Ian Colletti – Preacher

By: Kelly Kearney

Q) Without spoiling anything can you talk a little bit about what we can look forward to in Angelville and what Eugene will be dealing with now that he’s free from Hell?

Ian: It’s definitely getting crazier. We left off last season on a big cliffhanger; Tulip is (Ruth Negga) dead and now it’s up to Jesse (Dominic Cooper) to go back to his roots, the roots who have often been the cause of all of his problems. Throughout the first two seasons we saw how his past kind of haunted him and now by the third season he’s being driven back to confront some of these things which will be really interesting to explore and see how all these characters deal with that. As for Eugene, the last we saw him at the end of season two he was basically dropped off back into the free world and now there’s a couple of things on his plate. One, he’s accidentally released Hitler (Noah Taylor) back into the world and that obviously will come with some kind of consequences and some of it he will probably have to confront and deal with. The other thing is, he gives a line to Hitler at the end of the second season where he says something along the lines of, “My Dad would love to meet you. He loves watching the History Channel.” It’s a funny line, but it tells us that Eugene has been in Hell all this time and while the viewers found out in season one that everyone in Annville is dead, Eugene doesn’t know that. So, there will obviously be stuff that comes along with that.

Q) How did the role of Eugene (a/k/a Arseface) come to you? What was your audition process like?

Ian: It came to me like any other audition. I’m basically based out of the East Coast, so I just sent in a tape for it. I wasn’t familiar with “Preacher” before I heard about the show, so I saw this character Arseface and I Googled it. I was horrified and totally intrigued as an actor. [laughing] I thought that pilot episode was one of the greatest pilots I ever read. It just went one hundred miles an hour and was so fun and cool and crazy. So, I auditioned and started getting notes back and then I decided to fly out to Los Angeles to see if they would meet with me and they did. And, yeah, I got the gig and it’s been such an awesome ride.

Q) Eugene is known for his rather dramatic facial features. How long does it take to get into Eugene’s skin and what is it like working with such a constricting facial prosthetic?

Ian: It is definitely a challenge. You know, I had never worked in a prosthetic that extreme before, so I didn’t really know what I was taking on. It’s definitely been quite a challenge, but it’s been pretty rewarding as an actor because it’s almost like Greek theater in a sense that you are wearing this mask and it forces you to really stretch as an actor. You have to focus on your eyes and things like that because not only am I wearing a mask, but the dialogue is subtitle, and you can’t always understand what I’m saying. Like, that’s sort of the point of the character so having those kinds of restrictions forces you to kind of communicate with your eyes, which can be challenging at times but also really fun. From a technical perspective, it often takes hours to get into the prosthetic and you’re doing that every day and that can be tough. Putting it on, it’s gotten faster and faster going through the seasons and every make-up artist has their own approach, which I learned that some are faster than others or whatever. Now, we’ve gotten it down to about an hour to an hour and a half, which is awesome and a lot faster than it was in the beginning. There were times it was up to two and a half hours to get it on, but now that we do it every day, or frequently, it makes it easier and we are a bit more of an oiled machine with it. Also, you can’t really eat when you’re wearing it so I’ve come away with a huge respect for these actors like Doug Jones, who wear these massive prosthetics and play these really meaningful characters underneath them. That’s been my goal throughout this and it’s meant so much to me to hear how this character has connected to people on an emotional level. It’s been a really exciting and strange journey as an actor and a lot of fun.

Q) “Preacher” has it all; between the comedy, the blasphemy and the action-packed gory drama each episode takes shocking to a whole new level. If there’s a line, “Preacher” doesn’t just cross it; it leaps over it. So, what was your reaction when you learned your character would be teaming up with the Hell Block’s most conniving dictator, Adolph Hitler?

Ian: Well, I thought it was really interesting and fun and weird. I think it only made sense. [pause] You know, Evan Goldberg was the one who came up with the idea, I believe. We knew we were going to send Eugene to Hell and if he goes to Hell if anybody is going to be there, you know it’s going to be Hitler. What makes this great is there’s all of this juxtaposition in this show with the characters and tonally, some of it is comedic, some of it is dramatic and I think Eugene, he’s always been the moral compass or moral center of the show. He is the one character that really is a true Christian and a true believer and trying to do the right thing without any ulterior motives. So, I think pairing him up with the most evil [sic] person in human history makes for a really interesting conflict, which makes for great television.

