NPR’s Mia Venkat explains to All Things Considered host Ari Shapiro who the internet has been talking about all week.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Every week, there’s a new main character – someone or something the internet is obsessed with. Well, hosting ALL THINGS CONSIDERED is a busy job, and I can’t always keep up with all the internet discourse. Luckily, one of our resident young people, producer Mia Venkat, is extremely online, and she is here to keep me hip. Mia, do people still say hip?
MIA VENKAT, BYLINE: No.
(LAUGHTER)
SHAPIRO: OK. Well, I’m learning already (laughter).
VENKAT: Hey, that’s why I’m here, Ari (laughter).
SHAPIRO: OK, so tell me, who has the internet become obsessed with this week?
VENKAT: OK, Ari, can I get a drumroll, please?
SHAPIRO: Drum roll (vocalising).
VENKAT: HBO’s “White Lotus” star Walton Goggins.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, “THE WHITE LOTUS”)
WALTON GOGGINS: (As Rick Hatchett) Well, even evil things shouldn’t be treated like [expletive]. It’s only going to make them more evil.
VENKAT: Do you know who he is?
SHAPIRO: Actually, a friend of mine, David Mack, wrote a deep-dive investigative piece on whether he is hot or not.
VENKAT: (Laughter).
SHAPIRO: I’m sorry, David. I didn’t actually read the piece.
VENKAT: (Laughter).
SHAPIRO: But is that why he’s the main character of the week?
VENKAT: It’s part of the reason. And honestly, I don’t really want to talk about it ’cause I think…
SHAPIRO: ‘Cause this is NPR.
VENKAT: This is – ’cause this is NPR, and we’re serious, Ari. But is he hot or not? Let’s get in.
SHAPIRO: (Laughter).
VENKAT: Your friend wrote an article, and let me say, I think it’s one of maybe, like, 20 I’ve seen about the subject.
SHAPIRO: (Laughter).
VENKAT: Here’s one headline from Vogue – Why I’m Hot For Walton Goggins’ Hairline.
SHAPIRO: Oh, he has a high hairline.
VENKAT: (Laughter) It’s – yeah, it’s back there. And here’s another one from Times Of India from this week – Is A Receding Hairline Sexy? – “White Lotus'” Walton Goggins Is Paving The Way.
SHAPIRO: (Laughter) I love framing him as a trailblazer for having a high hairline.
VENKAT: Personally, as a woman of Indian descent, thrilled to see Times of India getting involved in the Goggins goss. But yeah, sure, he has a receding hairline. He’s got kind of, like, big veneers. Like, he’s got…
SHAPIRO: Wild veneers.
VENKAT: … A big smile. But I think what this really comes down to is the tale as old as time, men have no idea what women find attractive.
SHAPIRO: (Laughter).
VENKAT: And people are into Walton Goggins because he has charisma. He’s funny. He’s goofy.
SHAPIRO: Yes. And abs.
VENKAT: Yeah.
SHAPIRO: He has abs.
VENKAT: He does have abs.
SHAPIRO: Come on.
VENKAT: And he’s – and the photoshoots have made that clear. But I think it’s, like, he just has really great vibes, so he’s hot. Like, God forbid a man with a receding hairline, massive veneers, also has good vibes and people are calling him hot.
SHAPIRO: (Laughter).
VENKAT: Do we need a million think pieces on it? Probably not.
SHAPIRO: It reminds me of when Patrick Stewart starred in “Star Trek” back in the ’90s and the debate was over bald men being hot.
VENKAT: (Laughter).
SHAPIRO: This is the 2025 version of that.
VENKAT: Exactly.
SHAPIRO: So is he main character of the week solely because of the hot-or-not debate?
VENKAT: That’s part of it, but another part of it is the double Goggins Sunday.
SHAPIRO: Double – that sounds like a delicious dessert.
VENKAT: (Laughter) So the double Goggins Sunday – so obviously, “White Lotus,” hugely popular HBO show – that’s at 9 p.m. on Sundays. We had our last one with the finale this week. Right afterwards, “The Righteous Gemstones” airs. That’s a show about…
SHAPIRO: Megachurch family.
VENKAT: A big – yeah…
SHAPIRO: Yeah.
VENKAT: …A family that runs a megachurch. It’s really silly. It’s fun. Walton Goggins plays a crazy character on that show. He plays Uncle Baby Billy.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, “THE RIGHTEOUS GEMSTONES”)
GOGGINS: (As Baby Billy Freeman) That’s what I need right there, my own game show.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) Uncle Baby Billy, isn’t this just exactly the pitch for “Family Feud”?
GOGGINS: (As Baby Billy Freeman) It ain’t no “Family Feud.” This is “Baby Billy’s Bible Bonkers.”
VENKAT: Costumey (ph) outfits, wild accent. Just like…
SHAPIRO: They’re yin-yang roles, where…
VENKAT: Totally.
SHAPIRO: …”White Lotus,” he’s all interior brooding, and “The Righteous Gemstones,” he is over-the-top nutso.
VENKAT: Absolutely. And I think a big reason why this week – with it being the last double Goggins Sunday – people are kind of giving him his acting flowers. Like, that is a crazy range to have.
SHAPIRO: The man is acting with a capital ac (ph).
VENKAT: Sure.
(LAUGHTER)
SHAPIRO: So we’ve got is he hot or not, double Goggins Sunday. Is that the totality here?
VENKAT: OK, I’m glad you asked, because this last part, I, as a journalist, struggle to share with you because a lot of it is totally speculative. But there’s a lot of speculation on the intercast dynamic and…
SHAPIRO: Oh, and he has this much younger actress playing his girlfriend on the show.
VENKAT: Yeah. Aimee Lou Wood plays Chelsea, his onscreen girlfriend, and they do have a lot of chemistry on screen. But on top of that, after the show wrapped, they’ve kind of both – especially Goggins has posted a lot about her and about their characters’ love life. And he posted this, like, 18-picture series on his Instagram story of just the two of them together from their time in Thailand. And then she also posted something about Rick and Chelsea, their characters. And both of these respective posts, Ari, were set to the song “Silver Springs” by Fleetwood Mac.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SILVER SPRINGS”)
FLEETWOOD MAC: (Singing) Time cast a spell on you, but you won’t forget me.
VENKAT: And…
SHAPIRO: Bbut to me, this feels like tale as old as time. Like, when “A Star Is Born” came out, Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper were doing exactly this, and the internet reacted in exactly the same way.
VENKAT: That could be part – it could just be a PR thing to get people to watch the show. I think it’s, like – this is kind of like what the internet does, which is make something out of nothing. There’s always going to be investigators online of, like, who unfollowed who and what happened. And no one ever knows. This is all speculative. Obviously, I don’t know.
SHAPIRO: The important part is that all of this allows us to say that this week, the internet has been wearing Goggins goggles.
VENKAT: Ari, do you know that that’s an actual thing?
SHAPIRO: Wait, what? Goggins goggles – I didn’t just make that up in this moment?
VENKAT: Yeah, it’s a sunglass company called Walton Goggins Goggle Glasses.
SHAPIRO: No.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
GOGGINS: Because if your goggles ain’t Goggins, they don’t belong on your noggins.
VENKAT: That’s real.
SHAPIRO: And that is not an endorsement.
VENKAT: And his fangirls are called The Goggins girlies. So this week is for the Goggins Goggles and the Goggins girlies.
SHAPIRO: (Laughter) The Goggins goggles and the Goggins girlies – thank you, Mia Venkat.
VENKAT: Thank you, Ari.
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