Aaron Moten On Keeping Maximus’ Soul Intact for ‘Fallout’

Aaron Moten’s return as Maximus in Prime Video’s Fallout let him see the joy of really fighting it out with some of the most dangerous creatures in the Wasteland. Yet also there was emotional damage due to the lifestyle he has been living with for most of the series. Maximus has kept his soul intact through it all, and Moten details where he sees those values coming from. The journey he has been on has given him a level of hope, but also the realization that the darkness of the Wasteland tests everyone even in its funny moments.

The Contending: Maximus, even when he is Quintus’s golden boy, is obviously very unsatisfied with the Brotherhood of Steel. What was it like trying to convey that through subtle facial movements and a few lines of dialogue?

Aaron Moten: Oh, yes, it was super challenging but when the words do come out, I remember us knowing that it was really important to get them right. I think what was originally written in that conversation between Quintus and Maximus was we talked about Ghoul kids and Maximus said, but they’re children. And I think we decided to replace “kids” throughout the argument with “children,” because I thought that’s a better operative. It’s about what he would relate to in this moment, and why he had to react the way that he did, and why he had to kill Xander. For him those children were exactly how the Brotherhood found him.

If Maximus would have had some mutation through no fault of his own, Quintus would have shot him on sight. So it was challenging to get that across. That is why I love working on film, because it makes me really know that when we’ve got something, we’ve got it. Or trying something else to give our incredible editor Ali (Comperchio) on this show as many choices as we can in the editing room so she can put it together. It’s really about preparing yourself every day for the super challenging experiences that Maximus goes through.

The Contending: Were you as surprised as the fans were when Maximus killed Xander Harkness (Kumail Nanjiani) so quickly after he was introduced? And what was it like bonding with him to build up to that tragic moment?

Aaron Moten: Bonding with him was really, really fun. I really enjoyed working with Kumail. And it was surprising but in a different way. I knew that plot beat even before I read the script because I sat with Geneva, and I talked about the entire arc of the season. So I knew it was going to happen but I was having such a good time with Kumail that I was like, Wait. Wait, are we already here? It was only two episodes and I was thinking, this is gonna be fun, when we were doing the first one. Then I told him, I’m so happy to have you here, and then Kumail was like, well, I’m gone.

Kumail is a brilliant filmmaker as well as an actor, and I consider myself the same in my mind. And I hope that the rest of the world gets to see what I am cooking up in my spare time. So I appreciate working with someone else who cares as much about focal length and storytelling for the camera as I do, and I found that in Kumail.

The Contending: One of the most heart wrenching moments is when Quintus is first dealing with the fact that Harkness is there, and Maximus offhandedly suggests, I could kill him. And the way he dismisses Maximus, it was almost like a father saying, I never loved you. Was that a hard sequence to get across, all that emotion?

Aaron Moten: Yes. But it was hard for me not as the character Maximus but as Aaron. I can be temperamental, and sensitive Maximus has that same sort of sensitivity, but he makes different choices than I would. I think a lot of the challenge of that moment as written was truly about me needing to let go of the things that I would do to someone who spoke to me that way. I don’t think it was a sense of pride; it was more that I would say let’s figure this out.

There’s this snowball that’s growing between the two of them as it’s rolling down the mountain. This isn’t the biggest development in terms of where that story goes, but it is a red flag to remind us there’s something that’s always been wrong with Maximus and the Brotherhood. There’s a reason there’s a chasm here, like, what is that? And I do think that it’s on the return after the killing of Xander that we get into that conversation between Maximus and Quintus where we learn, there’s just something morally that Maximus sees differently. That the structure of the Brotherhood is really not going to work for him if they can’t see the logic that Maximus sees.

The Contending: That morality is seriously touched on in another scene where Maximus and Thaddeus are having that conversation about can there really be a good person, or is it just that someone who’s had a comfortable life can afford to be a good person? The conversation doesn’t really state whether either one of them is right or wrong, but it is a good showing of their world viewpoints. I’m curious, do you think Maximus will keep the morals he has, considering all that’s been going on in his life there? Or do you think he’ll start to see things the way Thaddeus does?

