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The suspenseful conclusion of Fallout Season 2, marked by a cliffhanger phone call between Cooper Howard, played by Walton Goggins, and Robert House, portrayed by Justin Theroux, has left not only fans but also the actors guessing about what’s next.
In a conversation with DECIDER about the finale of the Prime Video series, Justin Theroux, who made his debut as the genuine Robert House in the second season, admitted he’s in the dark about his character’s future in the upcoming third season.
“The show’s creators are just as secretive with us as they are with the audience,” Theroux revealed. He expressed keen interest in discovering what the writers have planned following that intriguing call between House and Cooper Howard.
Reflecting on the pivotal scene, Theroux remarked, “When we filmed that phone call, I remember thinking, ‘Why is House calling to assert his innocence? It wasn’t his doing.’ It’s a mystery we’re all eager to see unfold, especially in relation to Cooper Howard’s transformation into The Ghoul.”
With production on Season 3 set to start soon, the answers are on the horizon. While Robert House might seem all-knowing, Theroux himself remains somewhat out of the loop.
“I haven’t heard anything, phone has not rung,” he said with a laugh. “So we’ll see what happens for House.”
Check out DECIDER’s full interview with Theroux for Fallout Season 2 below.
DECIDER: Let’s start with the finale, because what a way to go out on Season two. Talk to me about your reaction to getting that final script, and especially that phone call.
JUSTIN THEROUX: The phone call to me, yeah, it’s one of those things that when we shot it, I remember thinking, “Why is he calling him to tell him essentially, like I had nothing to do with this. It wasn’t me.” And it’s either to implicate someone else or be self-serving like, “You may need to help me later, so I’m going to curry favor with you and tell you that it wasn’t me.” I don’t know the answer to it, by the way. I don’t have an opinion, but it was a fun call to make.
When you first signed on, did they kind of give you the full scope of what this character might look like from start to finish in Season 2?
He’s a tricky guy, I knew that coming into it. To answer your question, they didn’t give me like “Here’s where he starts and here’s where he ends.” It was kind of that feeling around in the dark, looking for the light switch [feeling] a little bit. And so you shoot your first scene — the first scene we shot was in the bathroom [in Episode 3] — And so I had one sort of take on Robert at that point where and then it sort of informs and colors the next scene that you shoot, and the next scene that you shoot. It all sort of built to the scene in the penthouse, where I invite him over finally. And we have that sort of big throwdown. It was that weird sort of finding it as I was going, I was making certain decisions as we went, but I sort of saw him as sort of like a demented fan of Cooper Howard on one level. And then also, of course, needing him on another level to at least probe him and question him on certain aspects of his own life.
He’s one of the characters that stands really stands out to me, because, unlike many of the others, his primary motivator — especially in the last few episodes — doesn’t seem to be fear. What did you think was his driving force?
I think he’s one of those people that luxuriates in thought and that he loves thinking through things, you know? The joke version of him would be he’s always got that sort of Beautiful Mind algorithmic cloud floating above him. But I always sort of saw him as someone like, who’s playing 12 chess games at the same time. You see those videos of chess masters who sort of walk around just kicking everyone’s ass, you know, moving one piece and playing ten different games. And I sort of see him as that. He’s not warm and fuzzy. He’s not squishy, he’s not emotional. He’s pretty antiseptic. And I sort of liked playing that, you know, because he’s sort of insulated in a way that he gets to just play his true intentions.
And I see him as like a global planner, you know, the same way that people, I would imagine, you know, leaders plan for the future of their countries. He’s one of those people, you know, who’s moving people around. He’s sort of social engineering.
Given that you were playing two characters that are the same but distinctly different, how did you differentiate between these two versions of House?
I wanted him to be a continuous person, you know? And the question that we had to answer for at least the futuristic element, or I guess the present day, is whether he was a real feeling, thinking person. And I made the choice to yes, make him that because I thought it would be very low-stakes poker, if you’ll excuse the pun, if he was just sort of an algorithm or just a feedback machine. Much like the senator who is the disembodied head that Lucy finds. I sort of wanted him to be like that, someone who’s capable of having feelings and desires and wants and also very aware that he’s the only person who, in his mind, doesn’t see The Ghoul as The Ghoul. He sees him as Cooper Howard and a continuation of this man. And it’s one of the wonderful things about Walton’s portrayal is that he’s this multilayered person who is not separated from the person he was. Underneath all those burns and all those wounds, he’s still Cooper Howard. Robert House knows that.
I think that’s a testament to how good Walton Goggins is at having that chemistry with everyone. By the way, have you seen that there’s a faction of the fanbase making edits of House and Cooper Howard? People are shipping these two.
No, I haven’t. It’s funny because, in the bathroom scene in particular, which I said was the first scene we shot, I sort of played him, I wanted to play him a little bit crushing on him and a little bit starstruck, even though he would never admit that. I think he’s probably watched every single one of Cooper Howard’s movies and is a little bit infatuated with him, fanboys out a little bit, but then also thinks he’s better than him. I wanted those colors to come through, so maybe that’s a good thing.
I read that Geneva [Robertson-Dworet] said this doesn’t seem to be the end of Robert House, have there been any musings about Season 3?
As good as they are about having their lips buttoned for the fans, they’re equally like that with the actors. I haven’t heard anything, phone has not rung. So we’ll see what happens for House.
Is there anything that you would hope to get to explore in a third season? I feel like we might need to see some of his backstory.
I’m speaking purely as a fan now, I love an origin story much the same way I love seeing Cooper at a birthday party and a bomb going off. I’d love to see what that event is for Mr House or what that was. I would love to see his origin story, but that’s just curiosity.
I’m wondering what you make of the symmetry in the show to the events that have been unfolding in our country?
I think that’s really good writers being really observant. And seeing which way the wind is blowing and then satirizing. It’s funny, you could say the same thing was true with, like, Watchmen or something. That show was made well before COVID and before the world seemed to fall apart during Black Lives Matter, and yet it was right on the nose. So I think good artists and good artistry can sort of predict those sorts of events just by reflecting them, you know? And I think that’s what those writers did.
I’ve seen a lot of the fan base say that they are upset that the show is getting political, which is wild because the game has always been political.
My guess is the people who are being vocal about it, and this is a guess, are probably being vocal about it because it’s being critical or it’s forcing the kind of critical thinking that doesn’t necessarily support their worldview. So maybe that has something to do with it.
The full second season of Fallout is now streaming on Prime Video.