The third season of The Righteous Gemstones brings together one of TV’s more impressive comedic casts, with established players like Danny McBride, Edi Patterson, Adam Devine, and John Goodman playing off an ensemble that also includes Walton Goggins, Tim Baltz, Tony Cavalero, and Cassidy Freeman — and not all of them can keep a straight face during a take.
Filming, Goggins tells Consequence during a recent press day, is “awesome, man. I don’t know if anybody’s having as good a time as we are.” He says this just before he confirms how much fun he in particular is having while playing “Baby” Billy Freeman, uncle to the Gemstone children and one of the show’s wildest characters.
For, when I ask the cast about who might break the most on set, at first some people hesitate in their responses. “I don’t really know,” creator/star McBride says initially. “It’s like I find myself getting tickled by everybody all the time. But I don’t know who does it the most.”
However, Goggins is quick to declare himself the biggest offender, something which his fellow castmates easily agree with (after finding out that he’d outed himself). “I’m not even ashamed of it,” Goggins says. “I’ve ruined some great takes for people, because I can’t hold it together. I’m just not good at that — I see it, I laugh. I laugh at everything that everybody else does.”
In fact, Goggins adds, “Sometimes, what I’m saying is so outrageous that I ruin my own take.”
Says Devine, “He’s a fantastic actor, but when he finds something funny, it’s hard for him to get past it.”
“The thing that amazes me is the domino effect,” Freeman notes. “There was a scene that we were doing with Baby Billy when he comes in… Sometimes he just goes so hard for it that he makes himself laugh. And then it’s just like this huge domino effect. But it’s so endearing. It’s like this total moment for everyone to just be on the same page and lose it and be in that moment. It’s fun.”
The Righteous Gemstones (HBO)
