[Editor’s note: The following contains some spoilers for Season 4 of The Righteous Gemstones.]
Summary
- Saying goodbye to ‘The Righteous Gemstones’ with its current final season was bittersweet for the cast, who have loved working on the HBO series.
- Baby Billy’s journey takes him down the path of his Teen Jesus TV series ‘Teenjus’ with his ever-evolving wardrobe.
- Four seasons culminate with emotional goodbyes and joyous memories for the cast and crew.
Created, written and executive produced by Danny McBride, the HBO series The Righteous Gemstones, currently in its fourth and final season, follows the celebrity televangelist family who may bicker constantly, but who also love each other and have each other’s backs through anything and everything, no matter how wild the idea. And while Baby Billy Freeman (Walton Goggins) seems to always be chasing money and fame, whether it’s the game show Baby Billy’s Bible Bonkers or the teen Jesus drama Teenjus, no one can keep him from success.
During this one-on-one interview with Collider, which Goggins was gracious enough to do after coming off a 15-hour day of shooting Season 2 of Fallout, he talked about how bittersweet it is to say goodbye to The Righteous Gemstones and Baby Billy with this last season, leaning into the fun, the very memorable wardrobe, what he thought of Teenjus, why he needed more than one dick double, and what a great time they all had making the series for four seasons.
Walton Goggins’ Last Day of Shooting ‘The Righteous Gemstones’ Was a Very Memorable One
“I don’t think anyone really knew that this was going to be the last season.”
Collider: I’m so sad to say goodbye to Baby Billy, with this being the last season of The Righteous Gemstones. What’s it like to be done with Baby Billy? I can’t imagine that a little piece of him won’t always live in you in some way.
WALTON GOGGINS: I think all of us are sad. Devastated is not the right word, but it is bittersweet, watching it with everyone. I don’t think anyone really knew that this was going to be the last season. Maybe Danny didn’t even know either. I can’t speak for him, but it was through the telling of this story that all of these forces conspired to bring the ending and tie it up with this bow in a way that just felt so satisfying. At the beginning of this season, I don’t think any of us were really prepared to say goodbye. And the last day of filming, a lot of us were around a table for a big family meal. That was the last day of shooting. And then, all of a sudden, these emotions came out for everyone. It was like, “Oh, my God, no. Is that it? Is that what we’re doing?” And of course, it was with a monkey jacking off. What better way to spend the last day of your four-year journey on The Righteous Gemstones.
Similarly to missing this character, what will you miss about his wardrobe? The wardrobe has just had its own journey over four seasons
GOGGINS: It really has. There are so many things I’m going to miss about this, but first and foremost, he’s so much fun to play. He is so joyful and he makes me laugh. If you really go back to it, in Season 1 and Season 2, Baby Billy had a pretty emotional journey. They were funny, for sure, but there was a heaviness to his experience, certainly with his sister and everything like that. And then, Danny [McBride] said, last season, “I just want you to be funny Baby. Let’s just lean into funny Baby.” And the same thing applied to this season. I just had so much joy doing it. Being the end was just very, very sad. His clothing has gone from the guy who was denied all of it, the outsider that that life didn’t work out for, to two hit TV shows, a gold ring, and a relatively nice house and a super-nice car. It’s so much fun. And both our wardrobe designers just had such a ball with this guy. I never questioned anything that they put on me, whether it was the clamshell or all of the outfits from this year. I just said, “Whatever you want to do. Just use me, and I’ll be there.”
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After you spent time as Baby Billy with his very specific look, was it weird to then do the whole Teenjus thing with the long brown wig?
GOGGINS: I didn’t know that. At the beginning of this season, I didn’t have a chance to read all the scripts and I don’t even think that all of them were available. I knew that I had a big singing number early in the season to open this big show, so I just put all my energy into that. I really didn’t have any energy left coming into this experience. I expended all of it in Thailand. I talked to Danny, more than a few times coming into it, and said, “Man, I’m going to be slow out of the gate, buddy. Just please bear with me until I get my bearings.” And then, halfway through the season, he said, “Oh, you have another number.” I said, “What do you mean?” He said, “It’s this rap song. It’s this whole thing. It’s called Teenjus.”
So, I don’t even know that, out of the gate. It wasn’t until I was there for a month that I realized what he had up his sleeve. And then, I read it and I read Baby as an actor stepping into this role, and it just made me laugh. It was so funny. And Jonathan Watson directed a couple of those episodes, especially the one with the Teenjus dance and stepping into the role. For that dance, in particular, they had this whole choreographed thing with all of these dancers, and I just said, “No, no, no, no choreography for me. Just clear me a circle and then play it and just let me do my thing the way that he would do it.” And then, the way that Danny ended that story, looking at the cross, it was so much fun, really.
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“This is what a man looks like!”
Are you surprised that it took four seasons to get to an episode where Baby Belly is swinging his dick around in front of the Gemstones? What was your reaction to finding out about that scene?
GOGGINS: First and foremost, it was, “I hope Danny doesn’t want me to use my real penis.” I was like, “I’ll do anything for you, buddy, but I can’t show my penis.” When we were getting ready to do it, the line that just stayed with me was, “This is what a man looks like!” It all came from that, really. Baby has a fixation with his penis, certainly in the scene in episode two that he has, but then later on, when he’s talking about Eli’s masculinity and touching his own penis again. I don’t know what it is, but it is very funny.
And then, you find out about naked water skiing.
GOGGINS: God, I forgot about that! I forgot about the naked water-skiing. I forgot all about that. They were worried about that. They said, “Can you water ski?” And I said, “Don’t worry about it. I know how to water ski, so much so that I’ll just water ski across the pond right into my close up, close to the boat.” It was so hairy, but in the best way. It was so much fun. I forgot that you see my penis in that. That’s a different penis, by the way. That’s a different stunt penis. It was a stuntman’s penis because it was water-skiing. I think the original dick double didn’t know how to water ski, so they had to figure that out.
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At least Baby Billy is having a memorable last season.
GOGGINS: I’m going to miss everyone so much. I’m going to miss Charleston so much. The place was as important as the story and the familial aspect of this. We are all very, very tight. Everyone in that cast are some of the funniest people I know and just at the top of their game. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life and one of the most joyous experiences of my life.
‘The Righteous Gemstones’ Walton Goggins Is Going to Miss Playing Baby Billy
“It was truly one of those great joyous moments in our lives.”
Baby Billy has made decisions that have not exactly been necessarily decisions other people would make. He’s made some questionable choices in the things that he’s done. But he’s always wanted everyone to find their happiness. Was it nice to see the Gemstones get to that place?
GOGGINS: They all love each other, and they always did love each other. That’s the journey for so many of us. Is status important or is family important? Is material wealth important or is a deep understanding and a relationship with your God important? What is important? I think every member of this family would say, “Well, your relationship with God is very important, as long as you have Gucci loafers on and you have an Italian pair of pants on that you can kneel down at the altar in.” Ultimately, I think that’s what it is. What Danny has to say in the finale is sublime. He goes big to get really, really, really small and intimate, and he does it better than anyone. For all of us that have been at this for four years, I bet if you took a poll of everybody in front of and behind the camera, this was the experience that they looked forward to most in their life, coming back to the six, seven, or sometimes eight months to tell this story. It was truly one of those great, joyous moments in our lives.
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The Righteous Gemstones are on HBO and is available to stream on Max. Check out the Season 4 trailer:
