But the other half of the time, Goggins explained, he just needed something to stay sane. He also plays “the Ghoul,” a mutated form of Cooper who became a deadly bounty hunter after surviving the end of the world. In many episodes, Goggins switches between playing the Ghoul (in the present) and Cooper (in flashbacks). When he had to sink into the Ghoul’s ruthless mindset—and spend hours getting prosthetics applied—the actor immersed himself in tales of gunslingers, he said, so “I don’t lose my mind.”