Fallout Star Sarita Choudhury Talks Moldaver's Mysterious Past & Teases Season 2 Return

Warning: Major SPOILERS lie ahead for Fallout season 1!

Summary Sarita Choudhury relished the opportunity to play both a "villainness" and an empowered woman in Fallout.

Despite the show keeping it a mystery, the star confirms she "knows some" of how Lee Moldaver survived the nuclear apocalypse, though can't share details yet.

Choudhury was also left speechless in working with Walton Goggins in the two timelines of Fallout.

Not everyone in the Wasteland is as malicious as they seem, as revealed in the Fallout season 1 ending. One of the big antagonists across Prime Video's game adaptation is that of Sarita Choudhury's Lee Moldaver, the leader of a group of raiders who kidnaps Kyle MacLachlan's Hank for an unknown purpose. This serves as the catalyst for Ella Purnell's Lucy to venture into the Wasteland from Vault 33, learning the stark truths of what the world has become in her hopes of saving her father.

Through flashbacks and the Fallout season 1 ending, it's revealed that Moldaver is actually a scientist named Ms. Williams from before the nuclear war who had been working on experimental cold fusion technology that would provide limitless power to everyone. Following the bombs dropping, Williams established the New California Republic and the city of Shady Sands, where she sought to restore some semblance of order to the post-apocalypse. In her time there, she met Lucy's mother, Rose, and offered to take her, Lucy, and her brother Norm in to get away from the controlling Hank.

Related The World Of Fallout Explained In celebration of Fallout's release on Prime Video, here's Screen Rant's complete guide to the franchise's characters, locations, lore, and changes.

This, in turn, led to Hank taking his kids away from Rose and destroying the city with a nuclear bomb, transforming their mother into a feral Ghoul and putting Moldaver on a path of vengeance against him and Vault-Tec for her death and the stealing of her cold fusion technology. The Fallout ending sees Moldaver successfully recover the technology and use it to restore power to the dilapidated Shady Sands, though dies after the Brotherhood of Steel moves in on her position.

After the show's massive premiere, Screen Rant interviewed Sarita Choudhury to discuss Fallout, Moldaver's mysterious past, the unanswered questions regarding her character heading into season 2, and finding the unique looks for both her pre-war and post-war character.

Choudhury Is "Super Proud" Of Moldaver's Fallout Arc (Including 1 Scene Without Her)

As is characteristic of the games, Fallout's Moldaver is far more complex of a character than the "extreme kind of villainness" initially presented in the show's premiere. For Choudhury, she feels "super proud" of just how well the show explores her various layers, including one key scene related to her character that she's not actually in:

Sarita Choudhury: When I saw that scene of the cult situation I was like, "Whoa, it's wild." The show, I love it, which I'm not just saying that, and it has so many tones and levels that you kind of have to make sure you're part of. And I'm just kind of impressed that all these different kinds of characters work in this setting, where there's also a very retro feel. The music editing blew my mind. Yeah, I'm just super proud.

The reveal that Moldaver actually existed well before the bombs dropped also resulted in Choudhury donning two very different appearances in the show. The star detailed just how involved she was with the hair, makeup, and costume department to craft the unique looks of her characters, wanting one moment in particular to shine thanks to her outfit:

Sarita Choudhury: It was so fun, because I knew that episode 1 would have this extreme kind of villainness. So it was so exciting when we head into the scientist with the pin curls. Even the skirt, the way it was tapered. I wanted to have a certain walk, because I love scenes in movies where you hear the clicking of heels in long corridors. And I knew there was one [in the scene] and I was like, "Oh, good. This skirt makes me move a certain way," and the austerity but yet — she's feminine, but it comes from her knowledge. It was great working on it. I loved it.

Choudhury "Knows Some" Of How Moldaver Survived The War (But Her Lips Are Sealed)

Though the show did well to answer many of the lingering mysteries set up throughout its run, one unique element in regard to Moldaver is just how she survived Fallout's nuclear apocalypse. In flashbacks, she was a stark detractor of Vault-Tec, seemingly knowing of their plans to destroy the world for business, yet the show establishes the two ways for characters to have survived for the 200-plus years since the bomb drops were the Vault-Tec cryosleep tubes or transforming into a Ghoul. Choudhury teased she "knows some" of how Moldaver survived, but has to remain silent for now:

Sarita Choudhury: Having conversations with [Jonah Nolan, Graham Wagner & Geneva Robertson-Dworet], every actor wanted, they were the most coveted people when they came on set. I thought it was just me, but then I would see Kyle, like, "Ooh, Graham, Geneva, can I?" [Chuckles] And I was like, "Oh my god, we're all in this boat of these questions that are everything." To which Graham and Geneva could answer some, but on purpose, they couldn't answer all, and that's one of them. I know some, which I'm not allowed to say. But it was my main question, obviously. So, it would be yours, and hopefully it will be revealed if there is more life in Fallout.

Watching Walton Goggins As Both The Ghoul & Cooper Howard Was "Shocking" For Choudhury

In addition to confronting Hank, the Fallout season 1 ending marks a major turning point for Moldaver as she sees Walton Goggins' The Ghoul, whom she previously knew as Cooper Howard and had tried to recruit in her efforts to expose Vault-Tec's schemes. For Choudhury, the opportunity to see Goggins as the two very different sides of the same coin was "shocking", and she recalled being speechless about working with him in both iterations:

Sarita Choudhury: When I would see Walton show up on set — even though we were, like you said, in the same set, I would just be staring at him. I would have to be like, "Sarita, stop it. What are you doing?" Even his swagger, let alone the makeup. And then, I worked with him when he's Cooper and in his jacket. I didn't even say anything to him, that's how shocked I was, because I was just [speechless]. So well done, so extreme.

About Fallout

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Based on one of the greatest video game series of all time, Fallout is the story of haves and have-nots in a world in which there’s almost nothing left to have. Two hundred years after the apocalypse, the gentle denizens of luxury fallout shelters are forced to return to the irradiated hellscape their ancestors left behind — and are shocked to discover an incredibly complex, gleefully weird, and highly violent universe waiting for them.

Ella Purnell is Lucy, an optimistic Vault Dweller with an all-American can-do spirit. Her peaceful and idealistic nature is tested when she is forced to the surface to rescue her father. Aaron Moten is Maximus, a young soldier who rises to the rank of squire in the militaristic faction called Brotherhood of Steel. He will do anything to further the Brotherhood’s goals of bringing law and order to the wasteland. Walton Goggins is the Ghoul, a morally ambiguous bounty hunter who holds within him a 200-year history of the post-nuclear world. These disparate parties collide when chasing an artifact from an enigmatic researcher that has the potential to radically change the power dynamic in this world.

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All of Fallout season 1 is available to stream on Prime Video.

Source: Screen Rant Plus