Preacher – Comic Con 2018

By starrymag | July 28, 2018

By: Heather Tollis

 

 

Q) Talk about Tulip’s rejection of Cassidy and if he’ll be able to move on from it.

Tulip: I think it’s her way of saving him really. I think it’s sort of sacrificing her relationship since she thinks he’s in danger. I think it’s more of a sort of act of love. I think she genuinely just wants to be honest with him. She could have gone away and gone about it a different way and that would have been easier, but I think she loves him so she wants to be as honest as possible. I think you see kind of in that scene how much it really hurts things. It costs her a lot and I think it’s part of her sort of maturity and her evolution. I think it’s a big part of this season for her.

Joseph: I think it needed to be like that as well. Because he’s pushing and pushing and pushing and she’ll ignore Cassidy. There have been moments where we shot scenes where Tulip kind of presumed…We were in Dennis’ kitchen. Long story short, Cassidy I think needed to hear it that way otherwise he would have just kept pushing. Some people need love and you have to be cruel to be kind sometimes and that’s what she did. She did it to protect him and their friendship as well. She gave him some time to piss off and work it off on his own.

Q) The Missouri cowboy that showed up in Jesse’s hallucination was kind of like John Wayne. Why now bring in the character of John Wayne as opposed to in the first season where he is obviously a close friend of Jesse in the comics?

Evan: At a certain part, we weren’t going to do John Wayne at all. I’m not sure why, but it sort of made sense here to us story-wise. John Wayne was sort of a childhood coping mechanism and someone he sort of imagined to give him an ideal hero – like the guy who will always tell him to toughen up. It sort of felt like a good idea. We kind of do homages to Westerns on the show that it felt like a good opportunity to see Jesse in a Western.

Seth: And I think at the start of the show there was just so much weird shit that we were like, “Do we also need the main guy to have John Wayne as an imaginary friend?” [laughs] That might be one weird thing too many.

Q) The one name that people keep bringing up with redemptive scenarios for T.C. What was your mindset in building upon the character of the mindset and can you tease any sense of where his journey is going this season?

Sam: I think the starting thing is that it is a little bit less gross than it was in the comics. [laughs] Well, I think it’s sort of like Colin’s [Cunningham] audition. He’s talking to Cassidy about this dream that he had and he was able to sort of be a lovable rapist in his mind and there is something sort of sweet about him as well as dark and frightful. He’s excellent and I’m not surprised that he is the hit of the audience. We’ll see what happens.

Joseph: Have you seen how built he is? That guy is built like a brick shithouse. He’s got the most incredible mug. [laughs]

Q) Ruth, your character Tulip is a strong woman who isn’t afraid to be on her own or afraid to get what she wants. Can you share with us a favorite scene where you felt most like Tulip and maybe Joseph and Dominic can share the same for their characters?

Ruth: Gosh. There are so, so many. I really enjoyed working with Colin [Cunningham]. I very much think Tulip has come into her own. I feel like, for me, it’s quite freeing that she’s independent while still being with Jesse. I think this, for her, is like being with family. She’s sort of solidified her sense of self and who she is. I think she’s not being apologetic for who she is and owning her flaws. I think she’s becoming kind of a superhero. I think it’s just her general journey for me.

Q) Seth, you’re primarily known for comedy before diving into “Preacher.” What was AMC’s reaction to being pitched by two comedy writers a show that has a more serious tone?

Seth: Luckily, a lot of people don’t’ think we’re that funny. [laughs] We had made the first movie 50/50, which was not a comedy and This is the End was the next movie we made. Although, it is a comedy there are a lot of genre elements that I think the show actually shares. We were actually surprised at how open people were to us doing it. I think the thing that seems to be missing from every other attempt at it was the world of “Preacher” having a lot of comedy. The book has a lot of comedy in it and when you look at the people who tried to make this before us, the word “comedy” doesn’t come to mind. [laughs] So, I think that was one of the things that honestly made our version of it a little different and maybe actually more digestible in some ways because we were doing it with a bit of a wink and a smile. If you take yourself too seriously, you’re not doing yourself any favors.

Q) Last season we saw Jesse kind of being pulled away from the trio due to his power. Are we going to see thaem brought back together to defeat the big bad, which seems to be Jesse’s family?

Dominic: I hope so. For Jesse, it’s a very stressful time. He’s made a decision and he feels truly guilty for it. He was very clear on friendship and how he feels he’s handled it. He’s not in a promising place and would do anything to get back to the promising person who he was in that situation. And he’s having to push Cassidy away in order to save him. They are sort of discovering things about their past and trying to deal with it. At the moment their all on their own journeys and Jesse has his family to deal with in order to save Tulip’s life. I hope they are together again, but right now their relationship is very strained. Hopefully, they will survive it.

Joseph: Even early on any conversation they had about firendhsip was that they’d beled for each other. That’s the kind of friendship it is. The relationship between Cassidy and Jesse has those long conversations where you never agree on a fuckign thing. Supposedly their relationship was forged under their conditions. If it survives, personally, I don’t think it will be the same again.

Q) Now that we’re getting even more information about Jesse’s past and how much more tortured he really is, how are you playing that as you are going deep into the character and expressing those emotions?

