brass saw it and were like, “He’s our guy.”

Since his boom in the 2000s, the actor hasn’t looked back and would go on to collaborate with the likes of Spielberg and Tarantino, and with Fallout proving to be a success, there’s no stopping him.

The Shield is available to stream on Hulu.

Fallout is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.