Walton Goggins has become known for breathing new life into characters across genres. Most notable is his work on Justified, where his portrayal of Boyd Crowder, who was initially intended to die in the pilot episode, kept the character at the center of the show throughout its six-season run. Through his charisma, emotion, and nuance, Goggins’ Boyd truly stole the show.
Goggins had a similar impact on the comedy series, The Righteous Gemstones. Baby Billy was a supporting character who appeared with increasing frequency, consistently keeping viewers wanting more. Despite Baby Billy’s egregious mistakes, Goggins found the heart within the character that made them fascinatingly sympathetic.
This is exactly the effect Goggins had on Vice Principals, where he played one of his strangest characters to date. Walton Goggins and Danny McBride starred as Lee Russell and Neal Gamby, high school vice principals vying for the new principal’s job. Their plans to oust the principal were increasingly diabolical, with Lee always being the one to take things even further over the line.
Lee was a pathological liar who kept detailed notes on everyone in his life and sought to punish anyone who wronged him. However, he also desperately wanted to fit in, and, for all his heinous behavior, it somehow made him something of an underdog. Meanwhile, his unexpected home life elevated the character into someone truly unprecedented.
In the hands of another actor, Lee could easily have come across as a random combination of personality traits that ultimately culminated in a full-fledged villain, but Walton Goggins brought a depth and emotion that allowed the show’s most heartwarming storylines to work.
Only Walton Goggins Could Pull Off Vice Principals’ Lee Russell
The most compelling element of Lee’s character was also the riskiest. When Vice Principals finally offered a glimpse into Lee’s personal life, it was revealed that he was married to a doctor, Christine, and lived with both her and her mother, Mi-Cha. Mi-Cha didn’t speak English, yet was constantly bickering with Lee. Their house was dimly lit and often had a stiff and somber feeling.
As a southerner who wore clashing patterns and frequently said offensive, inappropriate things, Lee’s relationship with Christine and Mi-Cha was wholly unexpected. Their home had a very different feel from the rest of the show, and the story of Lee’s personal life was almost entirely separate from the show’s main plot. It all ran the risk of feeling random and unnecessary if it didn’t elicit an emotional payoff.
No Matter What Danny McBride’s Next HBO Show Is, It Has To Bring Back Two Things From The Righteous Gemstones & Vice Principals
Danny McBride’s next HBO show is still a mystery, but one thing’s certain: he needs to bring back these two things from his earlier shows.
Yet it soon became clear that Lee loved his life and family. He enjoyed their culture and defended Christine and Mi-Cha from their aggressive neighbors. Most significant, though, was the genuine love for Christine that was visible in Lee’s eyes. She had a calming effect on him, and only when she got him to relax did it become clear how uncomfortably wound he was most of the time.
Walton Goggins managed to find both the humor and the heart in Lee’s home life, and this allowed its distinctiveness within the world of the story to serve a purpose. Lee wasn’t just mean and cruel. He was different and misunderstood, and the vulnerability he allowed himself in the privacy of his home, when he felt truly safe, revealed how deeply this affected him.
Vice Principals Isn’t Perfect, But That Makes Goggins’ Performance Even More Impressive
Vice Principals offered little else to root for beyond Neal and Lee’s success in becoming principals, yet the show did little to redeem their condemning behavior. In their attempts to oust sitting principal Belinda Brown, Neal and Lee burned down her house and dismantled her years of sobriety, blackmailing her with the evidence.
Their retribution for such acts was largely relegated to simply confessing, feeling bad about it, or stopping short of doing something even worse. Even this was primarily part of Neal’s character, with Lee demonstrating very little guilt or morals. Ultimately, though, this underscores the importance of Goggins’ performance.
Lee Russell had every reason to be Vice Principals’ villain, yet Walton Goggins wove an undeniable depth and nuance into the character that demanded attention. Even as he did truly shocking things, there was a pervasive feeling that there was more to his story, that there were more sides to him than the worst things he’d done, no matter how bad they were.
- Release Date
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2016 – 2017-00-00
- Network
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HBO Max