Aaron Moten: I think that at least where I find fun is in the moral challenges. Especially with Fallout, when we really can be constantly naturally funny in circumstances, as well as be in the darkness. We are always trying to have our feet firmly planted in the gutter. I think that Maximus is always reaching for the stars, and I think that he will continue to because I think that’s his core. I think he’s always been in conversation with his parents and what they would want for him, and that connection he’s never been able to shake because it is his core.

But as he continues to change and grow I do wonder whether he will compromise that belief and I wonder the same for Lucy. We know that the Ghoul is very willing to compromise, not just for survival, but for the family that he’s been searching for for 200 years. So I think the core will be the same even if he has to do something darker.

The Contending: The biggest action moment of the season is the power armor battle against the Deathclaws. And obviously, that’s not real, per se, as compared to some of the other stuff. But the exhaustion you’re going through when we cut inside the suit. And that truly brave moment when you’re out of the suit, you’ve grabbed literally a roulette table and a pool cue, and you have it on your face that I am going to die. There is no surviving this, but I’m going to make that last stand. Was it hard to get across all of that violence that was going on and the sense of dread?

Aaron Moten: No. I mean, there’s so much even right before the battle goes south. There’s so much joy. Emotionally, Maximus doesn’t get to express a lot of joy. He is constantly under pressure. So I think it was really important for us to hit the full spectrum that we could between this joy of, God, how great would that feel to realize when you’re about to stand off against a couple of Deathclaws, you’ve got a mortar on your back! Let’s really let him experience that, and then let’s see this slide toward despair. We got to see glimpses of that in the first season where Maximus gets jumped by all these guys when they’re trying to take his suit in the junkyard outside of Philly. He just gets destroyed. But then there’s this moment when he stands up with the toilet lid and the wrench, and fights back. It’s that same thing. It’s that connection. It’s whatever really could drive any of us. We keep doing it with him, but now we’ve shown his backstory to the rest of the audience in season two. So we know the superpower he’s ever been given in his life is the core that his parents instilled in him to do his best.

Also that scene took us two weeks to film, including the inside-the-helmet work. That was a big undertaking for this show and I really wanted to give every day, every moment a pure honesty, truly, as best as I could. The beginning joy all the way to despair and submitting to the moment, because I think Maximus is a better hero, and he’s starting to learn that when he submits to the moment that’s when he is truly a hero. It’s when he tries to be a hero, he tries to do something heroic that usually ends up bad. Like freeing Lucy’s father, or arresting the chicken farmer and not the chicken assaulter. So just submitting to his core and becoming a little bit more himself was great.

The Contending: Well, speaking of the joy that we don’t get to see. At the end of this season he’s in the best place we’ve ever seen him. He’s found Lucy and they’ve reconnected on this great level. The California New Republic is there, so he feels like he is with his people. But now there’s also a huge invasion happening. What was that like for you to get his character into that place? Do you think he is in a better place?

Aaron Moten: Yeah, I do. I also really love that his last line of the series to Lucy is “Welcome to the Wasteland.” What they see in each other, whether it’s the goodness they internally have, but there’s something that they can’t put into words. I’m a big believer that we as people are always attempting to reach that experience of finding that person and so often it’s a failure. I think that whenever we succeed at it, it’s like the greatest miracle. Maximus has never had someone next to him to say, This is just kind of what happens out here, and he gets to give that to her. That really shows his love and his care. We tried that scene a couple of different ways, we even did it without any dialogue. It was just them seeing the Legion coming to Vega and the look of worry on their faces. Maximus reaches out and takes her hand and they make eye contact with them knowing that they are in this together–they are not facing this alone. It was a really special moment, and I’m glad we kept the line in, because I think that it really hit a depth of that experience they both have been going through in multiple different ways.

Fallout is streaming now on Prime Video.