Q) There have been a lot of mind-blowing scenes in this show but what was the one that shocked you the most when you read the script and you thought, “I can’t believe we’re doing this?”

Ian: At least for my character, it’s a tie between when we did this whole dream sequence type thing in the first season. Right after Jesse sent Eugene to Hell there was that whole scene in the church where he’s kind of losing it and I crawl up out of the dirt. It was a monster of a scene to film and challenging, but really fun as an actor. It was one of my favorite scenes with Dominic in the whole show. Also, all the stuff last season with Tracy Loach (Gianna LePera) and the extrapolator. The first season, that was all alluded to and talked about, but actually getting to see Eugene’s backstory and what happened with him and Tracy as well as getting to go back and reimagine it again with Jesse those scenes were so strange and sort of funny and awful. Also, tonally going back, it was really interesting because the girl of my dreams blows her head off and it’s horrifying but it’s also sort of a little funny. It’s really uncomfortable and weird to watch so that stuff was very strange and interesting and fun to explore.

Q) Filming the last three seasons must’ve been a wild ride, especially since you filmed in New Orleans. Do you have any fun behind the scenes stories you could share with the fans?

Ian: [pauses] Uh…[laughing] Um. What can I share? We had such a blast in New Orleans and it’s such a fun city. We all have fallen in love with it and, honestly, this job has been such a special one for all of us, the cast to the crew. I think the fans love the show so much because they see these relationships between these characters and they’re such quirky people and then friends with each other on the show. It’s just genuinely, we are all really that close off-screen and have a blast in New Orleans. We probably have more fun than we should at times, but it’s been a good time. [laughing]

Q) Eugene is such an innocent soul whose biggest sin was trusting the wrong guy for advice. If you, Ian, could give Eugene a piece of advice what would it be?

Ian: That’s a good question because I think Eugene is probably a better person than me and probably a lot of us. I would hope, if I could say something to Eugene, it would be, “Don’t be naïve, but also don’t lose the part of yourself that’s kind and compassionate.” I think that’s a quality Eugene has and if we are talking about the world today, if people acted a little bit more like Eugene and had a little more empathy and compassion and forgiveness, it could be a different world than the one we are living in. I would hope that Eugene, even when faced with all these difficult things in his life…I mean he’s lost so much, I would hope he would hold on to some of these core traits of empathy and kindness and goodness. I would just hope he would hold on to that. I hope we could all have a little more of that.

Q) If you could describe this season in three words, what would they be?

Ian: Faster, wilder and more debauchery.

Q) Besides your acting, you’re also a musician and released a single “Love While We’re Young.” How did that come about?

Ian: I’m a musician. I studied music my whole life and have always been interested in recording. That was a song a wrote, recorded and released and I’m writing a lot of new stuff that, hopefully, I’ll release more soon. Right now, you can find my music on Spotify, Apple music and iTunes and all that stuff.

Q) Speaking of music, who would you say has been your musical inspiration and do you have any plans to release more in the future?

Ian: Oh man, gosh, I listen to so many different styles of music. I love artists like The National and Phoebe Bridgers and all kinds of artists like that. People who really focus on the writing and write a lot of emotion into their music. That’s the kind of stuff that always moves me and that’s the stuff I usually write.

Q) Besides “Preacher,” are you working on any other projects the fans can look out for?

Ian: At the moment, I’m just working on my music and waiting to hear if we are going to be doing this again with another season of “Preacher.”

Q) The fans love Eugene and are so happy with how this character translated from the books to the screen. What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of yours and the work that you do?

Ian: Oh, that means the world to me, truly. When it’s one hundred degrees and I’m in the middle of nowhere Louisiana in some swamp dying in a prosthetic, it’s wonderful knowing that fans appreciate and love this show and this character. It really helps me get through the day and its why we do it. I just love making something that people love and connect with. I’m grateful to be able to tell this story. I hope they all enjoy this new season because we all worked really hard on it.