One of the great pleasures of HBO’s “The Righteous Gemstones” has always been its performers’ and writers’ belief that there is no such thing as going too far in pursuit of a laugh. This is particularly true of Walton Goggins‘ Uncle Baby Billy character, a role that calls upon Goggins to make himself look and behave as ridiculously as possible week after week — a challenge Goggins not only accepts but transcends week after hilarious week.
Even by “Gemstones” standards, this week’s opening scene was a real attention-grabber, with Goggins waterskiing wearing only a life vest, gleefully letting his manhood flap in the wind. It’s a very funny image made all the more riotous by the peaceful lyricism with which its shot, and by the fearlessness of Goggins’ performance. But the question arises: Is that Walton Goggins‘ actual penis on screen?
“It was not Walton Goggins’ Goggins,” showrunner Danny McBride told IndieWire on an upcoming episode of the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast. “It was not his penis. It was a stunt penis, and it was cast.” McBride noted that it was not the first time Baby Billy showed his member on the show, and thus not the first time a double had to be found given the fact that going full frontal was the one and only thing Goggins refused to do in the series’ four seasons.
“Interestingly enough, we’ve never used the same penis twice,” McBride said. “It was always a different elderly stunt double coming in. And for that particular sequence, we had to have an elderly penis that knew how to waterski.” For the full body shots of Goggins in which we see the actor’s face, the “stunt penis” was meticulously placed via CGI — keen-eyed viewers of the series as a whole will be able to note the continuity issues from episode to episode as Baby Billy’s appendage changes without explanation.
Throughout the series McBride and other directors like David Gordon Green and Jody Hill have embraced full frontal male nudity, often as a way of amusing and surprising each other. “I would show up on set and be like, ‘Why is the intimacy coordinator here?’, and they’re like ‘David has got the guy in the background pantsless,’” McBride said. “Inherently, I just find it funny. There’s something shocking about somebody running around with their penis hanging out.”
“The Righteous Gemstones” airs Sunday nights on HBO and is streaming on Max. To make sure you don’t miss Danny McBride’s upcoming episode of Filmmaker Toolkit, make sure you subscribe to the podcast on Apple, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform.