Dominic: It’s absolutely amazing. Each episode, each script, comes along with each subject and all characters – I feel like we’ve only scratched the surface with what is being revealed. There is a much, much darker side and we’re learning more about his grandmother and the things he’s witnessed. It informs the decisions that you actually make. We are starting to see how much he has had to restrain himself from indulging too much in the brutality. Yeah, I keep rewatching the things that he’s done and it’s awful the things he did as a child. They are terrible things and he has awful memories to live with. It colors certainly the audience’s perception of who he is. Tha tis the heart of it of how this entity is still so confusing and why this thing existed in him. He has half the blood of his grandma, which is a part of his heritage. It’s that constantly struggle, as we all do, with trying to better ourselves with the parts that we don’t like. It makes it all the more exhilarating and enjoyable to play each time you get a script.

Q) How often at this point do you find yourselves going back to the comicbooks and how much is it you doing your own thing?

Sam: We constantly have the comics in the writers’ room and we have Steve Dillon’s artwork up as a constant source of inspiration and reference. I feel like this season there is probably more stuff from Garth [Ennis] and Steve’s graphic novel than in previous seasons. We’re hoping to get through all of them, as much as we possibly can. I mean, it just takes time. I think there was a version last year when we were breaking Season 2 we were going to get to Angelville in the middle of the year and get to grandma and it just felt like we were sort of giving ourselves the short stick and we weren’t spending enough time with our stars. We really wanted to get into the world of Angelville because it is such an important part of the comics. So, we really wanted to be able to spend time.

Q) The Devil is portrayed as a tough guy with a sense of humor. I was just wondering what made you pick this incarnation instead of where the devil was the morningstar – this beautiful angel?

Writer: That’s kind of the way the comic was, with a more English twist. We kind of Americanized it a bit, but it was the attitude of Satan who was kind of just a thug.

Seth: The walk that Saint takes to get to that is visually pretty much exactly from the comics.

Q) I like that you dug deeper into the backgrounds of the characters and connect with them a lot more. One thing about Cassidy is that in the comic series is his sunglasses and I don’t see that at all in the series. I’m curious if that will come later?

Seth: Mostly, we were just like it would be great to see Joe’s eyes because he’s so awesome. [laughs]

Joseph: Only dickheads wear shades indoors. I’m sorry, but there is no reason to wear shades in doors unless you’re trying to be cool.

Seth: In the comic book he has kind of red, gnarled eyes.

Evan: And it would kind of make people think early on that he was a devil or something.

Q) Are we going to get any backstory on the grandmother? Betty Buckley has given her such a human side where you almost feel sympathy for her.

Sam: A little bit…Sure. You learn a lot more about what makes grandma tick in the last episode. I don’t know if you’ll still be sympathetic. It really depends on who you are and your moral standards. If they are low, you’ll like her. Betty Buckley is great in the real and she has just got reams and reams of backstory that maybe we will publish on a website. I don’t know if we know entirely about it. It’s great that she is sympathetic and complex and stuff like that, but we definitely wanted to make sure that we honored this idea of Gran’ma and she is a villain. She really is Jesse’s greatest antagonist up to this point. But Betty has just taken the role and run with it. I think it makes it creepier that she loves Jesse. It’s just really disturbing. Love is scarce in Jesse’s world and background that whatever fucked up shit she’s done to him, his family and parents and the fucked up stuff she’ll do in the future that there is no doubt that she love shim. In the “Preacher” world that’s a very valuable commodity.

Q) Over the course of the series you’ve gotten to know the characters is there any particular aspect of them that you have struggled with connected to?

Joseph: I was depressed last year. I’m bi-polar. And last year was a tough year, actually. That’s not to say I didn’t have a good time, but there were moments where in your career where eyou get that way. I honestly believe that I’ve gotten to act…I can’t even begin to put into words how terrifying it is that feeling and so fucking real it is when it is happening. I remember standing with Sam and I think I said, “Tell me something that will make me feel better. I feel like fucking shit today. I feel like I’m doing a terrible job.” He said, “You’re not doing a terrible job.” He told be about the Teddy gun scene. I told him, “That’s fucking really funny when for a minute Cassidy believed that he was a Hollywood agent and was furious that he really wasn’t.” He said, “That’s really funny man.” I said, “Thanks, dude.” qIt was those moments where I had to be revived by the people around me. I fucking belived it man. I was kind of wondering what their agenda was and during the filming of that and including the Hannover event was really fucking difficult. I was in a bad place. Those were the ommetns that were difficult for me. I want to be as honest as I can about depression. I get a lot of good feedback since the last panel when I spoke about mental health. It was a big deal for people and I want to carryon that. So, that’s as honest as I can be. There are days when I am in a hole and you have to get yourself up and out there. I’m in a good place this year. I really enjoyed myself this season. I’m excerising and doing all this shit. I’m eating well. I’m eating all this sushi. I got fucking sick of it, actually. I got myself into a good place this year and it’s been fantastic. But Season 2 was difficult. I was struggling.

Q) Sam, the lead up to Season 2 we were told we would lean more into the original comics. How important was it for yout o do that – to go back to the comics and the story when you really had set up the series to go anywhere with the story?

Sam: It was pretty important.

Seth: We got into this shit.

Sam: We never want to avoid the best parts of the comic.

Seth: We like the comic.

Sam: The first season we wanted people to understand why “Preacher” was “Preacher.” We kind of went a little of slow and incorporated some things from later in the comics in Season 1 and 2. But Season 3 is where it really collides with the comic in a great way and was satisfying to get to do.

Seth: I think also it actually partially born out of necessity, too. There literally wasn’t enough of the comic to more than half a season of a TV show. One of the first conversations that we had was that we expect and grow a little bit without because it wouldn’t add up to a satisfying part.