Walton Goggins talks new CBS show "The Unicorn"

Academy Award winner Walton Goggins has played more than 70 roles in movie and TV shows. Now he is starring of the new CBS series "The Unicorn," which premieres Thursday night.  

On "The Unicorn," Goggins plays Wade, a father and widower who is getting into dating with a little help from his friends. Goggins views the show as a way of looking at life on the other side of tragedy. 

"His wife passed away and he has two daughters, and yeah, at first glance it wouldn't be funny," he said, speaking of his character. "But pain and joy are infused with absurdity. And that's what life is. Life is funny in those moments. And this is a story about his community coming together to help him learn how to live again." 

Goggins joked about how much the dating world has changed for his character, Wade, who is middle aged and begins using smartphone apps to find dates. 

"It's like being dropped off on Mars, to be quite honest with you," he said to laughter. "It's a show about dating but it's about learning how to live again. And it's about community, and it's about kindness, and it's earnest and it's from the heart. And it's absurd. And the comedy is born out of all these situations." 

"For us as people, the thing that unifies us all is struggle," he said. "We all go through difficult times in our life, whether you go through a divorce, or you've lost a job, or you have an aging parent. They're all new normals and we all have to learn how to adapt to new situations."  

Goggins said he learned through his character that online dating is "exhausting." He also spoke about how even though he's been able to perform a variety of roles in his career, he deeply identifies with Wade. 

"The opportunities I've been given over the course of my career, more often than not I've been able to kind of hide behind something," he said. "But 'The Unicorn' is me. That's the relationship I have with my son, with my wife, with our group of friends. What these people go through on the show is what I have to go through getting out of the house." 

At the beginning of his career, Goggins left his home state of Georgia and arrived in California with $300 in his pocket. And an accent to boot. 

"I only ever wanted to see the world," he said. "That was the most important thing for me. And while I did come to Los Angeles in a way to become an actor, it was really about understanding people. And listening to stories. And I've always loved hearing people's stories. And it worked out for me."